During the Pride Conference of 1978, that was sponsored by the PA Rural Gay Caucus and the Governor’s Council for Sexual Minorities, a motion to create a state-wide gay support group was passed, with the PA Rural Gay Caucus hosting a forum for this discussion. During the summer of 1978, the discussion progressed establishing that this support-group should be separate from the Caucus, and in July of 1978 the Pennsylvania Lesbian/Gay Support Network was formed. With this formation, the PA Rural Gay Caucus was officially dissolved as an organization in August of 1978. Still, during its years of operation, the Caucus was groundbreaking in mobilizing the gay rural vote and its contribution to the LGBT movement in Pennsylvania that still reverberates today.
|
Its short existence notwithstanding, the caucus was a powerful political force in gay activism in the commonwealth between 1975 and 1978. Combining the voices of about a dozen small groups from the rural areas of Pennsylvania turned out to be as powerful as activist efforts in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Members of the caucus created change not only in broad strokes across the commonwealth but also at a local level in their own communities." |