Style-shifter Aiden James releases a new CD
Family Portrait: Hector Cruz
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Weigh It Forward participants weigh in at one month
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Feb. 17-23, 2012
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Vol. 36 No. 7
NJ Senate approves marriage bill By Jen Colletta jen@epgn.com
MAKING HIS CASE: “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal hero Patrick Murphy (left) went toe-to-toe with fellow Democratic Attorney General candidate Kathleen Kane in a debate Friday night at Arch Street United Methodist Church. Moderated by Keystone Progress executive director Michael Morrill, the event kicked off the third annual Pennsylvania Progressive Summit, held for the first time in Philadelphia. Photo: Scott A. Drake
Corbett budget maintains AIDS funding, big cuts elsewhere By Jen Colletta jen@epgn.com A $27.1-billion budget proposal released last week by Gov. Tom Corbett included mostly level funding for HIV/AIDS programs in the state, although education and mental-health funding saw deep cuts. State funding Corbett recommended maintaining fund-
ing for AIDS programs under the state Health Department at $7.1 million. This category, which two years ago saw a 25-percent cut, supports a statewide comprehensive HIV-prevention program that includes community planning, testing and referral services, health education and riskreduction efforts, among other activities. Contractors include the state’s 10 municipal health departments, seven regional PAGE 17 Ryan White Care con-
More mayors back marriage equality By Jen Colletta jen@epgn.com The movement to unite city leaders behind marriage equality saw an influx in support from Pennsylvania elected officials this month. The original Mayors for the Freedom to Marry coalition included three Pennsylvania mayors, and an additional six mayors from the Keystone State have signed on in the past few weeks.
The local support reflects a growing national trend, as the coalition has swelled from 80 to nearly 145 members in its first three weeks in operation. Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and the mayors of Erie and Bethlehem were among the original supporters and are now joined by Lansdowne’s Jayne Young, Doylestown’s Libby White, Newtown’s Dennis O’Brien, Macungie’s Rick Hoffman, Easton’s Salvatore Panto and Reading’s Vaughn Spencer. PAGE 18
In a first for the Garden State, the New Jersey Senate approved a bill Monday to legalize same-sex marriage. The successful Senate vote began what will be a momentous week for marriage equality in New Jersey, with the Assembly scheduled to vote on the bill Thursday. The 24-16 Senate vote included support from two Republicans, Sens. Diane Allen and Jennifer Beck, while two Democrats, Sens. Jeff Van Drew and Ronald Rice, were opposed. This is the first time either chamber of the New Jersey legislature approved a marriage-equality measure. In 2009, the Senate rejected such a bill in a 20-14 vote. Kevin Cathcart, executive director of Lambda Legal, which, along with Garden State Equality, sued the state last year for the right to marry for same-sex couples, said the Senate vote was a “huge hurdle.” “It is a powerful message when those who once opposed marriage equality for same-sex couples have changed their mind — and that is what we saw in the New Jersey Senate,” Cathcart said. Although the Assembly is expected to also approve the measure this week, Gov. Chris Christie has pledged to veto it, which would send the bill back to lawmakers to muster enough votes — 27 in the Senate and 54 in the Assembly — for an override. The current legislative session doesn’t wrap up until January 2014, so legislators could have nearly two years to round up enough support for another vote.
The Senate vote is the latest in a series of wins for marriage equality — such as last week’s court ruling in California that affirmed the unconstitutionality of Proposition 8 and this week’s adoption of a marriage-equality bill in Washington. “As we have seen all across the country, history is on our side,” Cathcart said. “It is critical that we continue to tell our stories in our neighborhoods, in legislatures and in court to help change hearts and minds and move history forward.” In announcing his intent to veto the bill, Christie also recommended that the issue be put to New Jersey residents in a voter referendum, a directive that Republican Sen. Christopher Bateman followed last week with his bill to put marriage equality to a vote. However, the Democratic leadership in both chambers has soundly denied that such a bill would ever see fruition. A report released earlier this month by LGBT thinktank the Williams Institute found that legalizing same-sex marriage in New Jersey would bring the state $48-$119 million in its first three years. New Jersey has offered same-sex couples civil unions since 2006, but marriage-equality proponents say the current law creates a second-class status. Elena Quinones, one of the plaintiffs in the current suit against New Jersey, said she and her partner have seen that confusion firsthand. “I’ve been with my spouse for nine years but when I say I have a civil union, no one knows what that means,” she said. “We need marriage equality because no family should have to walk around with a binder full of papers justifying themselves to everyone the way that we do.” ■
Philly couple’s immigration case, one year later By Jen Colletta jen@epgn.com L a s t Va l e n t i n e ’s D a y, A n t o n Tanumihardja was given an 11th-hour reprieve from deportation and, one year later, he and his now-husband are continuing to fight through new avenues to keep him in the United States.
Tanumihardja and partner Brian Andersen met with officials from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services in Philadelphia Feb. 13 to discuss their green-card application. The couple requested that, instead of an outright denial based on the Defense of Marriage Act PAGE 16