The Annual Reminders were a series of early
pickets organized by gay organizations, held yearly from 1965 through 1969. The Reminder took place each July 4 at
Independence Hall
Independence Hall is a historic civic building in Philadelphia, where both the United States Declaration of Independence, Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States were debated and adopted by the Founding Fathers of ...
in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
and were among the
earliest LGBT demonstrations in the United States. The events were designed to inform and remind the American people that gay people did not enjoy basic
civil rights protections.
The Reminders were held each year from 1965 through 1969, with the final picket taking place shortly after the June 28
Stonewall riots, considered the flashpoint of the modern
gay liberation
The gay liberation movement was a social and political movement of the late 1960s through the mid-1980s in the Western world, that urged lesbians and gay men to engage in radical direct action, and to counter societal shame with gay pride.Hoff ...
movement. Reminder organizers decided to discontinue the July 4 pickets at this point, and shifted their focus to organizing the
Christopher Street Liberation Day demonstration held June 28, 1970, to commemorate the anniversary of the riot. This became the first
Gay Pride Parade.
Origin
Activist
Craig Rodwell conceived of the event following a picket at the
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...
on April 17, 1965, by members of the
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
and
Washington, D.C. chapters of the
Mattachine Society, Philadelphia's
Janus Society, and the New York chapter of the
Daughters of Bilitis. The groups operated under the collective name
East Coast Homophile Organizations (ECHO). The name of the event was selected to remind the American people that a substantial number of American citizens were denied the rights of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" enumerated in the
United States Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence, formally The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen States of America in the original printing, is the founding document of the United States. On July 4, 1776, it was adopted unanimously by the Second Continen ...
.
Enthused by Rodwell's idea, ECHO put together the first Reminder picket in just over two months. Thirty-nine people attended the first picket, including veteran activists
Frank Kameny,
Barbara Gittings, and
Kay Tobin.
[.] Kameny insisted on a strict
dress code for participants, including jackets and ties for the men and dresses for the women. Kameny's goal was to represent homosexuals as "presentable and 'employable'".
Picketers carried signs with such slogans as "HOMOSEXUAL BILL OF RIGHTS" and "15 MILLION HOMOSEXUAL AMERICANS ASK FOR EQUALITY, OPPORTUNITY, DIGNITY". The picket ran from 3:30 until 5:00 PM.
Press coverage was sparse, although ''
Confidential'' magazine ran a large feature about the Reminder and other homophile pickets in its October 1965 issue under the headline "Homos On The March".
Final Reminder
The Annual Reminder continued through July 4, 1969. This final Reminder occurred in the immediate aftermath of the
Stonewall riots, where patrons of a
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...
gay bar fought against police raiding the
Stonewall Inn on June 28. Rodwell received several telephone calls threatening him and the other New York participants, but he was able to arrange for police protection for the chartered bus all the way to Philadelphia. About 45 people participated, including the deputy mayor of Philadelphia and his wife.
The dress code was still in effect at the Reminder, but two women from the New York contingent broke from the single-file picket line and held hands. When Kameny tried to break them apart, Rodwell furiously denounced him to onlooking members of the press. Similarly to Stonewall, most of the major Philadelphia newspapers failed to cover the Annual Reminder, with limited notice in ''
Philadelphia Tribune'', ''
Distant Drummer'', and the ''
Temple Free Press''.
Following the 1969 Annual Reminder, there was a sense, particularly among the younger and more radical participants, that the time for silent picketing had passed. As Frank Kameny put it, "
cketing as such had become questionable. Dissent and dissatisfaction had begun to take new and more emphatic forms in society." At the November 1–2, 1969 meeting of the
Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations (the successor to ECHO),
Ellen Broidy of the
NYU Student Homophile League presented
Craig Rodwell's proposal for a new commemorative demonstration. The conference passed a resolution drafted by Rodwell, his partner
Fred Sargeant
Frédéric André Sargeant (born July 29, 1948) is a French-American Gay liberation, gay rights activist and a former lieutenant with the Stamford, Connecticut, Stamford, Connecticut Police Department. He participated in each of the nights of t ...
, Broidy and
Linda Rhodes to move the demonstration from July 4 in Philadelphia to the last weekend in June in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, as well as proposing to "other organizations throughout the country... suggest(ing) that they hold parallel demonstrations on that day" to commemorate the Stonewall riots. The newly-located event in New York City became known as
Christopher Street Liberation Day.
Commemoration
As part of the mural "Pride and Progress" by Ann Northrup (located on the side of the
William Way LGBT Community Center at 1315 Spruce Street, Philadelphia) there is a depiction of a man pasting up a poster that itself depicts part of the Annual Reminder picket held in 1966; the poster features
Barbara Gittings among others.
The Annual Reminders were commemorated in 2005 by the placement of a Pennsylvania state historical marker by the
Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission at 6th and Chestnut Streets.
On July 4, 2015, the first Annual Reminder was recreated as part of the celebration of the action's 50th anniversary.
Philly celebrates LGBT milestone with anniversary ceremony, block party
/ref>
In fiction
The 1995 film '' Stonewall'' presents a fictionalized Annual Reminder. However, the film sets the Reminder earlier in the summer, predating the June 28 Stonewall riots.
See also
* Homophile Movement
Notes
References
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{{LGBT culture in Philadelphia
1960s in LGBTQ history
1960s in the United States
LGBTQ civil rights demonstrations in the United States
LGBTQ culture in Philadelphia
History of LGBTQ civil rights in the United States
History of Philadelphia
1965 establishments in Pennsylvania
Recurring events established in 1965
1969 disestablishments in Pennsylvania
Recurring events disestablished in 1969
History of gay men in the United States