The Reminders were held each year from 1965 through 1969, with the final picket taking place shortly after the June 28 Stonewall riots, considered the flashpoint of the modern gay liberation movement.
Thirty-nine people attended the first picket, including veteran activists Frank Kameny, Barbara Gittings, and Kay Tobin.
[3] Press coverage was sparse, although Confidential magazine ran a large feature about the Reminder and other homophile pickets in its October 1965 issue under the headline "Homos On The March".
[6] Rodwell received several telephone calls threatening him and the other New York participants, but he was able to arrange for police protection for the chartered bus all the way to Philadelphia.
[8] The dress code was still in effect at the Reminder, but two women from the New York contingent broke from the single-file picket line and held hands.
The conference passed a resolution drafted by Rodwell, his partner Fred Sargeant,[12] Broidy and Linda Rhodes to move the demonstration from July 4 in Philadelphia to the last weekend in June in New York City, as well as proposing to "other organizations throughout the country... suggest(ing) that they hold parallel demonstrations on that day" to commemorate the Stonewall riots.
[13][14][15][16][17] As part of the mural "Pride and Progress" by Ann Northrup (located on the side of the William Way LGBT Community Center at 1315 Spruce Street, Philadelphia) there is a depiction of a man pasting up a poster that itself depicts part of the Annual Reminder picket held in 1966; the poster features Barbara Gittings among others.