LGBTQ Pride Month

Floor Speech

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Ms. SCANLON. Madam Speaker, I thank my friend and colleague, Representative Cicilline, for organizing this Special Order hour and for his leadership in introducing and passing the Equality Act, and I look forward to it being signed into law.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in recognition of Pride Month and to celebrate the rich history of LGBTQ activism in the greater Philadelphia area.

In 1965, years before the Stonewall uprising, protestors borrowed from the tactics of the civil rights movement and staged a sit-in at Dewey's lunch counter in Philadelphia in opposition to its policy of refusing service to ``homosexuals,'' ``masculine women,'' ``feminine men,'' and ``persons wearing non-conforming clothing.'' Can you imagine what they would think today?

Philadelphia is home to this--the first and oldest LGBTQ bookstore in the United States--Giovanni's Room, as well as Philadelphia Gay News, the oldest LGBTQ publication in the United States. As early as 1981, activists were meeting with the local Department of Public Health to discuss the virus that would eventually become known as AIDS and put pressure on them to address this growing crisis.

In more recent history, Amber Hikes, in the City's Office of LGBT Affairs introduced a more inclusive Pride flag in 2017, adding black and brown stripes to represent LGBTQ people of color.

Today, activism within Philadelphia's LGBTQ community continues through groups like the William Way Community Center, and people like my friend, Kendall Stephens, who is pushing for Pennsylvania to update its hate crime statute to finally include LGBTQ people as a protected class.

From early protests to the continued advocacy of today, the Philadelphia region has plenty to be proud of during Pride Month.

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