HIV/AIDs

New York, New York Fundraiser Press Releases - November 2000
November 2000

The Betty Finney House was a non-profit organization founded in 1988 that provided housing assistance to those living with HIV/AIDS. It was the only housing assistance agency in South Central PA during the late 1980s and 1990s for those living...

New York, New York Fundraiser Invitation - November 11, 2000
November 11, 2000

The Betty Finney House was a non-profit organization founded in 1988 that provided housing assistance to those living with HIV/AIDS. It was the only housing assistance agency in South Central PA during the late 1980s and 1990s for those living...

New York, New York Fundraiser Program - November 11, 2000
November 11, 2000

The Betty Finney House was a non-profit organization founded in 1988 that provided housing assistance to those living with HIV/AIDS. It was the only housing assistance agency in South Central PA during the late 1980s and 1990s for those living...

''Viva Las Vegas'' Fundraiser Press Release - November 2001
November 2001

The Betty Finney House was a non-profit organization founded in 1988 that provided housing assistance to those living with HIV/AIDS. It was the only housing assistance agency in South Central PA during the late 1980s and 1990s for those living...

''Viva Las Vegas'' Fundraiser Program - November 18, 2001
November 18, 2001

The Betty Finney House was a non-profit organization founded in 1988 that provided housing assistance to those living with HIV/AIDS. It was the only housing assistance agency in South Central PA during the late 1980s and 1990s for those living...

LGBT History Project Logo
April 15, 2013

Frank Pizzoli, founder and editor-in-chief of the Central Voice, an LGBT newsletter for the Central PA community, discusses his experiences in the community and how he thinks things have changed over time. He describes some aspects of growing up...

Mary Merriman
August 28, 2013

Born in Chicago, IL in 1949 to a Catholic family, Mary Merriman joined the Air Force in 1967, where she struggled with her sexuality due to the environment, eventually becoming pregnant and discharging from the military before giving her son up...

Mark Stoner
August 29, 2013

Mark Stoner, born in 1959, grew up and currently lives in Lancaster, where he has worked as a graphic designer for the past 30 years. He came out as gay early in his college years at Penn State University and thereafter became involved in...

LGBT History Project Logo
March 21, 2014

Margaret “Peg” Dierkers was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1957 and attended a Catholic school as a child. She earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Ohio State University, and eventually enrolled in a doctoral program in Human...

John Folby
March 26, 2014

John Folby was born in Pittsburgh in 1947. He was the oldest of five children in an Irish-Italian Catholic family. He relocated to Harrisburg in 1975 with his partner. John continues to live with his partner in Harrisburg in a relationship...

John Johnson (L) and Charles Maser (R)
May 8, 2014

Jon Johnson was born in Southern Lancaster county, Pennsylvania and lived on his family’s farm in his early life. Charles (Charlie) Maser was born in Brownstown in Lancaster County Pennsylvania. Jon spent most of his life in Pennsylvania. He went...

Jerre Freiberg
December 3, 2014

Jerre Freiberg was raised in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. His family has close ties to the Lutheran Church, and he has remained affiliated with the church throughout his life. Jerre attended Elizabethtown College for two years...

Paul Foltz
March 20, 2015

Paul Foltz grew up in Steelton in a very Catholic household, a background to which he attributes his unawareness of his sexuality until later in his college years. It wasn’t until he went to England to complete his graduate-level theatre studies...

Suzanne Kohr
March 25, 2015

Suzanne Kohr, formerly Ott, was raised in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. She is now 60 years old, and resides in Newberrytown, Pennsylvania. Suzanne had two children with her first husband, and has been married to her second husband, Tom Kohr, for...

Eva O'Diam
April 6, 2015

Eva O’Diam was born in Dayton, Ohio in 1953 to her mother, a school teacher, and her father, an engineer. Growing up in conservative, rural Ohio, Eva lost her father at the age of 12 and moved to Covington, Ohio where she graduated from high...

Ray Davis
April 15, 2015

Ray Davis was born on April 30th, 1954 in Bethlehem, PA. After attending Catholic school, Ray went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in ornamental horticulture from Delaware Valley College in Doylestown, PA. After moving to...

Joy (Ufema) Counsel
April 29, 2015

Joy (Ufema) Counsel was raised in Altoona, Pennsylvania. After completing high school, Joy began studies to become a nurse at the Altoona Hospital, and later completed a nursing program at Harrisburg Area Community College. Joy worked in numerous...

Shaka Hudson
August 3, 2015

Shaka Hudson was born in 1949 in Harrisburg as the middle of five children. An artist his whole life, Shaka attended John Harris High School and Penn State University before unenrolling in college and leaving Harrisburg to join the Washington D.C...

Amy Skillman
May 5, 2016

Amy Skillman talks about her childhood growing up in Michigan in a large Episcopalian family and the influence of spirituality in her life, both as a teenager and an adult. Amy went to an all-girls school where rumors circulated about certain...

LGBT Activism Pins
1978 - 2012

The bulk of the collection consists of buttons, ribbons, and t-shirts from LGBT events. It also contains documentation of the Gay and Lesbian Switchboard of Harrisburg and Dignity of Central PA. Several of the items in this collection relate the...

Anthony Silvestre
September 21, 2016

Anthony Silvestre was born in 1946 in the Bronx in New York. He grew up in a working-class, Italian neighborhood and is familiar with stigma. He began identifying as gay in the sixth grade, but went through school still in the closet. After high...

Nikki Knerr
October 9, 2016

Nikki Knerr was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 1945 and attended York College and Pennsylvania State University where she studied mass communications. In 1967, Nikki opened her first graphic design business which ran for 25 years in Camp...

Patricia ''Pat'' Saunders
March 5, 2017

Patricia ''Pat'' Mastandrea Sanders was a hair stylist in Boston before moving up to advertising and marketing for 300 salons across the country. One fateful day she slipped on an ice cube and hit her head. Her life changed forever. Unable to...

LGBT History Project Logo
March 12, 2017

Frederick (Rick) Schulze was born in Delaware in the 60s and spent his childhood and adolescence in the 70s in the Harrisburg area. He first talks about his complicated relationship with his family and his gay identity, mentioning his mother’s...

Debra Fulham-Winston
March 19, 2017

Deb Fulham-Winston was born in 1952 in Boston, Massachusetts. She grew up in an Irish-Catholic family with eight siblings, and spent the first half of her schooling in Catholic school. Early on, she had a strong conviction for feminism and social...

Pages

Subscribe to HIV/AIDs