by Fred Kuhr

Philadelphia Gay News marked its 50th anniversary with a gala celebration on February 25, 2026, at the National Constitution Center. Guests included Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker, local community leaders and a video message from actress and “The View” co-host Whoopi Goldberg.

New funding was also announced at the gala for two local community organizations that serve the LGBTQ community — the William Way LGBT Community Center (WWCC) and The Attic Youth Center.

“It’s important that we continue to make forward progress — not just to stand up against the bullies, not just to fight back against the insensitivity of those who would want to whitewash our shared history,” said Gov. Shapiro in a speech at the event. “But rather to continue to play offense and make progress, to remember our values and live up to the vision that others have fought to create for us.”

In the weeks leading up to the big event, PGN ran many features looking back on its 50 years of publication, including listing all 438 awards it has won over the decades. PGN claims to be “the nation’s most awarded LGBTQ+ newspaper.”

“But we are only able to say that because of the efforts of early staff members who fought, for many years, for PGN to be included in journalism associations,” according to PGN. “Perhaps the most famous instance is PGN’s effort to gain membership in the Pennsylvania Newspaper Publishers’ Association (now the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association — PNA). For more than a decade, PGN applied for PNA membership in the ’70s and ’80s, but every year the application was denied. It wasn’t until members from the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News argued at a PNA board meeting that Philadelphia Gay News was as professional as any other newspaper in the state and deserved to be included. The meeting even led to the representative from the Inquirer threatening to leave the organization should PGN not gain membership. Shortly after, PGN’s application was accepted.”

Former editor Jen Colletta wrote about, “What 50 years of leading journalism can teach us all.” Current editor Jeremy Rodriguez looks back at “50 years of good news.” The newspaper also compiled a list of reader-supplied stories called, “Five decades of connection: PGN readers share their stories.”

In one of those stories, reader Edward Kimble recounts how he discovered PGN in 1983 while at a bar in Bucks County. “I wish I could go back and tell that 24-year-old in the Bucks County bar that he’d still be reading this paper decades later, that he’d live to see so many of the things we fought for become reality, that the community he was so afraid to join would become home,” he said. “… For nearly 50 years, you’ve been the thread linking isolated individuals to community, connecting readers to each other through shared stories and common struggles, and tying our present to our past, so we never forget how far we’ve come.”

PGN also ran stories on the history of advertising in the newspaper, queer cinema coverage, LGBTQ books over the past 50 years, and an examination of PGN’s iconic purple sidewalk newspaper boxes.

Publisher and founder Mark Segal wrote a piece looking at the “future of PGN.”

“The phone has become the front page. And with it comes a new expectation: news delivered faster, consumed quicker, absorbed in moments rather than minutes,” wrote Segal. “This raises a profound question for any serious publication: Do we chase brevity and spectacle, crafting shorter stories and louder headlines? Or do we hold fast to depth, context and the careful pursuit of truth? This tension will define the future of journalism.”

To read all of PGN’s anniversary coverage, go to https://epgn.com/category/history/pgn50/

IN THE NEWS
Volume 28
Issue 2