The Long Road to LGBTQ+ Equality in PA is a month-long display located slightly off to the side on the main floor of the Elizabethtown College’s High Library. The display includes six double-sided panels, approximately seven and a half feet tall and three feet wide, grouped in two sets of three standing parallel to one another with a place for sitting in the middle to read the panels. Two small battery-powered video screens are mounted on two of the panels, which play visual and audio stories from multiple different LGBTQ+ activists when the play button is clicked. The panels have historical facts, pictures with captions, QR code scans, quotes and background information, all working cohesively to tell the story of the activists’ fight for LGBTQ+ equality in Pa. The text on the slides is spaced out and large enough for the audience to conveniently read the panels from the provided seating.
Each of the six panels have history written on them depicting the struggles different counties in Pennsylvania faced on the road to equality. Counties like York, Allentown, Philadelphia, Montgomery, Lancaster and Dauphin have their histories pertaining to the people and events in each of those counties that impacted the road to civil rights equality in the state of Pa. over the course of the last five decades. By using specific case studies depicted in these counties, the political and personal struggles of the LGBTQ+ community is better emphasized. The display is easy to read and follow along too. It could take as little as 20 minutes to read the entire display and become more knowledgeable on Pennsylvania’s LGBTQ+ history.
Etown’s Head Outreach Librarian Joshua Cohen reached out to the LGBT Center of Central PA in Harrisburg to have the traveling display brought to the High Library in celebration of LGBTQ+ History Month. The display will be available to see the entire month of October in lieu of the celebration. There have been multiple exhibits about LGBTQ+ history, hosted by the College, from this center the past consecutive years. The consistent presence of these presentations by the High Library seeks to, in Cohen’s words, “provide a safe community space where we promote the values of diversity, equity, and belonging on campus, and this exhibit and panel discussion is part of that mission.” Cohen has subsequently organized a panel discussion on “Reflections on LGBTQ+ Equality in Pennsylvania,” on Oct. 18 in the High Library’s Winters Alcove, in conjunction with the travel exhibit. More details about the LGBT Center of Central PA can be found at https://centralpalgbtcenter.org/.
The display itself is curated and organized by Barry Loveland, who is a part of the LGBT Center of Central PA. The traveling exhibit is co-sponsored by the PA LGBT History Network. The goal of these travel exhibits by the LGBT Center of Central PA is to engage interest in discovering Pennsylvania’s LGBTQ+ history, historic sites, archival collections and stimulate conversation about current LGBTQ+ equality related topics. The chronicles of effort portrayed throughout the years by activists for civil rights equality regarding the LGBTQ+ community is a powerful sentiment which is established potently in this display. The vivid colors portrayed throughout the displays, through headings, images and titles mimic the colors and flags associated with the LGBTQ+ community to engage and capture the audience’s attention.
In addition, the displays are made to easily be constructed and taken down, within the span of an hour, to make the display as accessible and enticing to public entities as possible. The travel display was carefully created by these organizations to inspire while informing. Whether you have a quick five-minute break in between classes or have an entire day free, this travel display of LGBTQ+ history in Pennsylvania is certainly worth taking a look at!
