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#Black gay bar philadelphia series
The Annual Reminders were a series of early pickets organized by LGBTQ organizations, which took place each July 4 at Independence Hall beginning in 1965 and were among the earliest LGBT demonstrations in the United States. James streets to commemorate the Dewey’s sit-ins. In 2018 a historical marker was placed at 17th and St. The Janus Society said the protests were successful in preventing further arrests and the action was deemed “the first sit-in of its kind in the history of the United States” by Drum magazine. The police were again called, but refused to make arrests this time. Three people staged a second sit-in on May 2, 1965. Demonstrations took place outside the establishment over the next five days with 1500 flyers being distributed by the Janus Society and its supporters. In the process of offering legal support for the teens, local activist and president of the Janus Society, Clark Polak, was also arrested.
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After restaurant managers contacted police, the three were arrested. Those denied service were variously described at the time as “homosexuals,” “masculine women,” “feminine men,” and “persons wearing non-conformist clothing.” Three teenagers (reported by the Janus Society and Drum to be two males and one female) staged a sit-in that day. On Apover 150 people were denied service at Dewey's, a local coffee shop and diner atĢ19 South 17th Street in Philadelphia, near Rittenhouse Square. The organization focused on a policy of militant respectability, a strategy demanding respect by showing the public LGBT individuals conforming to hetero-normative standards of dress at protests. The Janus Society takes its name from the Roman two-faced God Janus of beginnings, endings, and doorways. In 1962 the Janus Society was founded in Philadelphia it is notable as the publisher of Drum magazine, one of the earliest LGBT-interest publications in the United States and most widely circulated in the 1960s, and for its role in organizing many of the nation's earliest LGBT rights demonstrations. The article describes political limitations the emerging gay community faced. The LGBT culture developing in Philadelphia eventually inspired the first article published in America that recognized a city's gay community and political scene, which was titled "The Furtive Fraternity" (1962, by Gaeton Fonzi) and published in Greater Philadelphia. Hippies and pre- Stonewall gays were also part of their own groups there. For gay men, the park was used as a place to find other men.
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Gays and lesbians were found commonly living around Rittenhouse Square and saw Rittenhouse Square Park as a safety zone for camaraderie. In the mid-1900s, conflicts between homosexual and heterosexual communities were common within Center City neighborhoods. īy the 1950s, a jazz, espresso, and beatnik culture was stirring things up around Rittenhouse Square and in coffee houses on Sansom Street, creating a niche for the city's gay community. The post-WWII Center City area provided plentiful housing and urban anonymity that allowed the LGBT culture to meet hidden from public view. Early gay networks would meet privately at underground house parties and other private venues within Center City, West Philadelphia, and Germantown. The Philadelphia LGBT community has roots as far back as the 1930s and '40s.