Mark Allan Segal (born 1951) is an American social activist and author. He participated in the

Stonewall riots The Stonewall riots (also known as the Stonewall uprising, Stonewall rebellion, Stonewall revolution, or simply Stonewall) were a series of spontaneous riots and demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of ...

and was one of the original founders of the

Gay Liberation Front Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was the name of several gay liberation groups, the first of which was formed in New York City in 1969, immediately after the Stonewall riots. Similar organizations also formed in the UK, Australia and Canada. The GLF p ...

where he created its Gay Youth program. He was the founder and former president of the

National Gay Newspaper Guild The National Gay Newspaper Guild is an organization of LGBT newspapers located in the United States. Through Rivendell Media, the guild gathers statistics on the readership of the member publications. Member publications *''Bay Area Reporter'' ...

and purchased the

Philadelphia Gay News ''Philadelphia Gay News'' (''PGN'') is an LGBT newspaper in the Philadelphia area. The publication was founded in 1976 by Mark Segal,Klein, Julia M20 Years As A Gay Establishment Philadelphia Gay News Publisher Mark Segal Has Made Waves Since ...

. He has won numerous journalism awards for his column "Mark my Works," including best column by The National Newspaper Association, Suburban Newspaper Association and The Society of Professional Journalists.

Early life and education

Segal was born January 1, 1951, 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 ...

. He is

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

and originally from the Mount Airy section of

. He attended Germantown High School and

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist ministe ...

Career

Gay rights activism

Segal was a participant at Stonewall in 1969 and help found the Gay Liberation Front that same year. He also founded Gay Youth (GY), an LGBTQ advocacy organization, in 1970. He was also a member of The Christopher Street Gay Liberation Day committee, which organized the first Gay Pride parade in 1970. In 1972, after being thrown out of dance competition for dancing with a male lover, Segal crashed the evening news broadcast of

WPVI-TV WPVI-TV (channel 6) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Owned and operated by the ABC television network through its ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios on City Avenue in t ...

, an act that became known as a " zap" and that he helped popularize. He repeated the action during many other television broadcasts. On 11 December 1973, Segal interrupted

Walter Cronkite Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the ''CBS Evening News'' from 1962 to 1981. During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trust ...

's broadcast of the

CBS Evening News The ''CBS Evening News'' is the flagship evening News broadcasting#Television, television news program of CBS News, the news division of the CBS television network in the United States. The ''CBS Evening News'' is a daily evening broadcast featu ...

when he ran in front of the camera and held up a yellow sign saying “Gays Protest CBS Prejudice.” In 1975, he went on a hunger strike on behalf of the passage of a law to guarantee equal rights for homosexuals. In 1976, he founded the ''Philadelphia Gay News'', a

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

newspaper in the

area. The publication was inspired by activist

Frank Kameny Franklin Edward Kameny (May 21, 1925 – October 11, 2011) was an American gay rights activist. He has been referred to as "one of the most significant figures" in the American gay rights movement. During the Lavender scare, in 1957, Kame ...

, whom Segal first met in 1970. In 1988, Segal had a televised debate with a Philadelphia city councilman, Francis Rafferty, about Gay Pride Month. Segal partnered with the

Obama administration Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. Obama, a Democrat from Illinois, took office following his victory over Republican nomine ...

to create and build the nation's first official “LGBT Friendly” Senior Affordable housing apartment building. The 19.8 million dollar project known as The John C. Anderson Apartments opened in 2013. On May 17, 2018, Segal donated 16 cubic feet of personal papers and artifacts to the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

in Washington D.C.

Author

Segal is the author of ''And Then I Danced: Traveling the Road to LGBT Equality'', a memoir of his life and experience as a gay rights activist. The book was named "Best Book" by the National Lesbian Gay Journalist Association in 2015.

Personal life

Segal's friends include several gay activists, including

Barbara Gittings Barbara Gittings (July 31, 1932 – February 18, 2007) was an American LGBTQ movements, LGBTQ activist. She started the New York City, New York chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB) in 1958, edited the national DOB magazine ''The Ladde ...

Harry Hay Henry Hay Jr. (April 7, 1912 – October 24, 2002) was an American gay rights activist, communist, and union organizer, labor advocate. He cofounded the Mattachine Society, the first sustained gay rights group in the United States, as well as th ...

, and

Troy Perry Troy Deroy Perry Jr. (born July 27, 1940) is an American cleric who founded the Metropolitan Community Church, with a ministry with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities, in Los Angeles on October 6, 1968. Early life Troy Pe ...

. On July 5, 2014, Segal married his partner of 10 years, Jason Villemez. At the time, Villemez was 29 and Segal was 63. The ceremony was officiated by Judge Dan Anders, Philadelphia's first openly gay judge.

References

"Pursuits: Q&A: Mark Segal".
''

Philadelphia Magazine ''Philadelphia'' (also called "''Philadelphia'' magazine" or referred to by the nickname "Phillymag", once called ''Greater Philadelphia'') is a regional monthly magazine published in Philadelphia by the Lipson family of Philadelphia and its com ...

'', 2009.

External links

Profile of Mark Segal
at

National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists, is an American professional association dedicated to coverage of LGBTQ+ issues in the media. It is based in Washington, D.C., and the membership consists primarily of journalists, students, educators, ...

Profile of Mark Segal
at Philly.com
Philadelphia Gay News websiteMark Segal's official Facebook page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Segal, Mark 1951 births 20th-century American LGBTQ people 21st-century American LGBTQ people American founders Living people American gay writers American LGBTQ journalists American LGBTQ rights activists American male journalists American publishers (people) Gay Liberation Front members Gay Jews LGBTQ people from Pennsylvania Temple University alumni Participants in the Stonewall riots Writers from Philadelphia