The First Picture Of a Gay Wedding in 1950 Found.Gay People Were Not Accepted Then

1950-2025 How old is the picture but How old are they? If alive.

 

 

Same sex marriage happened in many states and  before the nation had a clear majority supporting gays. Little by little and lie per lie we had to address all the stupid things said about us; ie: Sick, pedo, not dependable, like to dress up in women clothes and so many more. We and  our friends and middle of the road Scientists and Doctors who studied gay men helped us address the crazies because if you don't like somebody how can you say nice things about them. That is in our DNA, as humans but some have overcome it in all fairness wether they have religion or not, Christian or jew. If you don't like someone they most be bad. By the way that is how the lies spread through hate for people that didn't or don't like us. They don't get it through their heads they don't have to like gays, or gay sex or gay weddings or gay cakes. You just don't have to do it your self but don't go making up lies either. Lies hurt real people. I don't believe in any religion even though Im a seminarian but I believe one day we will have to come face to face on the evil we do.  Make those future confrontations a minimum. Be human not a prick.

Adam Gonzalez, Publisher

BY Liz Crawford/CBS

In the 1950s, being gay wasn't allowed or accepted by the masses. Instead, many lived in secret, but photos from a 1950s gay wedding prove that people found a way to love one another freely, even if behind closed doors.

The mystery, however, remains nearly 70 years later. Who are the people in the photos, and why didn't they get their photos back after dropping off the film at a drugstore in Philadelphia?

P.J. Palmer, a documentary filmmaker, came across the photos a few years back at an LGBTQ+ archive library in California. For Palmer, these pictures were worth a thousand words.

ONE ARCHIVES/ USC LIBRARIES.

"It was really moving in a way, because it was like, oh, wait a minute, we have a history. We really do have a history," Palmer said.

He and his team were determined to find the men in the mysterious photos. Half of the collection was housed in the ONE Archives at the USC Libraries in Los Angeles, and the other half was donated to the William Way LGBT Community Center in Philadelphia. CBS News Philadelphia visited the archive and got to see some of the originals.

According to the archivist in Philadelphia, the film was dropped off at a drugstore on the corner of Allegheny Avenue and Broad Street. Now, it's a corner store, but photographs from city archives show it was a drugstore in the 1950s. The wedding photos were never returned to the owner. Decades later, they resurfaced when they were donated to the archives. Palmer spent three years trying to identify the men.

PHILLYHISTORY.ORG/PHILADELPHIA DEPT. OF RECORDS.

He said, "I can't tell you how many times we jumped on Zoom and said, we found them, we got them." He'll be 90 later this year, and at the time of these photos, he was out as a gay 20-something in Philadelphia in the 1950s.

"I actually was, at that time, at two weddings and they were in apartments in Philadelphia, but I don't know these people here. If I did, I don't remember them," Heifetz told CBS News Philadelphia.

CBS NEWS PHILADELPHIA.

Heifetz spent much of his life as an LGBTQ+ philanthropist and activist, and he said that during the 1950s, he and other gay friends went to gay bars and restaurants.

"Philadelphia has always had a gay community in Center City," he said. We might never know who the people in the photos are, but Palmer's not giving up.

"I don't know if they're with us, though, but if we could find the families, it would be lovely for them to know that these guys had a really good day."

If you think you might recognize someone or have more information about these photos, contact CBS News Philadelphia and we'll connect you with the team working on this project.