The AIDS pandemic struck Philadelphia with a particular severity. John Cunningham and Heshie Zinman led activists and volunteers in operating the AIDS Library from its founding in 1987. The library was the first of its kind -- a public lending library dedicated to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The library sought to provide health resources to people living with HIV/AIDS, caregivers, and the general public, and in doing so combated stigma surrounding the disease and advocated for social change and services. In 1993, the library changed its name to the AIDS Information Network, and in 1999 merged with Philadelphia FIGHT. In 2017-2018, Philadelphia erected a series of LGBT historical markers, including the one outside the library to commemorate its 30th anniversary.

AIDS Library Historic Marker by Cosmos Mariner on HMDB.com (reproduced under Fair Use)

AIDS Library Records finding aid, Temple University Libraries

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In 1987, activists John Cunningham and Heshie Zinman founded the AIDS Library of Philadelphia to provide health information to its community. This volunteer-run organization was the nation's first public lending library dedicated to HIV/AIDS, and sought to inform the public, address social fears and stigmas about the disease, support research, and advocate for social services and policy changes. The AIDS Library is now part of the Critical Path Learning Center, a program of Philadelphia FIGHT's Community Health Centers.

AIDS Library of Philadelphia

This extended walking tour includes a variety of landmarks and historical markers related to LGBTQ rights and culture in the city of Brotherhood Love. The tour begins at the location of what many consider to be the first sit-in for gay rights and proceeds to a historical marker dedicated to the history of the AIDS Library of Philadelphia among other stops. 

On April 25th, activists (gay men, women, and allies) entered Dewey's restaurant in groups and requested service. Employees refused service to the protesters and called the police when two young men and one young woman refused to leave the premises. After police arrested these individuals, gay rights leader Clark Polak rushed to the scene and was also arrested. Each of the four protesters were convicted of disorderly conduct. In response, members of the Janus Society, a gay-rights organization—held a week of protests outside the restaurant, handing out leaflets to passersby and filing a complaint with the owners of the restaurant chain. Members of the Janus Society also contacted the police and local officials. On May 2nd, Dewey’s employees at this location once again contacted the police after several gay-rights activists held a second sit-in. The police arrived on the scene and spoke with the protesters and management. Instead of arresting the protesters as had occurred the week before, the police simply left the restaurant after telling management that they had no authority to deny service based on appearance or sexual orientation. Although employees still refused to serve the protesters, the activists had won a significant victory.  The 1965 Dewey’s Restaurant Sit-In is an important chapter in the larger Freedom Struggle of the 1960s. The activists were inspired by the actions of African American civil rights activists who waged sit-ins and other direct-action protests between World War II and the early 1960s.Further demonstrating the connection of these movements, gay-rights activists held a demonstration in Washington on April 17th, 1965. Just as African American, Native American, and Latino activists were sometimes subjected to violence, gay rights-activists were often attacked by counter-protesters. For example, patrons of the Black Cat Tavern in San Francisco were attacked on December 31st, 1966. This event preceded the more famous Stonewall Riots of 1969.

On Sunday, April 25th, 1965, protesters in Philadelphia staged a sit-in in at Dewey's Restaurant after management began refusing service to homosexual patrons. The protest began when employees of Dewey’s Restaurant perceived that homosexual youth were patronizing the restaurant in such numbers as to discourage other customers from patronizing the restaurant. After attempting to discourage homosexual youth from congregating at the restaurant, management ordered employees to deny service to individuals they believed were homosexual. In response to this discriminatory treatment, activists organized a campaign that included as many as 150 protesters.


Dewey's Restaurant, Location of First Gay Rights Sit-in

The AIDS pandemic struck Philadelphia with a particular severity. John Cunningham and Heshie Zinman led activists and volunteers in operating the AIDS Library from its founding in 1987. The library was the first of its kind -- a public lending library dedicated to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The library sought to provide health resources to people living with HIV/AIDS, caregivers, and the general public, and in doing so combated stigma surrounding the disease and advocated for social change and services. In 1993, the library changed its name to the AIDS Information Network, and in 1999 merged with Philadelphia FIGHT. In 2017-2018, Philadelphia erected a series of LGBT historical markers, including the one outside the library to commemorate its 30th anniversary.

