Akashic Books, 320 pages, Nonfiction/Memoir/LGBT Studies, Hardcover, $29.95
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—Memoir from a pioneering LGBT activist with a firsthand account of how the battle for equality was won.
Mark Segal was eighteen when the Stonewall riots of June 1969 erupted in New York. Determined not to stand idly by, Segal helped form the Gay Liberation Front from the ashes of Stonewall; and, within a year, founded Gay Youth, the nation's first organization to deal with the issues faced by LGBT youth. Mark Segal has been a force to be reckoned with in the fight for gay rights every step
of the way since then, from ending LGBT invisibility to marriage equality. In his evocative memoir, Segal chronicles his involvement in this crucial chapter of American historyand what he sees for its future. Here is a timeline of key events on the road to LGBT equality:
-On December 11, 1973 Mark Segal 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 "zap" was watched live by 60% of American households and covered in newspapers
across the country, presenting many Americans with the concept of "gay rights" for the first timeand
making Segal America's first gay television star.
-Segal's first "zap" came in 1972, after he and his male partner were thrown out of a televised dance competition; Segal crashed the network's live news broadcast, was tackled, arrested, and taken away. Forty years later, Segal and his fiancé danced together at the White House to the Marine Corps band.
-In addition to his LGBT political activism, Segal is also the founder of the Philadelphia Gay News, cofounder of the National Gay Press Association and the National Gay Newspaper Guild ( and former president of both ); is a member of the Comcast/NBCUniversal Joint Diversity Board; and was
recently inducted into the National Lesbian & Gay Journalist Association's Hall of Fame.
-As current president of the Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld Fund ( dmhFund ), Mark Segal's 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. In April
2015, the John C. Anderson Apartments became the first LGBT architectural project in history to
receive the AIA Housing Award for Architecture
-October is LGBT History Month ( coinciding with National Coming Out Day, October 11 ), and
2015 marks the 50th anniversary of the Gay Pioneers and first organized gay rights demonstrations for
equality. Mark Segal's job, as he saw it, was to show the nation who gay people are: our sons, daughters, fathers, and mothers. His journey began at 18 organizing Gay Youth and now at 64 he continues to build the community and is a prime example of the first OUT generation in America.