About Equality Forum

As the nation’s leading LGBT history organization, Equality Forum coordinates LGBT History Month nationally and internationally, spearheads the placement of LGBT historic markers, and is the producer of documentary films and the 217 Boxes of Dr. Henry Anonymous.

Each day of October, LGBT History Month celebrates a different Icon with a video, biography, bibliography and downloads. Launched in 2006, this free web resource offers archived information on 372 previously featured LGBT Icons, searchable from a cloud of 150 descriptors. John Fryer is among them.

Applying for and overseeing installment of government-approved, nationally significant LGBT historic markers is among Equality Forum’s key initiatives. The John Fryer historic marker, dedicated on October 3, 2017, stands at the intersection of 13th and Locust Streets in Philadelphia.

Equality Forum has produced two documentaries, JIM IN BOLD and Saint of 9/11, and co-produced Gay Pioneers with WHYY/PBS.

Gay Pioneers chronicles the start of the organized LGBT civil rights movement and the protests known as Annual Reminders, which were held at Independence Hall each July 4th from 1965 to 1969. Organized by the movement’s cofounders, Frank Kameny and Barbara Gittings, these demonstrations laid the groundwork for the Stonewall riot in June 1969. After 1969 the Annual Reminders were suspended in favor of a march to commemorate the first anniversary of Stonewall. Craig Rodwell, Barbara Gittings and Frank Kameny helped organize the June 1970 procession from Greenwich Village to Central Park. It is remembered as the first New York Pride Parade.

JIM IN BOLD is the first feature-length documentary about the impact of homophobia on LGBTQ youth. Saint of 9/11 tells the story of Father Mychal Judge, Chaplain of the FDNY, and the first official victim of 9/11. Narrated by Sir Ian McKellen and featuring an original score, the documentary premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.