Take a pop-music ride with Derek Bishop
DNC Convention housing to be covered by LGBT-owned group
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Family Portrait: Laurent Widjaya on keeping tradition, culture alive PAGE 35
Trans is now trendy PAGE 8
May 8-14, 2015
Since 1976
PGN Philadelphia Gay News HONESTY • INTEGRITY • PROFESSIONALISM
Vol. 39 No. 19
Parker-Spruce Sounding off: Where local candidates sale finalized stand on LGBT issues By Jen Colletta jen@epgn.com
The former management company of a now-defunct and often-blighted Gayborhood hotel recently purchased the property, and plans to rehab and reopen it. The Wankawala Organization purchased Parker-Spruce Hotel from owner Spruce Hotel Corp. late last month for nearly $3.5 million. Spruce Hotel Corp. had owned the property since the early 1980s and Wankala had been leasing and managing it for the past several years. The hotel has been shuttered since the fall, after a small fire broke out in an upper floor, prompting citations by Licenses & Inspections that pre-empted its reopening. The building was home to The Westbury, one of the city’s longest-running LGBT bars, which closed in November, after Wankawala management indicated the property would remain closed indefinitely. Mihir Wankawala, the organization’s managing director, did not respond to repeated requests for comment as of presstime. Wankawala told the Philadelphia Business Journal that his company will spend 12-15 months renovating the building and will reopen it as a higher-end hotel, with 110120 rooms. Parker-Spruce had long been a haven for crime. City Councilman Mark Squilla told PGN this past fall that he planned to work with Wankawala, if the sale went through, to hold community meetings to address the concerns of local residents and business owners about the property. Squilla did not respond to a request by presstime. n
*PGN conducted interviews with candidates running in the May 19 municipal election about a wide range of LGBT issues, to inform our community about their positions and to form the basis for PGN’s endorsement decisions (see below). We reached out to all Democratic candidates for mayor, and conducted phone interviews
with the four who responded. We sent written surveys to all Democratic candidates for City Council-at-Large and the District Council candidates in contested races, to all Democratic state Supreme Court candidates and to all Democratic City Commissioner candidates; the respondents are included below.
THIRSTY THURSDAY: Members and supporters of Philly Roller Derby were among the partiers at a Philadelphia Dyke March fundraiser April 30 at Franky Bradley’s, the new venue operating in the space formerly occupied by Sisters. The annual happy-hour fundraiser featured karaoke and drink specials and, hosted the same night as Dining Out for Life, revelers were encouraged to stay for dinner to benefit local HIV/AIDS causes. The 2015 Dyke March will be held June 13. Photo: Scott A. Drake
Jim Kenney Jim Kenney resigned from his at-large City Council seat after 23 years to run for mayor this year. Kenny’s track record on LGBT rights has been proven by his strong advocacy for and leadership on various pieces of legislation over the years; he was the prime sponsor of the landmark domestic-partnership bill in the mid-1990s and more recently led the LGBT hate-crimes measure. “It’s not enough, though,” he said about the hate-crimes measure. “We must lobby the state to pass these protections as well. There must also be more grassroots education and training about cultural sensitivity in the schools.” To advocate for LGBT inclusion in statewide nondiscrimination and hate-crimes laws, Kenney said that, while his authority on such issues would be limited as mayor, he would do everything he could. “I would not shy from speaking up and lobbying when the opportunity arises,” Kenney said. Throughout his career, Kenney said, he has maintained a diverse staff in his office, and would continue to do so if elected. “I will make diversity important as I have done throughout my entire career,” he said. “But in a more comprehensive and important way as mayor.” Joining the national Mayors for Marriage Equality coalition would be a given, he said. PAGE 24
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Mayor
Endorsements Mayor Jim Kenney
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City Commissioner Carol Jenkins Lisa Deeley
Council-at-Large Sherrie Cohen Bill Greenlee Ed Neilson Blondell Reynolds-Brown Paul Steinke
City Council Second District Kenyatta Johnson City Council Seventh District Maria Quiñones-Sánchez
Court of Common pleas Abbe Fletman Leon King Christopher Mallios Dan Clifford (Montgomery County)
Supreme Court Kevin Dougherty Anne Lazarus
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