Drake Jensen: Out on CD and in life PAGE 25
Family Portrait: Jt Christensen
Political races heat up with the weather PAGES 6, 8
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April 5-11, 2013
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Vol. 37 No. 14
ASIAC to shut down
Out controller candidate withdraws from race
By Jen Colletta jen@epgn.com ASIAC, which has provided HIV/AIDS services to the Asian and Pacific-Islander communities for nearly 20 years, announced this week that it will close its doors. A S I AC , f o r m e r l y k n ow n as AIDS Services in Asian Communities, will begin the “orderly closing” of operations, effectively immediately. The board of the agency voted for the closure at its March 13 meeting, citing financial reasons. Executive director Kevin Huang said the shutdown will be rolled out strategically as the organization seeks to preserve some of its programs through other entities and connect staffers who have specialties in certain languages with other HIV/AIDS groups. ASIAC was founded in 1995 by Richard Liu to provide cultur-
By Angela Thomas angela@epgn.com Out City Controller candidate Michael Williams announced March 27 that he was ending his campaign. Williams was set to go up against incumbent Alan Butkovitz and challenger Brett Mandel in next month’s primary election. Williams, 53, subsequently endorsed Butkovitz for reelection. He said he backed the incumbent after a positive conversation he had with Butkovitz regarding the office. “I previously didn’t think he was treating concerns I had about the office, so we sat down and talked about some of the issues,” Williams said. Williams said he may consider a run for public office again in the future. “I have gotten word that there are leaders in the Democratic Party who wanted me to run for office for a long time — maybe not for controller, but to run for something else,” he said. Williams announced his candidacy Dec. 5 at the Reading Terminal Market and said he saw wide support in the past few months. “Our campaign PAGE 19
BAND OF BUNNIES: The Philadelphia Freedom Band made its way through Headhouse Square Easter Sunday, led by Henri David, at the 82nd annual South Street Headhouse District Easter Parade. The band, whose members donned rabbit ears for the event, played Easter-themed classics like “Bunny Hop” and Irving Berlin’s “Easter Parade.” The band will host its annual spring concert May 4 at Arch Street United Methodist Church. Photo: Scott A. Drake
PA district approves embattled GSA By Angela Thomas angela@epgn.com A gay-straight alliance at Chambersburg Area High School in Fulton County in Central Pennsylvania will finally be able to launch after the school district reversed its decision to ban the group last week. The district’s board voted 5-4 March 27 to allow the formation of the group, a turnaround from the 5-4 decision one month pre-
viously that denied the student application for the club. The students originally came to the school board in January to get the GSA approved but the vote was pushed back to February 27. LGBT students at the high school had been meeting for two years unofficially as a club, with faculty members serving as advisors, before they decided to seek official recognition for the GSA. Both Equality Pennsylvania and the American Civil Liberties
Union threatened the school with a lawsuit if the school board did not reverse its decision by last week. The organizations said they would pursue a suit under the Equal Access Act of 1984, which prohibits public-education institutions from denying access of fair opportunities to students who seek to conduct a meeting. Equality PA executive director Ted Martin said he believes the law played a large PAGE 17
ally and linguistically appropriate HIV/AIDS services, including prevention, education, testing, counseling and case management. Board chair Luis Lim noted that the board has been effective in encouraging mainstream and LGBT health-care organizations to be more inclusive of the API community — and to educate API populations on LGBT and HIV/ AIDS communities. “Although a chapter will end for Philadelphia’s Asian and Pacific Islander community, much has been accomplished by ASIAC with the help of our program partners, collaborators, funders and volunteers,” Lim said. The agency most recently had more than 60 active volunteers. It was operating with a staff of 10, including four paid staffers, three paid interns and three interns working for college credit. T h e o rga n i z aPAGE 18
Casey backs marriage equality, DOMA repeal By Jen Colletta jen@epgn.com U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, who has faced mounting pressure in recent days on his position on marriage equality, announced today that he now supports the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act — and full marriage rights for same-sex couples. “After much deliberation and after reviewing the legal, public-policy and civil-rights questions presented, I support marriage equality for same-sex couples and believe that DOMA
should be repealed,” Casey said in a statem e n t ex c l u s ive l y first released to PGN Monday afternoon. Casey previously backed civil unions for same-sex couples and has said he opposes constitutional bans on samesex marriage. He has supported pro-
LGBT measures such as the Employment Nondiscrimination Act and the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Casey said this week that he began to reassess his position on marriage equality in 2011 when the Respect for Marriage Act, which would lift DOMA, was introduced for the first time in the Senate. “I began to focus on the issue of samesex marriage much more intensely than I had before,” he said. Part of that process included considering feedPAGE 20