pgn Philadelphia Gay News LGBT NEWS SINCE 1976
Vol. 43 No. 13 March 29-April 4, 2019
Family Portrait: Christina Anderson: Set to play PAGE 33
Studies: Fewer in U.S. believe there’s LGBT discrimination
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Amanda Palmer returns with new album, book and planned tour PAGE 29
HONESTY • INTEGRITY • PROFESSIONALISM
Op-Ed: LGBTQ businesses need community support too PAGE 11
Trans attorney files appeal for Morris records
Challenges against dozens of primary candidates have been withdrawn By Lenny Cohen PGN Contributor
By Timothy Cwiek timothy@epgn.com
Dozens of candidates running for City Council at-Large seats who had their nomination petitions challenged now have a clear path to the primary ballot. The competitor who challenged them had a sudden illness that caused him to faint, and eventually have a change of heart. There are 41 people running for seven City Council at-Large seats. They consist of 34 Democrats and seven Republicans. On March 19, one of those Democrats — Devon Cade — challenged the petitions of 30 of his 33 opponents. Two of the three LGBTQ candidates running for City Council DEVON CADE a t - L a r g e seats were affected: Adrian Rivera-Reyes, a cancer biologist and labor organizer; and transgender woman Deja Lynn Alvarez, who is a system navigator for the city’s Department of Health and a commissioner on the Mayor’s Commission of LGBT Affairs. The third LGBTQ at-Large candidate is Sherrie Cohen, a tenants’-rights attorney and the daughter of late Philadelphia Councilman David Cohen. She was one of the three opponents of Cade who was not challenged, and told PGN she doesn’t know PAGE 12
Julie Chovanes, a Philadelphia-based transgender attorney, this week continued her year-long quest for records relating to the Nizah Morris case at the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office by filing an appeal in Common Pleas Court. Morris was a transgender woman of color found with a fatal head injury during the pre-dawn hours of Dec. 22, 2002, minutes after she received a “courtesy ride” in the Gayborhood from Philadelphia police. She died 64 hours later, after her attending physician had her removed from life support at Jefferson University Hospital. Her homicide remains unsolved. On April 18, 2018, Chovanes filed a Right-to-Know Law request with the D.A. for a copy of all Morris records located at the office. The records include witness interviews and legal memos authored by prosecutors who investigated the case. On March 1, after multiple continuances, the D.A. denied Chovanes’ request, citing state laws that render criminal-investigation records confidential. She filed the appeal on Tuesday, contending there’s no criminal investigation of Morris’s homicide at the D.A.’s Office. Thus, the records she’s seeking should be released to her. “I’ve discussed the Morris case with D.A. Larry Krasner and others at the D.A.’s Office,” Chovanes told PGN. “D.A. Krasner said there is no investigation of the Morris case. So [my position is] there’s no reason to withhold the records I’m requesting. I believe the records will tell us what happened to Nizah Morris.” As of presstime, the D.A.’s Office hadn’t filed a response to Chovanes’ notice of appeal. A spokesperson for the office had no comment. Officers Kenneth Novak, Elizabeth Skala and Thomas Berry responded to Morris on the morning that she was fatally injured. None has been charged with any criminal wrongdoing related to the case. But their version of events raised troubling questions that linger to this day. For example, Skala told the Police Advisory Commission that she gave Morris a ride from Key West Bar near 13th and Walnut streets to 15th and Walnut, where she thought Morris lived. But advocates for Morris noted the victim lived 3 miles away, in West Philadelphia. Moreover, the area of 15th and Walnut streets PAGE 12
ANOTHER OPENING: State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (right) made brief remarks at the opening of the 25th year for LGBTQ film festivals in Philadelphia as producer qFLIX Bill Egan (from left) and founders and producers Thom Cardwell and James Duggan look on. Moments before, Kenyatta was presented with the 2019 Harvey Milk Community Service Award. Kenyatta was also the focus of the world-premiere film short “Going Forward,” which shows him on Election Day as he becomes the first out LGBTQ man of color elected to the Pennsylvania State Assembly. Photo: Scott A. Drake
Tensions high at Trans Day flag-raising By Lenny Cohen PGN Contributor It was supposed to be a celebration of the annual Trans Day of Visibility. Philadelphians were to gather at City Hall at midday Tuesday to raise the Trans Pride Flag and hear speakers from the trans community. But the ceremony took a different turn when an audience member verbally attacked one of two out transgender candidates running in the May 21 primary election, Deja Lynn Alvarez. “You’re white! You’re white!” AbdulAliy Muhammad, the former campaign manager of rival candidate Sherry Cohen and co-founder of the Black & Brown Workers Co-op, screamed at Alvarez from the small audience. Alvarez — a commissioner on the Mayor’s Commission of LGBT Affairs and a member on the Philadelphia Police Advisory Board — was behind the podium at the time, addressing attendees
and explaining how others have claimed that she changed her last name and is not Latinx. She referred to those making the allegations as people who “prop themselves up under the guise of activism.” “My very identity, my ethnicity, my name and my own father have been used in a Trumpian-style violent attack against me and my campaign,” Alvarez said, mentioning she had court documents from when she changed her name, with her dead name [a trans person’s assigned name at birth, used before they transition] on them, plus court records in her name when she sued the city of Philadelphia in 2001. Alvarez accused Muhammad of “telling a transwoman she’s not who she is.” Cohen said of the incident, “My former campaign manager, Abdul-Aliy Muhammad and Deja Lynn Alvarez have known each other for many years. Every time that Abdul-Aliy has spoPAGE 17 ken about Deja, it has