People’s Fund supports gay groups
Adapted from reporting by PGN staff
Three local gay groups each received $300 grants from the Philadelphia People’s Fund.
The Gay Activists Alliance of Philadelphia, the Lesbian Community Center and the Lesbian Hotline were among 46 organizations to receive the grants in the spring of 1976.
Total contributions to the fund were down one-third while the number of groups qualifying for grants was up by one-fifth. Each recipient was asked to submit an annual report on its activities.
The People’s Fund, founded in 1971, supported organizations working for social change. The organization is now known as the Bread and Roses Community Fund and has distributed more than $10 million in grants as of 2016, according to its website. The fund now makes annual grants ranging from $2,000-$10,000.
Fired gay organist finds help in Philadelphia
Adapted from reporting by PGN staff
After being fired as a circus organist in Florence, N.J., Richard Rosio made his way to Philadelphia and found help from the Metropolitan Community Church, an LGBT-affirming religious institution.
Rosio said Marcia Hunt-Jones fired him from Hunt’s Famous Circus in July 1976 after she learned he was gay. She also barred him from staying in any of the trailers assigned to other members of the troupe, Rosio said.
Various gay groups in Philadelphia helped Rosio file a breach-of-contract suit against Hunt-Jones and Don W. Jones. Attorney Sebastian Reggari of Greenfield, Mass., represented Rosio.
Rosio, 20, grew up in Antigo, Wisc., where he began playing piano at the age of 5. He took advanced musical-studies classes at the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point.
— compiled by Paige Cooperstein