In the summer of 1973, Bernie Boyle, Tom Wilson Weinberg, and Dan Sherbo started working to open a gay bookstore in Philadelphia. The three men had first met through the Gay Activists Alliance, which they were members of, and had worked together on The Gay Alternative- a local queer literary magazine. The idea for the gay bookstore was inspired by the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookstore- the first gay bookstore in the country- which was opened in New York City by Mattachine Society member Craig Rodwell in 1967. On August 1, 1973, they opened a storefront on an otherwise-abandoned South Street with a lease that only cost $85 a month. Joking that Radclyffe Hall's "The Well of Loneliness" was too bleak a title, they gave their new storefront the name "Giovanni's Room Bookstore" after the groundbreaking 1956 gay-themed novel by writer James Baldwin. The friends took trips to New York City where Craig Rodwell helped them collect LGBTQ+ reading materials at wholesale bookstores. Over the next two years, Giovanni's Room Bookstore hosted readings and discussion group meetings while trying to build their small collection. In September of 1975, they sold the bookstore to Pat Hill- a Quaker friend of theirs- for $500. Hill left her civil service job, describing the change as like "running away with the circus". Under her management, Giovanni's Room continued to host meetings, performances, and events, thus cementing its role as a community hub for LGBTQ+ people in Philadelphia. Pat Hill sold the business in late 1976 to her friends Arleen Olshan and Ed Hermance for the $500 she paid for it, plus back taxes. Olshan and Hermance had met each other during the early days of Philadelphia's Gay Community Center. As the two business partners moved Giovanni's Room to a space on Spruce Street, a renaissance of LGBTQ+ publishing was already underway in the United States. Thanks to this, the bookstore's collection of titles grew exponentially. Olshan and Hermance were adamant to represent even the more controversial works at the shop, including books on topics such as S&amp;M, pedaresty, and erotica.  The store remained at Spruce Street until 1979 when a homophobic family purchased the property and evicted the bookstore. Olshan and Hermance took out loans and borrowed money from family to reopen Giovanni’s Room Bookstore in a former antique warehouse on the corner of Pine and 12th Streets. Hundreds of eager volunteers helped renovate the space. At this location, the new Giovanni's Room quickly became the largest LGBTQ+ bookstore in the country, reaching almost 15,000 books in stock by the early 1980s. When the AIDS crisis hit, Giovanni's Room Bookstore self-published a series of illustrated safe sex guides that were distributed for free in the community. They also published an informational AIDS bibliography annually. Nurses and doctors at the nearby clinic often risked their jobs by distributing these materials to their patients. In 1986, Arleen Olshan left the business and Ed Hermance became the sole proprietor. During the height of its popularity over these years, Giovanni's Room hosted roughly fifty readings every year with prominent LGBTQ+ writers and artists such as Alison Bechdel, Leslie Feinberg, Edmund White, Kate Bornstein, Samuel R. Delaney, and Greg Louganis. In 2009, when Craig Rodwell's Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookstore closed permanently, Giovanni's Room became the oldest operating LGBTQ+ bookstore in the United States. The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission honored the bookstore with a historical marker unveiled on October 15, 2011. After years of declining sales due to the advent of Amazon, Ed Hermance announced in April of 2014 that he would be retiring and shutting down Giovanni's Room Bookstore. It closed on May 17, 2014. Almost exactly three months later, it was announced that Philly AIDS Thrift, which opened in 2005, had signed for a new lease on the historic bookstore. The store reopened as PAT @ Giovanni's Room on September 12, 2014.

Giovanni's Room Bookstore was established by three members of the Gay Activist Alliance in 1973, making this the oldest LGBTQ+ bookstore that is still in operation in the United States. The founders selected the name as a reference to a gay-themed novel by writer James Baldwin. The bookstore has been called "the center of gay Philly" due to its importance as an early cultural hub for the LGBTQ+ community. During the height of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, self-published medical material from Giovanni's Bookstore played an instrumental role in educating people about the disease. On October 15, 2011, a historical marker for the groundbreaking bookstore- now known as PAT @ Giovanni's Room, was unveiled by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. 

Giovanni's Room Bookstore

In the early years of the gay rights movement, committed LGBT activists from the Washington, DC and New York City chapters of the Mattachine Society, Philadelphia’s Janus Society and the New York chapter of the Daughters of Bilitus coordinated their efforts and held protests. The activists gathered at the White House in April 1965 to demand equal rights for LGBT citizens. Together, the groups operated as the East Coast Homophile Organizations (ECHO). The organizer of the White House picket was Frank Kameny, who would come to be regarded as one of the most significant figures in the early years of the LGBT movement. Inspired by the Washington, DC pickets, activist Craig Rodwell conceived an idea for a similar event in Philadelphia. Led by Kameny and local activist Barbara Gittings, the Philadelphia event was planned for just three months later, in July of 1965. Kameny insisted that picketers follow a strict dress code of jackets and ties for men and dresses for women. The move angered some LGBT supporters but Kameny wanted to project an image of homosexuals as “presentable and employable” in hopes of winning more supporters. The choice of Independence Hall for the event was a calculated one. It was important to Kameny and other activists to highlight the fact that they were simply demanding the basic individual freedoms enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. Thirty-nine people picketed, carrying placards demanding equal treatment under the law. At the time, it was the largest known demonstration for homosexual rights in the United States. The event, which came to be known as the Annual Reminder, took place every July 4th in Philadelphia until 1969. The final reminder event took place on July 4 of that year, just days after the Stonewall Riots in New York City, an event that led organizers to conclude that the course of homosexual activism was permanently changed. After 1969, Reminders were gradually replaced with pride parades, most of which are held in June, on or near the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. The marker that commemorates the Reminders was placed in 2005 by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. In 2015, a number of events, including a reenactment, were held to recognize the fiftieth anniversary of the first Reminder.

From 1965 to 1969, gay rights activists from Washington, DC, New York, and Philadelphia met each July 4th to picket in front of Independence Hall to demand legislation that would protect the rights of LGBT citizens. The event came to be known as the “Annual Reminder” that many American citizens were denied the basic rights enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. The events were commemorated in 2005 with the dedication of this historical marker across the street from Independence Hall.

Philadelphia LGBTQ History

AIDS Library of Philadelphia

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