A Timeline of Mark Segal’s Activism
Fellow Stonewall Pioneer Jerry Hoose once said of Mark Segal, "He was the most prolific of us.” Another friend once remarked “Mark was so busy helping to create the sexual revolution that he didn’t have time to participate."
1969 Stonewall participant
Mark is inside Stonewall as the raid begins. After being carded and let out of the Stonewall, Mark is best known for being the person that Mary Robinson asked to write on the sidewalks and walls along Christopher Street “Tomorrow Night Stonewall,” setting the stage for the second night.
1969 One of the founders of Gay Liberation Front
From the ashes of Stonewall came a new out, loud, and proud LGBT Movement. Gay Liberation Front would go on to create community and self identity.
1970 Founder Gay Youth
Gay Youth was the first LGBT Youth organization to fight bullying, speak at high schools, created safe space, offer a suicide hotline (which was Mark’s personal number for a time), social activities, and a newsletter.
1970 Marshal at the first Gay Pride
Mark can be seen in the Iconic New York Times photo of that first Pride.
1972 First work on LGBT non-discrimination legislation, chair of LGBT Committee of the National Student Association.
1973 Campaign against the TV Networks to end LGBT invisibility. Disrupting live broadcasts of CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, The Today Show, and other programs
Famed Presidential Historian Douglas Brinkley in his best selling biography of Walter Cronkite unveils how the Cronkite disruption/zap changed the CBS Network.
1973 Debate with members of the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) position on homosexuality on the Phil Donahue Show
1975 Proposes and helps create the nation’s and world’s first governmental panel to look into LGBT issues.
This becomes the model for all other LGBT governmental commissions and LGBT governmental liaison’s in the nation to this date.
1976 At Segal’s request Gov. Shapp of Pennsylvania became the first governor in nation to issue an executive order to end discrimination against LGBT employee’s in State Employment. That same year Governor Shapp is first Governor in the nation to officially proclaim Gay Pride Month
1976 Founded Philadelphia Gay News (PGN)
Over the last 46 years since it’s founding, PGN has become the most awarded LGBT publication in the nation, including awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and National Newspaper Association.
1976 After lobbying from Segal, WPVI-TV became the first TV station in America to cancel a network show due to homophobic content (an episode of the highly rated Dr, Marcus Welby MD). They are followed by four other ABC affiliates.
1976 Mark meets with Congressman Robert N.C. Nix and requests him to sign onto Congresswoman Bella Abzug’s Congressional LGBT Rights Bill (the first Congressional Equality legislation) Nix, who was a founder of the Congressional Black Caucus, agreed and became the first African American to sign on to National LGBT Legislation.
1977 Elected president of the Gay Press Association
1981 Elected president of National LGBT Newspaper Guild
1984 Elected to Board of Pennsylvania Newspapers Publishers association
1986 First gay radio talk show host (WDVT AM)
1989 Reported from East and West Berlin during the fall of the Berlin Wall
Mark features from East Berlin highlighted LGBT life behind the Iron curtail.
1990 Created LGBT Political Action Committee
1991 Delegate and speaker at first ever LGBT conference in Russia
Speaking in both St. Petersburg and Moscow
1992 Created first LGBT political TV commercial
1995 Created a committee which secured $300,000 of congressional funding for the William Way LGBT Community Center
1996 One of the 7 founders of Gay.net, which later became Gay.com
1998 Reported from Cuba on Fidel Castro’s oppression of the LGBT community
1999 President Bill Clinton sends Mark a signed copy of his June’s Gay Lesbian Pride Month Proclamation, after a small dinner party in December for DNC Chairperson Ed Rendell.
2000 After lobbying against it, the homophobic Dr Laura Schlessinger Show is dropped by KYW TV, which is followed by other stations throughout the nation.
2002 After a long court battle starting in 1998 and culminating with the Supreme Court, defendants including the New York Times, PGN and Salon.com defeated the Child Online Protection Act. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg referred to PGN in her questioning of the law. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg stated “if this law stands, that would mean that publications like Philadelphia Gay News would not be allowed to publish medical and educational information about HIV/AIDS.”
2003 Founded the Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld Fund (dmhFUND)
2005 Produced Philadelphia’s 4th of July concert with Elton John which raised over $1m for HIV/AIDS Awareness
2008 Interviewed Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama during the 2008 election
2009 Named best non-daily opinion columnist by Suburban Newspapers of America
Mark’s column will also go to win similar awards from National Newspapers Association, Society of Professional Journalists, GLAAD, The National Lesbian Gay Journalist Association and Local News Association, becoming LGBT media’s most awarded journalist.
2009 Mark is chosen to be one of 12 official hosts for President Obama on his first trip as President to Philadelphia
2010 Begin planning the nations first offical “LGBT-Friendly Senior Affordable Apartments”
The building, named the John C. Anderson Apartments, became a White House Champion project
2011 Appointed to Comcast NBCUniversal Joint Diversity Board
2013 Inducted into the LGBT Journalist Hall of Fame; Keynote speaker at HUD’s LGBT affordable housing conference in DC.
2014 Grand opening of the 19.8 million dollar John C. Anderson LGBT-Friendly senior affordable apartments
2015 Segal’s memoir “And Then I Danced: Traveling The Road To LGBT Equality” published.
2017 Second trip to report on Cuba, including meetings with Mariel Castro
2018 Segal’s papers & artifacts donated to the Smithsonian Institute of American History Museum, Are put on public display for Stonewall fifty in 2019 and in 2021 are displayed at the White House for its observance of LGBT Pride month.
2019 Stonewall 50: Mark meets candidate Joe Biden at Stonewall, and among the numerous interviews: The Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, and media outlets across the world. Mark then served along side his Gay Liberation Front sisters and brothers as Grand Marshals at New York’s LGBT Pride Parade.
2020 U.S. Embassy in Warsaw, Poland requests Mark to speak to Universities and LGBT organizations in light of the Polish government crackdown on LGBT community.
2021 Speaks at Pride event in U.S. Embassy in Vilnius Lithuania.
2021 The dmhFUND contributes $250,000 to LGBT nonprofits over the last five years.
2022 For United Kingdom’s LGBT History month, Mark is scheduled to speak in London, Manchester and Kent. Due to Covad pandemic this tour has been re-scheduled for late in the year.
And what fun and adventures can we get into tomorrow?