Mamzelle's had a mirrored and strobe-lighted dance floor, a conversation lounge, and an arcade area for entertainment. Gay villages can vary widely from city to city and country to country. Participants in Philadelphia's first Gay Pride Parade in June 1972 met in Rittenhouse Square and marched to Independence National Historical Park, where they held a rally with music and speeches.
“There’s No Place Like Home” will pay tribute to the 40-year history of […] It was a hot day, and Joey was very considerate of my comfort on the tour- staying in the shade when possible, stopping for water/bathroom breaks. In 1982, the The devastation of the AIDS epidemic and horrendous loss of life in the 1980s brought the community together. Marchers were encouraged to express themselves freely though fashion, group chants, and songs.

Within a few years, Philadelphia saw the birth of several radical, new-left organizations including the Participants in Philadelphia’s first Gay Pride Parade in June 1972 marched along Chestnut Street towards Independence Hall, extravagantly expressing themselves through signs, music, and chants as they marched. Philadelphia was not far behind New York in responding to the revolutionary call raised by the Stonewall Riots of 1969. The tradition continued through the 1970s, when Philadelphia's first gay pride parades began with a rally in Rittenhouse Square. (Photo by Bob Skiba)The Gayborhood's rainbow street signs, originally dedicated by Mayor John F. Street in 2007, signify the city's commitment to diversity and inclusiveness. Hear how the 13th street corridor developed from a red light district to one of the most desirable neighborhoods in the city! Local drag celebs such as Brittany Lynn will perform, along with Howard Frankel, the winner of last year’s vocalist competition at the Gay Games. This section of Locust Street lies in the overlapping area claimed by two neighborhoods: the "Gayborhood" and the more recent "Midtown Village."
By the end of the decade, city food writers attributed Philadelphia’s restaurant renaissance to its gay entrepreneurs.As the 1980s began, the worst parts of Locust Street had been razed and rebuilt. By the 1950s, however, some of the spots did away with the expensive first-rate entertainers and began featuring Las Vegas-style showgirls instead. Yelk said actors who appear in some of the QFest films may also be in attendance.A new batch of rainbow street signs will be installed this month on secondary streets in 16 locations in the neighborhood, adding to the three-dozen signs already in place.Skiba noted that the signs demonstrate just how far the Gayborhood has come in its 40 years.“Those signs say that we’ve contributed to the city, that we’re part of the city and this city is just as much ours as it is anyone else’s, and that this is something that the city itself acknowledges. (Photo courtesy of the John J. Wilcox Jr. LGBT Archives)By the 1950s, Rittenhouse Square and the beatnik coffeehouses nearby on Sansom Street had become part of the public gay geography of the city.

Participants in the Reminder Day demonstrations dressed in conservative clothing (suits for men, dresses for women), but the gay pride parades were much more extravagant events. This 1985 photograph is from the women's club Mamzelle's, located on the second and third floor above The Bike Stop on Quince Street.

The first LGBTQ clubs on Oxford Street were Ivy’s Birdcage and Capriccio’s, which both opened in 1969.

But it’s still a very important statement.”For more information about “There’s No Place Like Home,” visit The Philadelphia Gay News is the area’s largest and oldest publication targeting the LGBTQ+ community. (Photo courtesy of the John J. Wilcox Jr. LGBT Archives)The new LGBT involvement in politics affected the geography of the Gayborhood. “Gay bars didn’t have the big neon flashing lights, but the word of mouth spread where things were going on, where drag shows were. Gay spaces proliferated, with gay bars opening both east and west of Broad Street, along South and Front Streets, and in suburbs like Cherry Hill and Norristown. A few weeks later, on September 9, the bill became law by default, without the signature or support of Mayor Bill Green. When federal, state and local governments failed to respond, Philadelphia activists stepped up. Early gay networks would meet privately at underground house parties and other private venues within By the 1950s, a jazz, espresso, and beatnik culture was stirring things up around Rittenhouse Square and in coffee houses on Sansom Street, creating a niche for the city's gay community. Philly’s Gayborhood as we now know it lives in Center City just east of Broad. 219 South 17th Street in Philadelphia, near In 2014, gay trans man Lou Cutler became the first openly This Washington Square West district was selected to undergo gentrification in the mid-1970s and up to one-fifth of the old structures were razed.In 2007, 36 rainbow street signs were mounted throughout intersections within 11th and Broad Streets, formally recognizing the Gayborhood as part of Philadelphia culture.A diverse range of gay-friendly businesses and organizations are located within Philadelphia. Lesbians, gay men, and transgender people have always found ways to appropriate public spaces for themselves. Rittenhouse Square was seen as a focal point in Philadelphia's LGBT geography and Independence National Historical Park was understood to be a proper venue for public discourse on constitutional rights. (Photo by Bob Skiba)In the second half of the twentieth century, the Center City neighborhood that became known as the Gayborhood formed in the vicinity of Locust and Thirteenth Streets. This block on Thirteenth and Locust had clubs like the Bag of Nails and the Golden 33, which each featured nude revues.