Mark Segal
{{Short description|American gay activist}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2025}}
{{Infobox person/Wikidata|dateformat=mdy
| name =
| image =
| caption =
| birth_name = Mark Allan Segal
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1951|01|12}}
| birth_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
| death_date =
| death_place =
| occupation = Author, Journalist, Gay Rights Activist, Columnist
| notable_works = And Then I Danced: Traveling the Road to LGBT Equality (2015)
| spouse = Jason Villemez
}}
Mark Allan Segal (born 1951) is an American social activist and author.{{cite web |last1=Bernadicou |first1=August |title=Come Out! |date=2 October 2023 |url=https://www.lgbtqhp.org/come-out |publisher=The LGBTQ History Project}} He participated in the Stonewall riots and was one of the original founders of the Gay Liberation Front where he created its Gay Youth program. He was the founder and former president of the National Gay Newspaper Guild{{cite web |title=About Mark Segal |url=http://www.eriegaynews.com/aboutegn/credits.php?recordid=23827 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110102062705/http://www.eriegaynews.com/aboutegn/credits.php?recordid=23827 |archive-date=January 2, 2011 |work=Erie Gay News}} and purchased the Philadelphia Gay News.William Bender. [https://web.archive.org/web/20111017173523/http://articles.philly.com/2011-10-13/news/30275749_1_gay-man-gay-history-philadelphia-gay-news "Phila. Gay News articles examine homosexuality in U.S. history".] The Philadelphia Inquirer, 10/13/2011. He has won numerous journalism awards for his column "Mark my Works," including best column by The National Newspaper Association, Suburban Newspaper Association and The Society of Professional Journalists.
Early life and education
Segal was born January 1, 1951, in Philadelphia. He is Jewish and originally from the Mount Airy section of Philadelphia. He attended Germantown High School and Temple University.{{Cite web|url=https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/Mark_Segal_Im_Gay_Jewish_and_old.html|title=You're right: I'm Gay, Jewish, and old|last=Segal|first=Mark|website=The Philadelphia Inquirer|date=6 February 2013 }}
Career
=Gay rights activism=
Segal was a participant at Stonewall in 1969 and help found the Gay Liberation Front that same year. He was also a member of The Christopher Street Gay Liberation Day committee, which organized the first Gay Pride parade in 1970.
In 1972, after being thrown out of dance competition for dancing with a male lover, Segal crashed the evening news broadcast of WPVI-TV, an act that became known as a "zap" and that he helped popularize. He repeated the action during many other television broadcasts.Edward Alwood. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/24/AR2009072402084.html "Walter Cronkite and the Gay Rights Movement".] The Washington Post, 7/26/2009. On 11 December 1973, Segal interrupted Walter Cronkite's broadcast of the CBS Evening News when he ran in front of the camera and held up a yellow sign saying “Gays Protest CBS Prejudice.”{{Cite news|date=1973-12-12|title='GAY RAIDERS' INVADE CRONKITE NEWS SHOW (Published 1973)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/12/12/archives/gay-raiders-invade-cronkite-news-show.html|access-date=2021-02-21|issn=0362-4331}}
In 1975, he went on a hunger strike on behalf of the passage of a law to guarantee equal rights for homosexuals."Gay Activist Goes on Hunger Strike". Daytona Beach Morning Journal, 12/1/1975. In 1976, he founded the Philadelphia Gay News, a LGBT newspaper in the Philadelphia area. The publication was inspired by activist Frank Kameny, whom Segal first met in 1970. In 1988, Segal had a televised debate with a Philadelphia city councilman, Francis Rafferty, about Gay Pride Month."On TC, Rafferty and Segal debate gay pride month". Philadelphia Daily News, 7/7/1988.
Segal partnered with the Obama administration to create and build the nation's first official “LGBT Friendly” Senior Affordable housing apartment building. The 19.8 million dollar project known as The John C. Anderson Apartments opened in 2013.{{Cite web|url=https://www.inquirer.com/philly/home/20140117_Changing_Skyline__John_C__Anderson_Apartments__LGBT-friendly_and_urban-friendly.html|title=Changing Skyline: John C. Anderson Apartments, LGBT-friendly and urban-friendly|first=Inga |last=Saffron |website=The Philadelphia Inquirer|date=16 January 2014 |language=en-US|access-date=2020-01-20}}
On May 17, 2018, Segal donated 16 cubic feet of personal papers and artifacts to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C.{{Cite web|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/mark-segal-lgbtq-iconoclast-activist-and-disruptor-donates-lifetime-papers-and-artifacts-180969176/|title=Mark Segal, LGBTQ Iconoclast, Activist and Disruptor, Donates Lifetime of Papers and Artifacts|last=Cohen|first=Adam|website=Smithsonian Magazine|language=en|access-date=2020-01-19}}
=Author=
Segal is the author of And Then I Danced: Traveling the Road to LGBT Equality, a memoir of his life and experience as a gay rights activist.{{Cite book|url=https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0140EERG4/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1|title=And Then I Danced: Traveling the Road to LGBT Equality|via=amazon.com|date=14 September 2015|publisher=OpenLens|access-date=2019-03-23}} The book was named "Best Book" by the National Lesbian Gay Journalist Association in 2015.
Personal life
Segal's friends include several gay activists, including Barbara Gittings, Frank Kameny, Harry Hay, and Troy Perry.Adam Satariano. [https://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aR_HOK8TU.E0&refer=muse "Barbara Gittings, Pioneer Gay Activist, Dies of Cancer at 75".] Bloomberg, 2/19/2007.
On July 5, 2014, Segal married his partner of 10 years, Jason Villemez.{{Cite web|date=2014-07-10|title=Wedding: Mark Segal and Jason Villemez|url=https://epgn.com/2014/07/10/25420467-wedding-mark-segal-and-jason-villemez/|access-date=2020-11-11|website=Philadelphia Gay News|language=en-US}} At the time, Villemez was 29 and Segal was 63. The ceremony was officiated by Judge Dan Anders, Philadelphia's first openly gay judge.{{Cite web|last=Shister |first=Gail |title=First openly gay male judge in Phila. to take oath today|url=https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/homepage/20071011_No_closet_for_him_-_just_bench.html|access-date=2020-11-11|website=The Philadelphia Inquirer|date=11 October 2007 |language=en-US}}
References
{{Reflist}}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20120406191535/http://www.phillymag.com/articles/pulse_pursuits_q_a_mark_segal/ "Pursuits: Q&A: Mark Segal".] Philadelphia Magazine, 2009.
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20140420085218/http://www.nlgja.org/awards/hof/segal Profile of Mark Segal] at National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association
- [http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/mark_segal Profile of Mark Segal] at Philly.com
- [http://www.epgn.com Philadelphia Gay News website]
- [https://www.facebook.com/MarkSegalPGN Mark Segal's official Facebook page]
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Category:American LGBTQ journalists
Category:American LGBTQ rights activists
Category:American male journalists
Category:American publishers (people)
Category:Gay Liberation Front members
Category:LGBTQ people from Pennsylvania
Category:Temple University alumni