pgn Philadelphia Gay News LGBT NEWS SINCE 1976
Vol. 42 No. 11 March 16-22, 2018
Philly AIDS Thrift donates $180K to local organizations
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HONESTY • INTEGRITY • PROFESSIONALISM
Lights! Camera! Action!
Family Portrait: Charlie David works both sides of the camera PAGE 21
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Rapist of lesbian applies for parole By Timothy Cwiek timothy@epgn.com
GOOD SPORTS: Out Philadelphia Athletic League (OPAL), in conjunction with the local 2018 Gay Games kickoff, recognized individuals and organizations March 10 for their contributions to the community at Tavern on Camac. Awardees included Franny Price and Brian Sims as Local Heroes, Christina Kalas and Mark Squilla as Local Allies, Local Organizations Philadelphia Freedom Band and City of Brotherly Love Sofball League and the Social Justice Award went to FoxRothschild, LLP. An unannounced Outstanding Media Award was also presented to PGN photographer and sports columnist Scott A. Drake. Gay Games 10 will be held in Paris Aug. 4-11. Photo: Micheal Ward
William Way LGBT Community Center receives $5K donation By Brittany M. Wehner brittany@epgn.com A local community center received a financial donation from AARP Pennsylvania to benefit its senior programs. AARP provided the William Way LGBT Community Center a $5,000 donation, which will aid in addressing aging issues that impact the LGBT community in the Greater Philadelphia region. A check was presented March 10 to William Way Board of Directors Co-Chair Meg Rider and Senior Programs Coordinator Ed Miller during the annual Philadelphia Flower Show. “One of the star partnerships we have is with AARP Pennsylvania. Since I focus on our senior programs, it’s a perfect mix,” Miller said. “We’re always interested in trying to find seniors who are isolated or are in communities where they don’t feel welcome, and we try to engage with them at the community center.” The AARP Block Party exhibit at the Flower Show included a wishing well where specially designed coins were provided to event participants. For every coin tossed into the wishing well, donations were made to William Way, which resulted in the $5,000 donation. “AARP, with its large population and large footprint in Pennsylvania, has allowed us to engage with them and find seniors who need our services,” Miller said. “We’ve been working with AARP for many years and they’ve been so welcoming and inclusive of our LGBT elders. “We can’t say it enough. It’s really important that, as seniors age in our community, they are recognized and feel part of the whole community. This money is going to go to our senior programs. We have events programs, womens’ programs, intergenerational programs. It’s going to be really well spent.” PAGE 8
Jeffrey J. Marsalis, who sexually assaulted three women in the region before traveling to Idaho and raping a lesbian in that state, recently asked state authorities for parole on his local crimes. Last month, Marsalis filed a formal parole application with the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole, according to board spokesperson Maria A. Finn. “In May 2018, Jeffery Marsalis will be interviewed by a parole board member and a hearing examiner,” Finn said in an email. “Their decision will be circulated to other board members for a majority decision. That decision (board action) will be released within several weeks of the interview.” Finn said the board has nine members, including an openly LGBT member, Leo L. Dunn. The board has a staff of about 97 workers and an annual budget of about $11.2 million. According to court records, Marsalis sexually assaulted three Philadelphia-area women between 2003-05, before traveling to Idaho and raping a lesbian there. In 2007, a Philadelphia jury found Marsalis guilty of two counts of sexual assault. He
pleaded no contest to one count of unlawful restraint. Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Gary S. Glazer subsequently imposed a 10-1/2 to 21-year prison sentence. Marsalis allegedly sedated his victims with a date-rape drug prior to sexually assaulting them. But he’s consistently denied the allegations, according to court papers. In appellate papers, Marsalis claimed the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office should have been disqualified from the case because the agency wrongfully accused him of raping a local prosecutor. Marsalis also contended that the trial judge, Steven R. Geroff, was prejudiced against him, thus preventing him from receiving a fair trial. But in 2016, Pennsylvania Superior Court rejected Marsalis’ request for a new trial. Marsalis, 44, remains incarcerated at a state prison in Marienville. If Marsalis is paroled in Pennsylvania, he’s expected to serve a lengthy prison sentence in Idaho for raping a lesbian in that state, according to court records. Amy Worden, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, said any recommendation made by the corrections department regarding Marsalis’ parole request won’t be publicly disclosed. n
Trial date set in trans-abuse case By Timothy Cwiek timothy@epgn.com A jury trial is scheduled to begin next month in the case of Shakeem M. Holmes, a trans man seeking damages after Jersey City police allegedly abused him. In February 2013, authorities arrested Holmes in Jersey City for shoplifting. During his detainment at the local police station, police allegedly mistreated Holmes due to his trans status. One officer threatened to put his fist down Holmes’ throat “like a fucking man,” and other officers hurled transphobic slurs at him, according to court records. Holmes filed suit in 2014, contending that a police station is a public accommodation where anti-trans abuse is prohibited under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination. In 2015, Hudson County Superior Court Judge Joseph A. Turula dismissed Holmes’ suit. But last year, a three-judge panel of the New Jersey Superior Court Appellate
Division reinstated it. The appellate division said Holmes “was in a uniquely vulnerable position [and] the individuals making the hostile comments were police officers, who wielded tremendous power over arrestees.” Seeking to avoid a jury trial, Jersey City officials asked the New Jersey Supreme Court to re-examine the matter, arguing that Holmes’ claims were meritless. Jersey City officials maintained that allowing the case to proceed to a jury trial would encourage other arrestees to file meritless antibias suits against police. But attorneys for Holmes urged the New Jersey Supreme Court to let a jury consider the case. They noted that simply because Holmes was arrested didn’t justify his alleged mistreatment by police. “The police do not get a pass simply because [Holmes] was arrested,” theattorneys wrote. “An attack upon a person because of his gender identity is an attack upon his very dignity as PAGE 8