Professor Stein Discusses Little-Known LGBTQ Protests in Philadelphia -- Before Stonewall and Pride

WHYY-FM, THE WHY (PHILADELPHIA) -- Before the Stonewall riots, there was another — very different — group of gay and lesbian protests called the Annual Reminders in Philadelphia. Marc Stein, a professor at San Francisco State University, explains why these demonstrations are a little-known piece of LGBTQ history and how they reflected a larger cultural shift in the U.S.

“I think it laid the foundations for the later mobilizations and radicalization,” says Stein, the Jamie and Phyllis Pasker Professor of History, “by putting the idea into more and more people’s heads that gay people could stand up for their rights, engage in direct-action protests, model themselves after other successful social movements.”