“Annual Reminder:” First in a Series of Annual Gay Rights Protests
The first “Annual Reminder” gay rights protest occurred on this day, the Fourth of July, in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, PA.
A few dozen people participated in this event, which was organized by Frank Kemeny, a gay rights leader from Washington, DC. Interestingly, the participants wore suits and ties and carried signs with very sedate messages, for example, “Homosexuals Deserve Equal Empowerment.”
Kemeny had been fired from his federal government job in 1957 because he was gay, and from that point on became a gay rights leader. He had led public demonstrations in Washington, New York City, and now Philadelphia.
According to George Chauncey, Yale history professor who wrote on LGBT history, the “Annual Reminder” and its location was meant to “remind the nation of the promise of rights, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that had been denied to gay people.”
The Annual Reminder protests continued from 1964 until 1969, when, following the Stonewall Inn riots on June ___, 1969, annual gay rights parades to mark the Stonewall events became the national lesbian and gay rights protest.
Learn more about the Annual Reminder here
Learn more: Vern Bullough, Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Context (2002)
Visit the GLBT History Museum in San Francisco: http://www.glbthistory.org/museum/
Read: Dudley Clendinen and Adam Nagourney, Out For Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America (1999)