‘Pariah’ brings black lesbian coming-of-age to the big screen
Family Portrait: Fred Kogan
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Weigh It Forward: Their loss is the community’s gain
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Jan. 13-19, 2012
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Vol. 36 No. 2
District Attorney appoints LGBT liaison By Jen Colletta jen@epgn.com Helen “Nellie” Fitzpatrick is a member of both the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office and the city’s LGBT community — and in her new position will be working to open the lines of communication between the two. The DA’s office announced last week that Fitzgerald will serve as the office’s first LGBT liaison. Fitzpatrick, 31, came to the city in 2008 from her native Florida to work as an assistant district attorney in the Philadelphia Municipal Court division and later moved to the Family Violence and Sexual Assault Unit. A 2002 graduate of the University of Florida, Fitzpatrick earned her law degree from the Florida Coastal School of Law in 2008. While she had an initial goal of working in the legal area of the music industry, her focus shifted in part because of her active involvement in the LGBT community. “It wasn’t until I started law
school that I saw that there were so many more important causes out there that appealed to me, like criminal prosecution. I wanted to work with victims and especially victims in the LGBT community,” she said. “Often, the needs, concerns and fears that LGBT victims have in relation to the criminaljustice process are not recognized or addressed, and I saw that happening in Florida when I was in school. It was frustrating and it was something that I brought with me to Philadelphia.” Since joining the DA’s office, Fitzpatrick said she has been open about her sexual orientation and vocal about the unmet needs of LGBT victims, serving as an unofficial clearinghouse for other ADAs working with such clients. “If someone has a victim that they’re able to determine is a member of the community, they have come to me asking if there’s anything they should be doing, anything they should be keeping in mind. There have been cases where a victim has not wanted to participate in the process because of fears, and I’ve gone and talked
HELEN “NELLIE” FITZPATRICK Photo: Scott A. Drake
to them,” she said. While many LGBT victims may have concerns over working with the system, efforts to allay those fears have been challenging, Fitzpatrick said, partially because of the inherent difficulty in identifying LGBT victims. “It’s very hard to recognize someone as a member of the LGBT community because we’re
DOJ files brief in PA DOMA case
NJ considers marriage, again
By Jen Colletta jen@epgn.com
By Jen Colletta jen@epgn.com As the New Jersey Senate began its new session this week, it turned its attention first to marriage equality. A bill to legalize same-sex marriage was the first measure to see introduction in both the Senate and Assembly on Wednesday, and both versions have the support of high-ranking leaders in the Democrat-led state legislature. The Assembly version is being led by Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, who is openly gay, and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver, while the Senate version was taken up by Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, along with Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Sen. Raymond Lesniak. PAGE 2 The New Jersey Senate
of all different races, religions, colors, socioeconomic statuses. It’s easy to go into a courtroom and see someone from Cambodia who needs an interpreter, but it’s not as easy to see a courtroom with an LGBT person and see what their individual needs are and what they may be fearful of or questioning,” she said. “I started speaking up about this, and when
[DA] Seth [Williams] took office, he really wanted the office to have more of a presence in the community because he recognized that there is this very large community that is basically silent.” The office announced last year that it was creating the liaison position, and Fitzpatrick jumped at the chance to bridge the gap between her two respective communities. The position is volunteer, and Fitzpatrick will be tasked with balancing it on top of her full caseload as an ADA, a welcome challenge, she said. “This is something that’s so important to me that, regardless of the pressure it’ll put on me or the time constraints, it’s something I’m really looking forward to taking on,” she said. As liaison, Fitzpatrick said her primary function will be to serve as a resource and outlet for LGBTs in the city who have any questions or concerns about interacting with any aspect of the criminal-justice system. “I want to meet with anyone and PAGE 15 everyone who
WINTER CLASSIC: Internationally renowned pianist Ching-Yun Hu regaled audiences at the William Way LGBT Community Center last Saturday night. More than 100 people filled the lobby for the concert, which raised about $2,500 for William Way. Hu, who performed a similar benefit for the center last year, played a diverse set from composers like Beethoven and Scriabin, who was gay. Photo: Karen Cornell
The Department of Justice has continued to support its finding that the federal ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional with a recent filing in a Pennsylvania case. The DOJ filed a brief late last month in Cozen O’Connor v. Tobits, a federal case in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, arguing for the unconstitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act. The department determined last year that the section of DOMA that defines marriage as being between one man and one woman is unconstitutional. The Cozen case marks the seventh time the DOJ has submitted filings arguing that position. It is the first such case in Pennsylvania. The case developed after Sarah Ellyn Farley, a partner in law firm Cozen O’Connor, died in 2009. Her wife, Jennifer
Tobits, is seeking the $41,000 in death benefits from Cozen; however, Farley’s parents are arguing that they are the beneficiaries of the private profit-sharing plan. While Farley was based out of Chicago, the firm is headquartered in Philadelphia, resulting in the case being filed in Pennsylvania. The case is the first that questions whether a private employer can give benefits governed by the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act to same-sex spouses. ERISA does not limit the definition of “spouse” by gender. Tobits and Farley were married in Canada in 2006. Cozen automatically considers an employee’s “spouse” as his or her beneficiary, unless the individual designates someone else. Farley’s parents, David and Joan, submitted a beneficiary form to Cozen PAGE 15 dated the day before their