Pride date, parade route set
Adapted from reporting by PGN staff
Gay Pride Day was set for June 12, 1976, in Philadelphia. A parade through Center City was scheduled to be held in conjunction with the festivities.
The schedule of events was not yet finalized, but the parade route had been laid out: It was planned to start at Rittenhouse Square at noon, head west on Locust Street, then south on 22nd Street to Spruce Street. Parade participants would then travel east to 13th Street, north to Chestnut Street and east to Fifth Street before ending at Independence Hall.
Weekly planning meetings of the Gay Pride Committee were set to take place Thursday evenings until the event.
LGBT Catholic group to host conference in Philly
Adapted from reporting by PGN staff
Dignity, a national organization for gay Catholics, announced it would host its May 1976 conference, with 20 East Coast chapters in attendance, in Philadelphia.
Most events throughout the Memorial Day weekend were to take place at the Christian Association on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania.
Six workshops and a keynote address were set to center on the theme of “Hunger for Justice.” The Catholic liturgy was to be celebrated with a cocktail party, several shared meals and a candlelight tour of historic Philadelphia.
Sister Barbara Ferraro of Boston was scheduled to deliver the keynote address. She was active in ministering to the gay community and has authored a book on counseling gay people. Other speakers included activists Barbara Gittings, Tony Silvestre and Father Robert Nugent, author of several works dealing with gay Catholics.
— compiled by Paige Cooperstein