The Independence Hall “Annual Reminders,” Philadelphia – July 4, 1965
Four years before Stonewall, Frank Kameny, Barbara Gittings and 38 other activists picketed outside Philadelphia’s Independence Hall to demand equality, in what was the largest gay rights demonstration of its time.
They carried signs reading “No society can be great without all of its citizens” and “15 million homosexual Americans ask for equality, opportunity, dignity.” The men were directed to wear suits and ties, and the women dresses and makeup, to illustrate how clean-cut and mainstream they were.
Held every Independence Day for the next four years, the demonstrations became known as the Annual Reminders.
