25+ Ways to Celebrate Pride Month in Greater Philadelphia for 2023
When Philly does something, it does it loudly and proudly. And Pride month is certainly no exception. Every June, Pride Month offers an opportunity to reflect on the struggles and accomplishments of the LGBTQ+ community in Philadelphia and beyond — and a chance to celebrate in a big way.
In 2023, there are plenty of festivals, parties, performances and food specials popping up around Greater Philadelphia designed to honor and support people of all gender identities and sexual orientations.
The Free Library Celebrates LGBTQ+ Pride Month
This June, the Free Library of Philadelphia commemorates LGBTQ+ Pride Month with events, programs, and resources that amplify LGBTQ+ voices and stories! Begin your summer with the Free Library of Pride as we host LGBTQ+ crafting clubs, Quizzo, music events, reading circles, drag storytimes, and plenty of opportunities to interact with and learn about LGBTQ+ history. View the full Pride Month calendar online, and find a few examples of the great programs coming to a library near you!
The Encyclopedia of Great
er Philadelphia: Reminder Days
On July 4, 1965, thirty-nine individuals gathered outside Independence Hall to picket for homosexual rights. This event, one of the earliest organized homosexual rights demonstrations in the United States, sought to remind the public that basic rights of citizenship were being denied to homosexual individuals. Reprised each year through 1969, the year of the Stonewall Uprising in New York City, the “Annual Reminders” helped define the outward presentation of homosexual activism going forward.
The Attic Youth Center’s mission is to create opportunities for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Questioning (LGBTQ) youth to develop into healthy, independent, civic-minded adults within a safe and supportive community and to promote the acceptance of LGBTQ youth in society. The Attic offers a wide range of programs and services designed to provide youth with the support and skills needed to transition into independent, thriving adults. The Attic strives to have a positive impact on all aspects of youth’s lives; to facilitate growth, empowerment, and resiliency; and to help youth find their voice, which is often silenced.
William Way LGBT Community Center
We seek to engage and support the diverse LGBTQIA+ communities in the greater Philadelphia area through arts & culture, empowerment, and community connections. We want all LGBTQIA+ people to feel safe, connected, and empowered. We strive to be a community center whose staff, management, and board reflect the vibrant and richly diverse communities we serve.
The John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives is Philadelphia's most extensive collection of personal papers, organizations records, periodicals, audiovisual material, and ephemera documenting the rich history of our LGBTQ community.
The mission of the Archives is to collect, describe, interpret, and provide access to publications, personal papers, organizations and business records, audiovisual materials, and ephemera created by, dealing with, or of special interest to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals.
The Gay Community Center of Philadelphia (predecessor of today's William Way LGBT Community Center) opened in 1976 with a library in its first building. The Center also began saving its own business records. Throughout the years, as the Center moved from building to building, the growing Library and the Center's records moved with it. In 1990 the Gay/Lesbian Archives collected over the years by activist Tommi Avicolli Mecca were donated to the Center and came to form the nucleus of the present archival collections. Many donations later and with transfers of "older" materials from the Library, the John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives has come to constitute one of the more important and active LGBT archives in the country.
