In the send half of the twentieth century, the Center Cy Gayborhood formed the vicy of Loct and Thirteenth Streets.
Contents:
1920S AND 30S: GAY BARS SURFACE
* gay history philadelphia *
Was a Prohibn-era speakeasy and “gentleman’s club” lled Maxe’s, where lol gay men, soldiers, and sailors would nverge.
A lot of socializg among the cy’s queer rints durg the ’40s and ’50s happened at hoe parti anized by Quaker-affiliated groups, acrdg to thor Marc Ste, who vered the era his book “Cy of Sisterly and Brotherly Lov: Lbian and Gay Philalphia.
“Saturday night is the gayt night of the week, ” read a story on the Rtenhoe queer scene Greater Philalphia Magaze.
THE HISTORY OF PHILALPHIA’S GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Unr Mayor Frank Rizzo, the cy put up signage around the Square to disurage gay people om cisg. In 1962, the Jan Society was found Philalphia, makg one of the first rerd and publicly known “homophile” anizatns the cy.
Dewey’s Rtenhoe lotn, on the other hand, would ny service, discrimatg agast “homosexuals, ” “mascule women, ” “feme men” and “persons wearg non-nformist clothg. In 1968, then-Police Commissner Frank Rizzo orred raids on gay bars (and on anybody he emed “unsirable”), leadg many to be verbally and physilly abed by officers. The neighborhood that would eventually be monikered “the Gayborhood” by Cy Paper’s David Warner flourished immensely.
The first and olst LGBTQ bookstore the Uned Stat, Gvanni’s Room, would open a year after the events at the Gay Pri Celebratn. Enomic growth, betifitn of the area and a cle the crime-rate were propelled by Philalphia’s first LGBT muny center openg 1976 (William Way) and the tablishment of s first publicly-distributed newspaper (Philalphia Gay News), s first gay bs group openg 1977 (Communy Alliance of Philalphia) and s first LGBT health and wellbeg center 1979 (the Mazzoni Center). To discs the creepg rise of “Kaposi’s Sara and Opportunistic Infectns” afflictg gay men, a disease that would later be termed Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.
GAYBORHOOD
LGBTQ movements, spac, anizatns and efforts the cy, up until then, had maly been domated by and tered to the needs of whe homosexual men. Over the next few years, cints of racism and discrimatn surfaced at several Gayborhood bars.
The wastaff at Dewey’s was refg to serve ctomers who they perceived to be gay, lbian or not drsed acrdg to their sex. The GAA also pneered the Gay Swchboard Hotle and the Erom Center to provi mental health servic to dividuals who were LGBTQ+, as well as helped to velop Philalphia’s first gay newspaper, the 1972, GAA worked alongsi the Homophile Actn League to anize Philalphia’s first gay pri march, om Rtenhoe Square to Inpennce Park.
9, 1982, lol legislators passed the Philalphia Gay Rights Bill, which outlawed anti-gay discrimatn employment, hog and public acmodatns. After an attack agast two gay men Center Cy took the media by storm 2014, the Cy of Philalphia passed an ordance to regnize attacks based on genr inty or sexual orientatn as hate crim. Dewey’s, a late-night ffeehoe cha on 17th Street, refed to serve groups of “homosexuals and persons wearg nonnformist clothg.