Gay Community Center opens
Adapted from reporting by Mat McCabe
The Philadelphia Gay Community Center held a grand opening April 23, 1976, at its new brick building at 326 Kater St.
“You might say it’s like a dream come true,” said Duane Johnson, one of the women who worked on the project.
It took two years to make a physical home a reality for the community center.
Arleen Olshan, another project coordinator, said the center’s primary function was to be a “nonprofit educational institution.”
“It’s an umbrella group which hopes to bring to the public eye a positive statement about gay lifestyles and accomplishments,” Olshan said.
The community center planned to host lectures and discussions on gay-related themes, theatric and cinematic entertainment and courses on crafts and culture. The center would also house the Gay Switchboard; the Philadelphia Gay Coffeehouse; and two gay publications, “The Philadelphia Gayzette” and “The Gay Alternative.”
It cost $850 per month to maintain the building, according to the main coordinators. Funds to support the center came from benefits, donations and food sales. The coordinators said they were also looking into grants from “non-establishment organizations.”
Rural Gay Caucus seeks 50,000 letters to repeal ‘sodomy laws’
Adapted from reporting by PGN staff
The Rural Gay Caucus of Pennsylvania wanted 50,000 people — whether openly gay, closeted or straight — to send letters to their state legislators in support of the repeal of the so-called “sodomy laws.”
State Sen. Louis Hill, a Philadelphia Democrat, proposed legislation in 1976 to repeal the “voluntary deviate sexual intercourse” statues from the state penal code.
The caucus, which included representatives from 21 gay organizations not located in Philadelphia or Allegheny counties, circulated two pre-written letters to cooperating local chapters of the National Organization for Women and the American Civil Liberties Union. One letter appealed to gay people while the other emphasized that the sodomy laws also applied to heterosexual sex acts.
Caucus members also distributed the letters to the community at large.
“We realize the enormity of our task,” said William Hollabaugh of Bethlehem, chairperson of the legislative committee in the caucus. “But the caucus believes repeal of the sodomy statutes to be a giant step for gay rights, possibly the step to which the guarantee of other rights is appended.”