Philadelphia is furthering its reputation as the “City of Brotherly Love” with plans to open one of the nation’s first LGBTQ visitor centers.
Scheduled to open in January 2026, the Philadelphia Pride Visitor Center will debut in the city’s LGBTQ district, Midtown Village, in time for the nation’s 250th anniversary.
“We don’t just welcome diversity, we celebrate diversity.” Kathryn Ott LaBelle saidPresident and CEO of the Philadelphia Visitor Center Corporation. “Our hope is that the Philadelphia Pride Visitor Center will be a place where LGBTQ+ visitors feel at home from the moment they arrive.”
Philadelphia boasts a large LGBTQ population, with approximately 198,000 residents according to 2021 statistics. Williams Institute Easy. Beyond its role as the birthplace of American democracy, the city also has a rich queer history dating back to the early 1900s.
In 1965, multiple sit-ins took place at Dewey’s Restaurant to protest the restaurant’s repeated refusal to serve patrons based on their sexual orientation, gender expression, or cultural nonconformity.
After several protesters were arrested for “disorderly conduct” during the first sit-in, the second protest was successful. No one was arrested. Janus Society A practice called “indiscriminate denial of service” at a restaurant has ended.
druma 1960s Philadelphia gay culture and news magazine, said: protest as “the first sit-in of its kind in U.S. history.”
“Philadelphia has always been a trailblazer in LGBTQ+ history, from the first Reminder Day march in 1965, four years before Stonewall, to the Dewey Sit-ins, where LGBTQ+ young people stood up to deny service at restaurants,” said Philadelphia Gay News founder. mark segal. Segal will curate historical content to ensure the city’s LGBTQ heritage is represented in the new center.
The announcement comes as federal agencies are accused of removing or downplaying references to LGBTQ history and culture from government resources.
In March 2025, NPR reported References to LGBTQ people, women, and people of color have been removed from several federal government websites. Following President Trump’s executive order repealing “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility” policies, even the National Park Service removed references to transgender people from historian Wendy Rouse’s article about the women’s suffrage movement.
Source: Metro Weekly – www.metroweekly.com
