Pink Triangle Coalition (PTC) was created in 1991 as a non-religious, LGBTQ+ civil rights advocacy and social organization in the City of Lancaster. The Coalition was instrumental in getting sexual orientation non-discrimination protection added...

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...

A white STUDS Magainze t-shirt with "Handsomely Beautiful Men" logo. 

For the very first interview of the history project, Edmund Good and Thurman Grossnickle describe their coming out stories. Thurman is a retired Scientist Administrator and has spent many years in academia and in health professions, as well as in...

Prior to coming out at the age of 32, Ted Martin had worked for many years for the government and public policy organizations, chiefly in the areas of communications and advocacy. Martin lived in Washington, D.C. and worked for Congress before...

Born in 1949 to a Lutheran minister and his wife, Marlene Kanuck married a man, had two children, and got a divorce after 11 years of marriage before realizing that she was a lesbian. In this interview, she discusses her coming out process and...

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...

Richard H. Hause was born in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, on May 21, 1947, moving to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, after he graduated from high school in 1965. After coming out to his family when he was eighteen, Richard began working...

Samuel Deetz was born in Quakertown (Pennsylvania), in 1951, on April 21 and was one of eight children. Sam’s father became a minister, which allowed his family to move from place to place over Sam’s young life. Sam’s family...

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...

Alanna Berger and Blaise Liffick are the co-founders of the Silent Witness Peacekeepers Organization. Alanna was born in 1954 in Hummelstown, PA. Before committing full time to Silent Witness, Alanna by profession worked as a systems analyst...

Sharon Mahar Potter was born in Buffalo, New York and raised in Scranton, Pennsylvania, commuting to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania for the first time when she was offered a position to build the early intervention system for disabled children in the...