An LGBT education nonprofit next week will celebrate its 25th anniversary and designate two historical markers.
Equality Forum will host its anniversary celebration at the National Museum of American Jewish History, 101 S. Independence Mall East. The organization will also place historic markers Oct. 3 on Locust Street for the AIDS Library of Philadelphia and in honor of former Temple University professor John Fryer.
History
Malcolm Lazin and other activists founded PrideFest Philadelphia, the original name for Equality Forum, in 1993. It began as a weekend event in which 15 regional LGBT organizations participated.
“It was so successful that in the second year, we were up to 30 organizations,” Lazin said. “By the third year, it was 45. And then in the fourth year was when we started to bring in national organizations and it ultimately grew from three days to five days to seven days with 60 programs.”
The organization’s board of directors changed its name to Equality Forum in 2003 but, even before then, the group went on to produce several documentaries. These included “Gay Pioneers,” “JIM IN BOLD” and “Saint of 9/11.”
Equality Forum launched LGBT History Month in 2006 and continues the project to date.
Awards and recognition
Equality Forum will honor Sen. Bob Casey with the International Role Model Award and Peter Staley with the Frank Kameny Award.
Lazin called Casey a “longstanding friend for the LGBT community.” The senator previously co-sponsored the Equality Act, which would provide statewide LGBT-inclusive protections for workplace, housing, education and public accommodations.
“Certainly by virtue of his leadership in the U.S. Senate, he has helped to advance our civil rights,” Lazin said.
Staley founded the Treatment Action Group (TAG), an HIV/AIDS research and policy organization, and educational website AIDSmeds.com. Additionally, he launched an ad campaign on the link between crystal-meth use and HIV in gay and bisexual men.
“He is unquestionably one of the AIDS pioneers and among the most significant contributors, so we’re honoring him with the Frank Kameny Award for his distinguished and lifelong service,” Lazin said of Staley.
Days later, Equality Forum will recognize specific LGBT movements with historical markers.
The AIDS Library of Philadelphia, which will host a 30th-anniversary celebration Nov. 10, provides the community with information and resources related to HIV/AIDS. This includes books, articles and Internet sources on treatment, history and medical referrals.
“It was the first library of its type in the nation,” Lazin noted. “It has been a model for others [since] 30 years ago when it was started by John Cunningham and Heshie Zinman. It provided a remarkably important resource for the community.”
Equality Forum will also honor Fryer, who died in 2003. Fryer disguised himself as “Dr. H. Anonymous” on a 1972 panel challenging the American Psychiatric Association’s classification of homosexuality as a mental illness.
“I am a homosexual, I am a psychiatrist,” Fryer said at the panel while wearing a mask and voice modulator. Fryer delivered his speech at a time psychiatrists could lose their medical licenses for being gay.
Lazin called Fryer’s history “a remarkable story every gay person should know.”
“When no other psychiatrist in the country would appear on that panel, John Fryer did,” Lazin said. “At that moment in time, homosexuality was defined as a mental illness and because of his testimony, the American Psychiatric Association set up a study committee and a year later, they recommended that homosexuality [no longer] be classified as a mental illness [in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual.”
The future of Equality Forum
Lazin said the organization opted not to host its usual weeklong event this year since the LGBT movement has “achieved so much” in regard to equality, specifically marriage equality.
The organization instead will focus its efforts on LGBT History Month.
“If you’re going to empower the next generation, we need to be telling them the history of the movement and narratives and providing them with role models,” Lazin said. “That’s very empowering. Without that, you can’t expect an 18-year-old to understand what it was like 30 years ago when one needed to be firmly in the closet for a lot of compelling reasons.”
Lazin said the organization has updated the website lgbthistorymonth.com. The site, now in its 11th year, honors 31 LGBT icons each October with a video and downloadable resources. He noted that the U.S. Department of Education uses these resources annually and said this is one of Equality Forum’s many accomplishments.
“We accomplished a fair amount over the course of our 25 years,” he said.
If you go
- The Equality Forum 25th Anniversary Celebration will take place 6-9 p.m. Oct. 3 at the National Museum of American Jewish History, 101 S. Independence Mall East. Visit https://equalityforum.com/event/equality-forum-25th-anniversary-celebration to purchase tickets.
- The AIDS Library of Philadelphia Historic Marker Dedication will take place 12:15-12:45 p.m. at 1233 Locust St.
- The John Fryer Historic Marker Dedication will take place 1-1:30 p.m. Oct. 3 at 13th and Locust streets.