‘The Long Road to LGBTQ+ Equality in Pennsylvania’ exhibit on display at LHU Stevenson Library through April 30

“The Long Road to LGBTQ+ Equality in Pennsylvania,” a traveling history exhibit that chronicles the efforts advocates have undertaken in the state to achieve full equality for LGBTQ+ people, opened at Stevenson Library on the campus of Lock Haven University on April 9 and will run through April 30.

With the lack of success in passing statewide legislative protections from discrimination in housing, employment, public accommodations and education, activists have been working for more than five decades to obtain these protections one battle at a time, one municipality at a time.

The exhibit uses case studies of several cities and townships to highlight not just the political struggles, but the personal stories as well. The exhibit opened in early 2019 on the 50th anniversary year of the 1969 Stonewall Uprising, a pivotal in the LGBTQ+ movement toward equality.

The exhibit tells these stories through historical narrative, photographs and videos of oral history first person accounts of activists involved in the struggles to achieve protection from discrimination. Along the way, they faced harassment, physical assault, arson and bombings.

Dr. Rick Schulze, professor in the Department of Health Science, and John Gradel, assistant director of international student services and international admissions, organized the exhibit showing on loan from the PA LGBT History Network, whose mission is to engage people in discovering Pennsylvania’s LGBTQ+ history, historic sites, history projects, artifacts, archival collections and to facilitate collaborations. Barry Loveland is the exhibit curator.

For more information on Lock Haven University, visit www.lockhaven.edu, email admissions@lockhaven.edu, or call 570-484-2011.

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Lock Haven University’s main campus is located on the West Branch of the Susquehanna River in the scenic mountains of Pennsylvania. The university offers 49 undergraduate majors and certifications with 47 minors and five graduate programs.

LHU is a member of Pennsylvania’s State System, the largest provider of higher education in the Commonwealth. Its 14 universities offer more than 2,300 degree and certificate programs in more than 530 academic areas of study. Nearly 520,000 system alumni live and work in Pennsylvania.