The fifth-annual Philadelphia LGBT History Month celebration kicks off next week with the raising of the rainbow flag.
For the month of October, the flag will fly alongside the American flag at the northeast corner of City Hall to commemorate LGBT History Month and National Coming Out Day. A flag-raising ceremony will take place at 1 p.m. Oct 2 and will include music from the Philadelphia Gay Men’s Chorus and the Philadelphia Freedom Band and a presentation from the Rev. Jeffery Jordan of Whosoever Metropolitan Community Church.
The event is produced in conjunction with Mayor Michael Nutter, Philadelphia Office of LGBT Affairs and the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations.
This year, the event will celebrate the accomplishments of Mazzoni Center, GALAEI: A Latin@ Social Justice Organization, Philadelphia Back Gay Pride and the Greater Philadelphia Flag Football League.
Gloria Casarez, the city’s director of LGBT affairs, underscored the small event’s large effect on the city.
“We see this as a little event with a huge impact,” she said. “We’ve been doing it for five years. It has become more than an expression of pride; we want to support education and our history, and also National Coming Out Day. We want the city to be out there in support of our community and in support of equality.”
Casarez noted how the event has evolved into more than a symbolic gesture.
“It really just started off as a flag-raising, but we wanted to find a way to recognize others in the community, thus the spotlight,” she said. “Most important, even controversial, the flag flies at City Hall — the largest municipal building in the U.S. Everyone sees it.”
Casarez also said the event marks the progress the city has made over the past few years.
And, it serves as a reminder of what still needs to be done.
“It is really cool to get to see our city lead on certain things like this, to really see our motto, ‘The City of Brotherly Love,’ played out. The event is an annual celebration of all that we have accomplished. But on the recent gay-bashing, it sort of highlights — in spite of all the great things that have happened in the past year in equality — that there are still huge areas that need improvement. We need hate-crime protection and protection in state discrimination laws. People said, ‘You’re not going to get marriage equality.’ Things seemed immoveable, but we did it. We can do this too.”
In the event of rain, the program will take place inside City Hall, in the Mayor’s Reception Room on the second floor.
For more information, call the Office of LGBT Affairs at 215-686-2194.