Journalist releases memoir chronicling his involvement with LGBT equality

Mark Segal is celebrating LGBT history month in a big way. The notable gay journalist, who is the founder and publisher of Philadelphia Gay News and recent inductee to the National Lesbian & Gay Journalist Association’s Hall of Fame, released his memoir And Then I Danced: Traveling the road to LGBT Equality.

And Then I Danced, released on October 6, chronicles Mark’s involvement with milestones along the road of the LGBT community reaching equality, including the Stonewall riots, and what he sees for the future of LGBT people.

Alongside the Stonewall riots, Mark has been ejected from a few live broadcasts for his protests. The first time in 1972, when he wanted to join a dance competition on national television. Mark crashed the network’s live news broadcast with his partner, but didn’t last long. Mark was tackled, arrested, and taken away.

The following year, he disrupted the live broadcast of the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite by sitting on Cronkite’s desk and yelling, “gays protest CBS prejudice!” directly into the camera. This was watched live by 60 percent of American Households.

Today, Mark can proudly say that forty years after his ejection from the dance competition that he got to dance with his fiancé danced together at the White House to the Marine Corps band, which is quite the step up from a silly television show.

His activism hasn’t slowed down as his most recent undertaking has been the nation’s largest capital building project: the $19.5 million John C. Anderson Apartments, an LGBT-friendly affordable housing facility for low income seniors, which opened its doors in April and became the first LGBT architectural project in history to receive the AIA Housing Award for Architecture.

There’s no doubt that Mark is passionate about his community, and he’s not slowing down. Grab a copy of And Then I Danced here.