Their first Annual Reminder was held in 1965, and was intended to 'remind the American people that a substantial number of American citizens were denied the rights of 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,'' according to Philadelphia LGBTQ+ rights organization Philly Pride. Craig Rodwell (who happened Fred Sargeant's partner) was the Mattachine Society member who originally came up with the idea for The Annual Reminder.
We were supposed to be unthreatening.” The event was put on by a gay men's rights group called the Mattachine Society, which was one of the earliest LGBTQ+ rights groups in the United States (it formed in 1950). Required dress on men was jackets and ties for women, only dresses. It was usually “a small, polite group of gays and lesbians outside Liberty Hall,' Sargeant describes. This event was a somber, and tightly orchestrated affair.
At the time, the largest LGBTQ+ rights rally was a yearly silent vigil called “The Annual Reminder” held in Philadelphia.
