Both locals and Philadelphia visitors will have ample opportunity to learn about the city’s LGBT community and its history this Pride weekend.
Among the offerings are a first-time educational program at Independence Visitors Center. Led by National Park Service Ranger Mike Doveton, in conjunction with the William Way LGBT Community Center, the LGBT history program will be staged at 2 p.m. June 7, 8 and 9 at the Visitors Center, Sixth and Market streets.
The free slideshow presentation will educate tourists — both locals and non-locals and LGBTs and non-LGBTs — on the role Philadelphia has played in the LGBT-rights movement, centering on the use of Independence Hall as the backdrop of the Annual Reminders gay-rights demonstrations in the 1960s.
“I do talks every day in front of the Liberty Bell and I speak about all the individuals and groups that have used Independence Hall as a symbol for the natural rights enshrined in the Declaration of Independence,” Doveton said. “We had the first colonists descending upon the founders; we had Franklin, Adams, Jefferson putting forth this notion of natural rights and life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; abolitionists; women’s-rights groups, civil-rights groups and then of course gay-rights groups. Independence Hall is a site that’s both symbolic in place and time for these natural rights.”
The talk will include profiles of local late activist Barbara Gittings as well as Frank Kameny, and their roles in the Independence Hall demonstrations as well as in rectifying the American Psychiatric Association’s definition of homosexuality.
Doveton will be joined Friday and Saturday by William Way LGBT Community Center executive director Chris Bartlett and Sunday by WXPN radio host Debra D’Alesandro.
Doveton, an ally, said the program is a timely way to kick off the countdown to the 50th anniversary of the Annual Reminders.
“We’re coming up on the 50th anniversary of the first demonstrations in front of Independence Hall, so we figured now is a good time to start rolling this out and making this event public,” he said.
Doveton undertook extensive research at William Way to inform the presentation, and said center archivist Bob Skiba was a valuable resource in that process.
He added that organizers are hoping to attract local LGBTs looking to learn more about both their community and city, as well as out-of-towners hoping for a full, inclusive view of Philadelphia’s history.
This program could be the start of increased LGBT-specific programming at the National Park Service, Doveton noted.
“We’d love to see a great attendance and that could dictate what further programs we do,” he said. “Everyone is welcomed.”