Radnor Township is one of several municipalities in Pennsylvania poised to become the 18th municipality in the state to ban discrimination against LGBT individuals. Radnor already, however, holds another historic designation: It’s home to one of the most galvanizing events of the regional LGBT-rights movement.
On Aug. 22, 1960, 16 police officers and one postal inspector stormed an estate in Radnor, arresting 84 people who had gathered to discuss the launch of an LGBT political group in the Philadelphia area. Officials charged that the group — comprised mostly of middle-aged, white males — was showing obscene films, and the Main Line Times called the raid “the biggest of its kind in township history.”
Historian Marc Stein, author of the 2000 book “City of Sisterly and Brotherly Loves: Lesbian and Gay Philadelphia, 1945-1972,” learned of the event while doing research for his book.
Stein spoke with interviewees like Jack Adair, who offered up his parents’ Radnor estate for the meeting, which was the first step to setting up a Philadelphia chapter of the Mattachine Society.
“A lot of people I talked to really regarded this as a very important moment in initiating the movement in Philadelphia,” Stein said. “And when I began researching it more, it seemed significant not only for Philadelphia but really on a much broader scale. Of course there were police raids of bars and clubs and meeting places, but I don’t think there had been any documentation of a police raid of a gay political meeting, so that really gave it even greater significance.”
In his 1993 interview with Stein, Adair, who was killed along with his partner in 1995, talked about the environment at the time of the raid.
“Well, everyone was looking over their shoulder if you were gay and who you came out to in that time. The bars were being watched by [then-head of the Police Vice Unit Frank] Rizzo. And pictures were taken of cars and film was taken of people entering the Allegro and other gay bars. So they felt it would just be safer, probably not raided or bothered because it was out on the Main Line at a big, big home and it was in the afternoon. It would be very safe. And it didn’t turn out to be quite that way.”
The Radnor Police contended that the group had used the U.S. Postal Service to transport pornographic film, and Stein said that while he learned there were movies that dealt with LGBT content ordered and shown in the meeting, the activists he interviewed were adamant that the material was not of a sexual nature, an idea he said that was fitting with the goals of the movement at that time.
“Much of the gay movement of the ’50s and ’60s was oriented to winning public acceptance, so they were focused on really emphasizing how normal lesbian and gay men were. Part of that meant deemphasizing sexuality because of the stereotypes of gay people as being overly sexual and obsessed with sex. Now there were plenty of radical activists who were more focused on sexual politics, but the dominant tendency at that time was to deemphasize sex.”
The guests at the meeting were held for several hours at the Radnor police station but all were released and the charges were dropped. Adair told Stein that the raid was like his “coming-out party,” and he came out publicly after the arrest, participating in a press conference about the raid.
Following the Radnor Raid, a Philadelphia chapter of the Mattachine Society was created and proved to be a rallying point for the local LGBT community throughout the 1960s and ’70s.
Despite the significance of the raid, Stein said he thinks very few younger LGBT generations are aware of the event. Looking back 50 years to such milestones as the Radnor Raid can offer important learning moments, Stein noted.
“I think there’s a tendency within LGBT contexts to think that the cultures we create and the movements we create are of a recent vintage,” he said. “I think we can all gain a greater appreciation for the positive aspects of our situation today by knowing more about the struggles people faced in the past. And the Radnor Raid is a good illustration of that.”
Stein noted, however, that the Radnor Raid can also serve to show the dedication of the previous LGBT generation, from which he said the community today should take a cue.
“Imagine forming an LGBT political group today and getting 84 people who were willing to go out to suburbs and spend the evening. How many new LGBT political groups can get that level of commitment and interest? I don’t think we should just be patting ourselves on the back for how far we’ve come, but we need to think both about the challenges and the successes of the past.”
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].