CARLISLE, Pa. — Every June, Pride Month is celebrated to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York City.
It was a major event in LGBTQ history, but not nearly the only one.
“A lot of the documentation has been in the larger cities and major metropolitan areas, but a lot of the areas like central Pennsylvania have played pretty significant roles," said Barry Loveland.
Since 2012, Loveland has pieced together the LGBT Center Central PA History Project.
It’s a collection of photos, documents, artifacts and more, housed inside the Dickinson College Library.
“In the 160 oral history interviews we have, it never ceases to amaze me how interesting and different the experiences have been for people in the community," he said.
The collection shines a light on things like the evolution of our region’s Pride Festivals
“I think the first Pride festival we did in Reservoir Park was maybe 800 to 1,000 people and now the estimates are 5 to 6 thousand people come to those.”
It also looks at local trailblazers in the LGBTQ community, like Alberta Hamm, a former student at Harrisburg Area Community College who was the first transgender person to serve as a college or university student government president in the country.
“I was actually shocked when I found this information out because I had heard the name," said Loveland.
One of the newest pieces is a book co-written by Loveland himself that dives even deeper into these south central PA connections.
It's called Out in Central Pennsylvania: The History of an LGBTQ Community. The book was published in 2020.
“It really talks about how that community pulled together in an area that is really spread out," explained Loveland. "It was a lot more challenging for activists to work together, find each other, pull together.”
But pulled together they did, and as we continue to progress, Loveland says this history is crucial for both members of the LGBTQ community as well as others.
“There’s a lot of ways they can use that knowledge to move forward in the struggle for equal rights and civil rights," he said.
"Out in Central Pennsylvania: The History of an LGBTQ Community" is available to order from independent bookstores, Amazon, Books-a-Million and Barnes and Noble.
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