Independence Mall

Before Stonewall, there was “Annual Reminder Day.” On July 4th, 1965, the first of what was to become five annual demonstrations for gay rights occurred in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia. They were called “Annual Reminder Day" demonstrations, to "remind the American public that homosexuals did not enjoy many of the rights that were protected in our Constitution." Each year, 40-120 lesbians and gay men from Washington D.C. (including Frank Kameny), New York, and Philadelphia courageously picketed for equality, in an era when they risked their jobs, their families and their lives by doing so. The demonstrators chose Independence Hall for their demonstrations because of its long history as a place where grievances were aired and where political discourse was welcome.

History

Before the June 1969 Stonewall uprising for gay rights in New York City, and before annual pride marches in cities across the country, there was “Annual Reminder Day” in Philadelphia. On July 4th, 1965, the first of what was to become five annual demonstrations for gay and lesbian rights occurred in front of Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution were created. They were called “Annual Reminder Day" demonstrations, to "remind the American public that homosexuals did not enjoy many of the rights that were protected in the Constitution." Each year, 40-120 lesbian women and gay men from Washington, D.C., New York, and Philadelphia courageously picketed for equality in federal employment, in an era when they risked their jobs, their families, and their lives by doing so. The demonstrators chose this historic location for their demonstrations because of its long history as a place to air grievances and where political discourse was welcome. At the time of the first pickets, the demonstration site was called Independence Mall State Park, which was realized between 1950 and 1967. The site was transferred to the National Park Service in 1974, renamed, and incorporated into Independence National Historical Park in 1997.

Independence Mall – Precursor to Stonewall

In the mid-1960s, homosexuality was still labeled by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) as a mental illness, and being a homosexual could lead to job loss, social ostracism, discrimination, and even violence; gays and lesbians couldn’t get married or be in the military. Remarkably, on July 4, 1965, the first of five annual demonstrations organized by the East Coast Homophile Organizations (ECHO) – comprised of the New York Chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis, the Janus Society in Philadelphia, and the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C. and New York – was held in front of Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, the symbolic birthplace of the nation and American Democracy.

The Annual Reminder Day was conceived by Craig Rodwell following a picket at the White House three months earlier and featured: Frank Kameny, a Boston-born Washingtonian who had a master’s and doctorate degrees from Harvard in astronomy and had been fired from the U.S. Army in 1957 and permanently banned from federal employment for being gay – he was also founder of the D.C. Chapter of the N.Y.-based Mattachine Society; and Barbara Gittings, who founded the New York Chapter of the San Francisco-based Daughters for Bilitis (DOB) and was editor of the organization’s magazine, The Ladder.

Kameny and Gittings had met two years earlier at an ECHO conference where Kameny spoke out against the APA’s designation of homosexuality as a mental illness and the idea that it was a disorder that could be cured. According to The Purloined Ladder: Its Place in Lesbian History, Gittings said: "My thinking didn't change until Frank Kameny came along and he said plainly and firmly and unequivocally that homosexuality is no kind of sickness or disease or disorder or malfunction, it is fully on par with heterosexuality ... Suddenly I found that I was looking at things that had happened in the past in a very different light and I was taking a position that was increasingly diverging from DOB's positions" (the APA formally reversed its position on December 15, 1973, in part due to the unrelenting advocacy by Kameny and Gittings).

Kameny and Gittings sought to convey the reality that lesbians and gays were like everyone else, so they had a dress code for the demonstrators, conservative business attire widely adopted at the time. The pamphlets they handed out were couched in the same rhetoric about the struggle for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that America's founders had used. The demonstrations took place after the conclusion of Philadelphia’s annual July 4th parade, with demonstrators walking quietly and peacefully and carrying signs advocating for equal treatment as seen in the short documentary film “The Second Largest Minority,” which features the 1968 march. Kameny can be heard saying “We are homosexual human beings and homosexual American citizens. Everybody always remembers the first word in both of those phrases, homosexual, and conveniently overlooks the second and third word in each of those phrases, American citizens and human beings.”

At the time of the first demonstration, Independence Mall was nearing completion. The block closest to the Hall had been completed in 1954 and featured a central lawn flanked by walks, bosques, and terraces with a planting plan designed by Wheelwright, Stevenson & Langran. Landscape architect Dan Kiley's 1963 plan for the northernmost block represented Philadelphia's five original squares with five fountains and included a gridded bosque of 700 honey locust trees.

The last of these peaceful pickets, all mounted with permits from the National Park Service, took place in 1969 only days after the Stonewall riots. Several of the Stonewall demonstrators participated; Kameny made an exception to the dress code for them. It was decided that fall in Philadelphia to move the demonstrations to New York the next year, for what would become America's first gay pride parade.