pgn Philadelphia Gay News LGBT NEWS SINCE 1976
Vol. 42 No. 17 April 27 - May 3, 2018
Family Portrait: Bryan Hoffman is all about art that’s hot PAGE 23
Delaware Valley Legacy Fund celebrates LGBT heroes
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HONESTY • INTEGRITY • PROFESSIONALISM
Philly Pride announces 2018 grand marshals
The coda on a life full of music
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Will PPD ever implement commission’s recommendations? By Timothy Cwiek timothy@epgn.com
OPENING LINEUP: The City of Brotherly Love Softball League concluded opening-day festivities April 22 with ceremonial first pitches by Mayor Jim Kenney (left), Kenney’s Director of LGBT Affairs Amber Hikes and Amateur Sports Alliance of North America (ASANA) 2017 hall-of-fame inductees Jennifer Brown and Chrissy Hunsberger. This is the 35th season of Philadelphia LGBT softball. Information on the organization and how to play on a team is at cblsl.org. Photo: Scott A. Drake
Philadelphians join Penn scientist in search for HIV cure By Timothy Roberts PGN Contributor Dr. Louis Montaner of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wistar Institute did not set out to debunk the work of some top European HIV researchers who claimed they had found a way to identify elusive HIV-infected blood cells. But he did. In an article published earlier this month, Montaner and other collaborators from around the world found that the blood cell identified in the study did not expose the hiding places of latent HIV-infected cells. The discovery of those latent cells is what Montaner calls “the holy grail.” The research at Wistar may have saved millions of dollars from being wasted chasing clues down a dead end. That’s especially important to Montaner because his organization is about to embark on a major trial that will combine established therapies
to see whether, together, they will be more effective. The study, part of a $26-million effort funded by the National Institutes of Health, will focus on 33 Philadelphians to be recruited by another local HIV/ AIDS organization, Philadelphia FIGHT Community Health Centers. The subjects of the trials could have an impact on HIV research worldwide, Montaner said. Philadelphia FIGHT has attracted HIV research to Philadelphia since it was founded in 1990, said Karam Mounzer, chief medical officer and medical director at FIGHT’s PAGE 2 Jonathan Lax Treatment
Five years after the city’s Police Advisory Commission issued a series of recommendations to the Philadelphia Police Department arising from the Nizah Morris homicide, the department still hasn’t implemented any of them. The PAC is a city-funded watchdog agency that investigates complaints of police misconduct and recommends policy changes when deemed necessary. It has 13 commissioners, six staffers and an annual budget of about $750,000. Morris was a trans woman of color who was found with a fatal head injury shortly after receiving a Center City “courtesy ride” from police. The December 2002 homicide remains unsolved. The advocates continue to call for state and federal probes. In 2003, the police department stated that it had misplaced its entire Morris homicide file. Eight years later, some of those records were located in the city Archives Unit. But many records remain missing, including a complete set of 911 recordings relating to the incident. Police officers who handled the incident communicated via cell phone, making it even more difficult for investigators to reconstruct their movements. On-duty offi-
cers typically communicate via a police-radio system. A recording of their conversations is preserved for future review, if necessary. The PAC’s 2013 report on the Morris incident concluded that a joint investigation conducted by police and Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office was “appalling.” The report contains four recommendations to the police department, including a directive regulating courtesy rides; a directive regulating the use of private cell phones by on-duty police officers; and a revised “hospital-cases” directive stating that an officer following up on a 911 call for medical assistance shouldn’t unilaterally cancel medics en route to assess the situation. A police-department spokesperson had no comment on the lack of implementation of the PAC’s Morris recommendations other than to provide a link to Philadelphia police directives posted online. A review of the online directives — along with information gathered from other sources — reveals that none of the four PAC recommendations has been implemented. However, LGBT-bias training for cadets increased in May 2017 from one hour to two hours. The fourth PAC recommendation calls for mandatory 12-hour LGBT-bias training for police recruits and PAGE 15
Judge orders Social Security to recognize PA same-sex common-law marriages By Timothy Cwiek timothy@epgn.com In a sharply worded ruling this week, U.S. District Judge Berle M. Schiller ordered the Social Security Administration to recognize same-sex common-law marriages in Pennsylvania if the marriages have already been recognized by a state court. Last year, John D. Roberts, a gay Philadelphia man, sued the SSA, claiming the agency was unfairly denying him monthly widower’s benefits after the December 2015 death of his spouse, Bernard O. Wilkerson. In his lawsuit, Roberts, 65, noted that a state court in 2016 recognized his common-law marriage to Wilkerson dating back to 1990. The SSA, however, maintained it needed more “clear and convincing” evidence that a common-law marriage existed. On April 23, in an 11-page ruling, Schiller said a state court’s recognition of a couple’s marriage should be enough evidence for the federal agency. Schiller also ordered SSA to pay about $28,000 in legal fees and costs incurred by Roberts. “We hope this ruling will convince Social Security to follow the law in the future,” said M. Patrick Yingling, an attorney for Roberts. A spokesperson for the SSA couldn’t be reached for comment. n