Planners post party preparations
Family Portrait: Brad Windhauser is a living testament
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QPenn Week brings Laverne Cox to campus for “Qtopia”
Let’s Here TV it for the boys!
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March 21-27, 2014
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Vol. 38 No. 12
U Bar, Tavern owner on ill-fated Philly flight
Former ICandy bartender dies a hero
Jes Metzger is credited with saving another driver’s life after steering a car she was riding in out of the way of oncoming traffic. The 26-year-old U.S. Air Force member was a Philadelphia native.
By Jen Colletta jen@epgn.com
By Angela Thomas angela@epgn.com
There were some tense moments at Philadelphia International Airport last week as a US Airways flight nosedived during takeoff, and among the 149 passengers was the co-owner of Gayborhood locales U Bar and Tavern on Camac. Dennis Fee was traveling aboard Flight 1702 March 13 with two friends to his home in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., for a weekend getaway. The plane began the take-off process around 6:25 p.m., about a halfhour behind schedule, and Fee said all seemed fine until the aircraft began to lift off from the ground. “We got to the point where we were getting off the ground and then we came back to the ground and the wheels sort of touched and then we went back up in the air,” Fee said. “On the second time coming down, that’s when the front hit the ground quite hard and the wheels broke off and we started skidding down the runway.” Officials say the pilots aborted takeoff for a yet-to-be-determined reason and upon touching back down, the front landing gear collapsed, causing the skidding on the nose. Fee said the incident was over in about 30 seconds, but it was a frightening 30 seconds. “There were people screaming and yelling and a bit of panic, which is natural I suppose,” he said. “I just held DENNIS FEE on and hoped the plane would stop at some point.” When it did stop, the pilot came over the speaker and first told everyone to stay in their seats and then ordered an evacuation. Passengers pulled open the emergency-exit doors and released the chutes, slid down and were ushered away from the plane. Two passengers were transported to area hospitals for minor injuries. PAGE 15 Fee said the passen-
The girl with the big smile. That is how friends and family members will remember 26-year-old Jes Metzger, a former bartender at ICandy who was killed last weekend. Metzger, a Philadelphia native, died March 15 in Wichita, Kan., from injuries sustained in a car accident. Police say Metzger died trying to save others. Metzger, who moved to Kansas last year, and three friends were out for St. Patrick’s Day and hired a transportation service so they could celebrate safely. Police say the driver, 39-year-old Andrew Montgomery, suffered a major medical event at the wheel and was rendered unconscious, which may have caused the car to speed forward, up to 80 miles per hour. Police say Metzger, who was sitting in the front seat, along with lone survivor Janell
Henderson, 34, took control of the wheel to avoid hitting another car, resulting in their vehicle striking a median and becoming airborne, hitting a wall and catching fire. Henderson was ejected and the four others were killed on impact. News of Metzger’s death spread quickly throughout the local LGBT community, where she had been an active figure. Metzger is a 2006 graduate of Central High School and a 2010 graduate of the University of the Arts. Friend and classmate Brianna Miller met Metzger during their first day of ninth grade, and the pair had been inseparable since. “She came in with a broken leg and I asked her why her leg was broken and she told me she was in a mosh pit,” Miller said. “She lent me $2 for lunch that day and I never paid her back until our college graduation.” Miller said Metzger’s smile was bright
enough to light up a room. “Everybody loved her immediately,” she said. “She walked into that class with crutches and a giant cast and a big old smile on her face.” Sophia Clark met Metzger at UArts when they worked as resident assistants. Clark, a junior at the time, said she wasn’t looking to make more friends — but then she met Metzger. “She and I instantly clicked on emotional, intellectual and artistic levels,” Clark said. Metzger was known for her love of music — including her talent for singing and playing the guitar and ukulele. “Jes was a musician. PAGE 16
Police group looks at gun, knife robberies in Gayborhood By Angela Thomas angela@epgn.com A recent spate of violent robberies was the main topic of conversation at the monthly LGBT Police Liaison Committee. In the past few weeks, Spruce Street Video and Scorpio Adult Boutique were both robbed at gunpoint. Investigators have said the two incidents do appear to be linked. An arrest has not yet been made. There have also been knifepoint robberies, with two victims at the meeting, March 13 at William Way LGBT Community Center, to tell their stories. At 10:20 p.m. Feb. 21, a woman had just gotten off work and was walking along Locust, between 12th and 13th streets, when she was dragged onto Camac Street from behind. “I felt myself dragged back further and I tried to struggle and then I felt a knife on my throat and I got picked up by my neck with the knife,” she PAGE 12
SOFTBALL AND SHAMROCKS: The third-annual City of Brotherly Love Softball League Skills Day Bar Crawl wended through the Gayborhood March 15, stopping at locales like ICandy, where supporters included Bob Lenehan (from left), Jeff Jurges, Lauren Darkes and Caitlin Smith. The crawl, which drew about 150 people, followed the league’s Skills Day event, where new members took to the fields to demonstrate their softball abilities for team placement. CBLSL Commissioner Steve Mast said the event had an “amazing turnout” and that “great players and great sponsors made for a great night!” Photo: Scott A. Drake