LGBT History Project: LGBT-074 Anthony Silvestre Collection

Anthony Silvestre was born in 1946 in the Bronx in New York. He finished his final year of college at King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, PA, and then attended Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) as a graduate student.

Silvestre was introduced to gay rights while at Penn State. While there, he became active in an organization called the Homophiles of Penn State (HOPS). He became president of HOPS and subsequently met many of Pennsylvania’s leading activists. He was appointed Chair of the Pennsylvania Council for Sexual Minorities and became a leader in the Pennsylvania Rural Gay Caucus, which provided a forum for collaboration among numerous groups outside of the cities of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.