The state Historical and Museum Commission has been seeking more markers about previously underrepresented people and groups, offering financial support for the markers if their subjects concern women, Hispanics, Latinos and Asian Americans, or if they are about Black and LGBTQ history outside Philadelphia. “I think it demonstrates a history of him grooming young boys and being involved in pedophilia and sex acts throughout that, including ultimately helping to operate a magazine with young nudes and things like that,” DiSanto said. Supreme Court declined to take the case in 1970.ĭiSanto said Tuesday he was alerted by a constituent about Schlegel’s comments in a 1993 personal history posted online that Schlegel provided to the Philadelphia LGBT History Project. His unsuccessful effort to overturn his firing from an earlier federal job based on his sexual identity ended when the U.S.
Schlegel, who died in 2006 at age 79, is a former state highway department official who founded the Harrisburg region’s first LGBTQ group. The commission’s action and DiSanto’s letter were first reported by. John DiSanto, R-Dauphin, wrote to say Schlegel’s remarks in a lengthy piece about his life were “reprehensible and would be considered criminal, regardless of sexual orientation.” The decision came about six months after state Sen.
The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission had the marker in honor of Richard Schlegel taken down June 3 from its location outside his former home, a block from the Capitol in downtown Harrisburg. (AP) - A roadside historical marker installed less than a year ago to honor a gay rights pioneer has been removed after a state senator raised concerns with Pennsylvania’s state history agency about the man’s 30-year-old memories of an early sexual encounter with another boy.