Social Reform and Advocacy

Marty Tornblom
June 9, 2017

Marty Tornblom was born in Utah and was raised in the greater Salt Lake City area, as a member of the Mormon Church. She decided to get a degree in education which lead her to teaching. Following her marriage, she converted to Presbyterianism and...

LGBT History Project Logo
July 29, 2017

Robert Sevensky was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania in 1948. Despite having an unpleasant experience in early education and having financial issues, Robert persevered and ended up pursuing an academic career in college. After two years at the...

LGBT History Project Logo
August 6, 2017

Harry Long was born in Lebanon, Pennsylvania in 1951 and attended Lebanon High School. After attending Millersville State College, now Millersville University, and becoming involved with an underground newspaper, Harry began his career of working...

Collection: LGBT Oral History

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View Item: PDF icon Transcription of LGBT Oral History 069: Harry Long

Amanda Porter (now known as Amanda Hecker)
August 16, 2017

Amanda Porter [now known as Amanda Hecker] was born in 1950 in Lansdale, Pennsylvania. Amanda is a trans woman and transgender rights educator and activist. In this interview, Amanda repeats her goal of wanting to make transgender people visible...

Heidi Notario
August 18, 2017

Heidi Notario was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1973, where she was attending college for biology before moving to the United States in 1995. Heidi discusses her disillusion with the ideals of communism as a factor contributing to her desire to go...

Collection: LGBT Oral History

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View Item: PDF icon Transcription of LGBT Oral History 087: Heidi Notario

LGBT History Project Logo
August 23, 2017

For more than a decade, Jeanine Ruhsam was an advocate in Central Pennsylvania’s transgender community. With the primary goal of providing support and resources for transgender people and their loved ones, she spearheaded the Trans Central...

LGBT History Project Logo
September 16, 2017

The Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) Center of Central PA (Harrisburg) began to form in the late 90s. To receive fundraising though the National Lesbian and Gay Community Funding Partnership of New York, the founding group was led...

Alex Reber
October 4, 2017

Barry Loveland interviews Alex Reber, now 32, who relates fascinating stories of what it was like growing up as an only child of an Evangelical Christian family raised on a farm in Bethel, a rural town between Harrisburg and Allentown and...

LGBT History Project Logo
January 4, 2018

Steve Glassman was born on September 20, 1954 in Chicago. He was fortunate enough to grow up in a rather liberal household with accepting parents who were involved in political activism and social justice during the Civil Rights era. Glassman’s...

Collection: LGBT Oral History

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View Item: PDF icon Transcription of LGBT Oral History 041: Steve Glassman

Cecelia Wambach
July 30, 2018

Cecelia Wambach was born on May 26th, 1942 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Cecelia begins the interview by talking about her family life, the dynamics of her relationship with her parents and religion, and how those facets shaped her adult identity...

Collection: LGBT Oral History

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View Item: PDF icon Transcription of LGBT Oral History 131: Cecelia Wambach

Buttons from LGBT-050 Marlene Kanuck Collection
1970s to present

These images represent a cross section of the types of materials included in the LGBT Center of Central PA's History Project, which is housed in the Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections....

LGBT History Project Logo
January 14, 2020

Marie DiFava was born in Lebanon County in 1953 and grew up in a troubled Italian home. She graduated from high school and attended nursing school, but after burning out from her job and schooling, she dropped out, married, and had three children...

York Hospice House Flyer
1991-1995

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

Lebanon County Lesbians Newsletters
1987-2019

Maria DiFava was born in Lebanon County, PA in 1953. She graduated from high school and attended nursing school and ultimately became an EMT volunteer. She later worked as a mail carrier for the US Postal Service. Marie married and had three...

SCAAN Annual Report Newsletter
1990-1995

Margaret “Peg” Dierkers was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1957. She earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Ohio State University and eventually enrolled in a doctoral program in Human Development and Family Studies at Penn State...

Dan Miller Campaign flier and pin
1992 - 2013

Dan Miller was born in 1956 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He earned his BA in Accounting from Elizabethtown College, later going on to get his MA in Finance from Penn State University. In October of 1990, after working for Donald L. DeMuth...

Collection: LGBT-007 - Miller

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View Item: PDF icon LGBT History Project: LGBT-007 Dan Miller Collection

Here's How Newletter
1977-1980

Dan Maneval was born in Williamsport, Pennsylvania on October 3, 1947. Maneval’s activism included the founding of the Homophiles of Williamsport (HOW), the West Branch Gay Support Network, Susquehanna Lambda, Susquehanna Valley Gays United, and...

Susquehanna Valley Gays United Banner
1961-2015

Sam Edmiston was born on July 17, 1945 in Middleburg, PA. In the April of 1963, Edmiston enrolled in the US Navy, and three weeks after his graduation, went to the Keel United States Naval Training Center in Great Lakes, Illinois for recruitment...

LGBT History Project: LGBT-074 Anthony Silvestre Collection
1973 - 1985

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...

March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation 1993 Shirt and Rainbow Flag
1993 - 1994, 2000

The t-shirts and flags in this collection were donated by Gerald Vath, who attended the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation in 1993 and the Millennium March on Washington in 2000. Vath wore these t-shirts and...

Collection: LGBT-018 - Vath

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View Item: PDF icon LGBT History Project: LGBT-018 Gerald Vath Collection

Unity Festival and AIDS Walk T-shirts
1984-1996

Bernie Pupo was born in Kulpmont, Pennsylvania in 1945 and attended Mount Carmel Catholic High School. After working in a factory after high school, Bernie moved to Harrisburg, where he joined SCAAN, the South Central Aids Assistance Network,...

Fall Achievement Benefit (FAB) Stationary Paper
circa 2000-2005

This collection contains stationary paper and envelopes for two funds and one event with which The Foundation for Enhancing Communities(TFEC) was involved. TFEC is a community foundation that serves the greater Harrisburg, PA area; Dillsburg, PA...

Stuffed Frog from Bi-GLYAH fundraiser
circa 1995

Sharon Mahar Potter was born in Buffalo, NY and raised in Scranton, PA. She began commuting to Harrisburg, PA for the first time when she was offered a position to build the early intervention system for disabled children in the city. Profoundly...

 Dignity and Pink Triangle Pins
1976-1983

This collection contains monthly newsletters produced by the Gay Switchboard of Harrisburg in 1981, and an assortment of buttons documenting LGBTQ+ events and issues.

Marriage Equality Button
circa 2010

Founded by Andrew Park in 1996 as the Center of Lesbian and Gay rights, Equality Pennsylvania (PA) is an organization that advocates for LGBTQ+ rights and legislation throughout the state.

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