Women wore dresses; men wore shirts and ties. All wore a sense of pride. Every July 4th from 1965 to 1969, gay and lesbian activists demonstrated in front of Philadelphia’s Independence Hall.
To “remind” Americans that they’d been denied the rights of the Constitution and the promise of the Declaration Independence, they dubbed their protest the “Annual Reminder.”
“We can call it the Annual Reminder—the reminder that a group of Americans still don’t have their basic rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit to happiness.”
—activist Craig Rodwell, on suggesting a yearly picket at Independence Hall
Spurred on by a sense of injustice, in 1965 Frank Kameny—who’d lost his job because he was gay—decided to protest in public. Others, including Barbara Gittings, joined him. She met Kameny shortly after she became the editor of the lesbian publication The Ladder. Like Kameny, she believed that homosexuals needed to move from “endless talk to firm, vigorous action.” Together, they would lead a growing and increasingly visible movement for civil rights.
Barbara Gittings marches in the 1966 Annual Reminder. Photograph by Kay Tobin Lahusen. Barbara Gittings and Kay Tobin Lahusen Collection, John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives
Frank Kameny talks with bystanders at the 1966 Annual Reminder. Photograph by Kay Tobin Lahusen. Barbara Gittings and Kay Tobin Lahusen Collection, John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives
Why Philadelphia? The protestors seized on Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell as enduring symbols of American liberty and freedom. Like others before them—abolitionists seeking to end slavery, women seeking the vote—they contrasted their plight with the promise of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.
Black civil rights protest at Independence Hall, May 12, 1963. Courtesy of AP
Anti-war protest at Independence Hall, July 14, 1966. Courtesy of AP
Sign-up sheet for buses to take participants from New York City to Philadelphia for the “Annual Reminder,” 1966. Courtesy of the New York Public Library
The protest attracted a few dozen participants from Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, Washington. Some were part of “homophile” organizations, such as the Mattachine Society and Daughters of Bilitis. Others came alone. By publicly acknowledging their sexuality, all risked reprisals.
Protest organizers (Barbara Gittings, Frank Kameny, and others) instituted strict rules, including a conservative dress code. Because they knew that most people saw homosexuals as deviants, they wanted to appear “normal.” That way, they reasoned, attention would be on their picket signs, not them.
Picketing regulations proposed and adopted by the Mattachine Society of Washington, DC. John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives
The dress worn by Barbara Gittings to the Annual Reminder in 1966. Now in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution
What impact has picketing had on both homosexuals and heterosexuals? The September 1965 Ladder reporters compiled these unsolicited remarks: