Wenger, Philip

The Pride Festival of Central PA is an annual event celebrating the LGBTQ+ community in the Central Pennsylvania region. Founded in 1992, the festival takes place every year on the last Saturday of July in the city of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Each July, approximately 5,000 individuals travel to downtown Harrisburg and attend the Pride Festival. It is the largest Pride celebration between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

This is the program for the second Pride Festival of Central PA. 

The interview performed on March 23, 2015 is with Oral History project volunteer, Michele Metcalf and long-time LGBT activist and self-identified gay man, Phil Wenger. Wenger was born and raised in Ethiopia in a large Mennonite missionary family and returned to his family’s roots in Central Pennsylvania when he was 12. In this interview, he speaks about his coming out, his advocacy with Pride and the Harrisburg LGBT Center, and with the Lancaster AIDS Project. He goes on to speak about how all of these factors have affected his life, life path, and relationships.