[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 31 (Tuesday, February 25, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E237-E238]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING MARK ALLAN SEGAL

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ROBERT A. BRADY

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 25, 2014

  Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Mark 
Allan Segal, one of the founding fathers of the gay rights movement and 
possibly the person most responsible for bringing national attention to 
that group's quest for acceptance and respectability.
  By the age of eighteen Mark was an activist and founded Gay Youth, 
the nation's first organization to deal with the issues of gay teens 
and endangered LGBT youth. Then, realizing the gay community needed to 
be brought out into the open, Mark created the Gay Raiders and took his 
fight national by breaking into television newscasts and nationally 
broadcast live programs, always espousing gay rights. These break-ins 
were known as ``zaps'' and succeeded in making people aware of a part 
of our society that did not have equal rights under the law. The last 
known ``zap'' was one that took place on the CBS Evening News with 
Walter Cronkite, and strange as it seems, Mark Segal and Walter 
Cronkite became and remained friends until Mr. Cronkite's passing in 
July of 2009.
  Mark founded the Pride of Philadelphia Election in 1989 to build a 
coalition of gay activists and allies. He raised over $30,000 during 
the primary, waging a television ad campaign to defeat then City 
Councilman Francis Rafferty in order to elect allies to Philadelphia 
City Council, including then candidate for Mayor, Ed Rendell. Mark was 
also instrumental in obtaining funding from the late Congressman Thomas 
Foglietta in order to purchase a permanent home for the William Way 
LGBT Community Center, located in the heart of Philadelphia's 
``Gayborhood''.
  Mark is the founder of the Philadelphia Gay News and has become a 
respected journalist with his newspaper winning numerous awards. He is 
a tireless champion for his community making it his duty to make people 
understand

[[Page E238]]

and respond to the issues at hand, never quitting the fight. And now, 
his latest project of bringing affordable housing to an aging gay 
population has reached fruition. The John C. Anderson Apartments, named 
for a Philadelphia City Councilman who died of AIDS in 1983, is now 
open. It is the first senior citizen housing project built by and for 
the LGBT community in Pennsylvania and only the third of its type in 
the United States. This is housing where gay tenants will feel 
comfortable living in a community that will not discriminate against 
them. But also, like the senior complexes built by Christian, Jewish 
and Chinese groups, this housing will be open to any eligible senior in 
need.
  I ask that you and my other distinguished colleagues join me in 
commending Mark Segal for being at the forefront of a fight still 
taking place today. He is an outstanding example of unwavering 
commitment to equal rights, and we should all be thankful for his 
tireless dedication and determination.

                          ____________________