pgn Philadelphia Gay News LGBT NEWS SINCE 1976
Vol. 40 No. 16 Apr. 15-21, 2016
Philly partners create “Songbook” to celebrate musical romance PAGE 26
HONESTY • INTEGRITY • PROFESSIONALISM
Bill protecting those who call 911 not without detractors PAGE 5
Family Portrait: Rev. Fritz Fowler on how religion and LGBT sexuality coexist PAGE 21
Judge: Morris records belong in a homicide file By Timothy Cwiek timothy@epgn.com A Philadelphia judge last week said computer-assisted dispatch records pertaining to the Nizah Morris incident belong in an official homicide file. Common Pleas Judge Linda A. Carpenter made the statement during oral arguments in an open-records case involving the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office. Morris was a transgender woman found with a fatal head injury in 2002, shortly after a police “courtesy ride.” Her homicide remains unsolved. PGN is seeking a certified copy of dispatch entries pertaining to a traffic stop initiated by Officer Elizabeth Skala, who gave Morris the ride. Inexplicably, Skala
initiated the traffic stop while assigned to handle Morris, who was intoxicated. As Skala ticketed a motorist at 13th and Market streets, Morris gradually became brain dead, laying unconscious at 16th and Walnut streets. Philadelphia police claim that original dispatch records for Skala’s traffic stop are lost. But neither the police nor the D.A.’s Office have placed into their homicide files copies of dispatch records of the traffic stop obtained by PGN. PGN obtained 13 dispatch entries for Skala’s stop from the city’s Police Advisory Commission in 2008. PGN gave the entries to the D.A.’s Office in 2009, but the office destroyed them. In 2013, PGN once again gave the entries to the D.A.’s Office, and in 2015, the state
Office of Open Records ordered the agency to certify them. PGN maintains it’s entitled to a certified copy of the entries, or an affidavit of non-existence — neither of which the D.A.’s Office has produced. In court papers, the D.A.’s Office trivialized the entries, comparing them to a photograph of the Loch Ness monster. During oral arguments April 7, Carpenter made clear that she wouldn’t countenance such trivialization. Assistant District Attorney Douglas M. Weck Jr. said PGN’s records originated at the police department, thus police are their proper custodian. But Weck also said police lost many Morris records, an assertion that didn’t appear to sit well with Carpenter. Weck urged Carpenter to reverse OOR’s
PA appeals court asked to rule on civil-union case
Allentown mayor, state politicians among hundreds at BradburySullivan ribbon cutting
By Jen Colletta jen@epgn.com
By Paige Cooperstein paige@epgn.com Andy Dalpe and his partner Wally Barnette were the first to get “legally hitched” in Glen Gardner, N.J., just over the Pennsylvania border from Easton. “When the town clerk signed our papers, she cried,” Dalpe remembered after the April 9 ribbon-cutting ceremony at the BradburySullivan LGBT Community Center in Allentown. It’s the first LGBT center in the Lehigh Valley and the sixth in the state. Dalpe and Barnette were together 35 years when Barnette died in 2009. Dalpe said he went to a bereavement group at a local hospital but it was hard because, in addition to grieving, he had to focus on opening people’s minds about his relationship. He said he brought artwork that Barnette had painted. “If you can’t grieve for your full loss, if you have to keep explaining that away, you can’t deal with the whole of it,” said Anne Huey, who will lead an LGBT bereavement support group at the new Bradbury-Sullivan center at 522 W. Maple St. “This is a gold mine,” Dalpe said, noting he planned to frequent PAGE 9
pro-certification ruling, claiming it’s not based on settled law, nor the intention of state legislators. Carpenter said she’ll hold the matter under advisement while researching relevant law. Several Morris advocates attended the proceeding, including Lou Lanni, who seeks to serve as a state legislator for the district where Morris was killed. “If elected, I’ll ask hard questions about the Morris case,” Lanni said after the proceeding. “If local authorities don’t answer them, we’ll put them on trial in the court of public opinion. If their hands are clean, they should have no problems letting all of the facts be known, unless they have an active investigation with a suspect. I think it’s pretty clear that’s not the case.” n
FABULOUS AT 40: About 150 people gathered at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts April 7 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Philadelphia Gay News. The event included remarks by PGN founder and publisher Mark Segal, former Gov. Ed Rendell and Mayor Jim Kenney, among other leaders, as well as the reading of congratulatory letters from Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. The cover of last week’s commemorative edition was also unveiled by Segal (from left), Kenney, PGN editor Jen Colletta, Segal’s husband Jason Villemez, Rendell and Carrie Nork Minelli, director of advertising and public relations at Parx Casino, the sponsor of the event. Guests were welcomed to PAFA by Brittany Lynn’s Drag Mafia members, who were dressed head to toe in copies of PGN. Before the formal program, attendees perused tables of PGN memorabilia, including some of the publication’s largest issues. For more photos, see page 15. Photo: Scott A. Drake
A Philadelphia woman is asking an appeals court to allow the dissolution of her civil union to proceed — more than a decade after the relationship ended. Freyda Neyman and her former partner, Florence Buckley, have essentially been “wedlocked” since they parted 14 years ago. The two were joined in a civil union in Vermont in 2002 but ended their relationship later that year. At that time, in order for the union to be dissolved by a Vermont court, one of the parties would have needed to move their legal residence to the state for six months. The Civil Division of Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas had dissolved a few civil unions, but that practice ceased in 2012, after a Commonwealth Court ruling that civil unions should be treated equal to marriage — the dissolution of which is handled by Family Court. However, last summer a Family Court judge said a civil union is not equal to marriage and, thus, the case was out of that court’s jurisdiction. “It’s just this circular scenario, a merrygo-round,” said attorPAGE 16