Jenner transition generates transgender discussion PAGE 11
Family Portrait: Deborah Rose takes us behind the BDSM scene PAGE 27
Where do PA’s LGBT bills stand? PAGE 5
Patti LaBelle comes home to Philadelphia PAGE 25
June 19-25, 2015
Since 1976
PGN Philadelphia Gay News HONESTY • INTEGRITY • PROFESSIONALISM
Vol. 39 No. 25
Meet PA’s new top doc
Mazzoni to present city’s first Youth Pride
By SJ Punderson PGN Contributor
By Jen Colletta jen@epgn.com The same weekend our community celebrates its history, it will also look to its future — with the first-ever Youth Pride. The event, staged by Mazzoni Center, will take place July 5, capping a weekend full of events commemorating the Annual Reminder Days, one of the nation’s earliest LGBT-rights demonstrations, which took place at Independence Hall. Youth Pride will include a series of workshops, as well as games, activities, performances, giveaways and more. The impetus for Youth Pride came when a group of Mazzoni youth involved with the organization’s Student Leadership Board attended the National Gay-Straight Alliance Conference last summer and learned about a youth-focused Pride celebration held in Washington, D.C. “We wanted a Youth Pride because we felt like the regular Pride doesn’t always accommodate for youth,” said SLB member Kim Koing, 16, a junior at Mastery Charter, noting that the admission fee at Pride is often prohibitive, and the event also offers alcohol. “Pride for me was very ‘R-rated,’” added SLB member Damien Walker, 14, a rising junior at Bodine High School for International Affairs. SLB members began meeting about eight months ago to plan for Youth Pride. The group has held brainstorming sessions once a week and met with community partners once a month. “This is an entirely youth-led event,” explained SLB member TyUnique Nelson, 17, a senior at Mastery Charter. “We came up with the ideas, planned it, made sure everything is going to run smoothly, so I’m really proud of all the work we’ve all put in to make sure this could happen. We’ve been wanting this to happen for years.” The youth organized the event from top to bottom: designing the logo, planning the activities, overseeing promotions and developing the workshops themselves — which likewise will be youth-led and will focus on bullying, online etiquette and self-love/ body-positivity. PRIDE SECTION PAGE 6
LEADING THE CHARGE: The Pride Grand Marshal float readied for takeoff at 13th and Locust streets, topped by Miss Philly Gay Pride Tall Jenna (back row, from left), emcee Henri David, Grand Marshal Dr. Rachel Levine and guest, Betsy Ross (middle row, from left) Grand Marshal Nellie Fiztpatrick and fiancée Tracie Palmer, Mr. Philly Gay Pride Manny Tucket Lovett (front row, from left), and Youth Grand Marshals Adrianna and Shane. The June 14 parade and festival are estimated to have drawn 15,000 people. For more Pride coverage and photos, see the post-Pride section. Photo: Scott A. Drake
Man alleges rape as Penn student By Timothy Cwiek timothy@epgn.com Reginald Stewart alleges he was raped by a classmate while he was a student at the University of Pennsylvania and he’s seeking justice for his ordeal. On Jan. 13, 2013, Stewart claimed, he was raped by Charles Gibson after the men attended a rush party sponsored by Phi Kappa Psi, a Penn fraternity. Stewart recently filed suit in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court against Gibson and the fraternity, seeking $450,000 in damages. According to court papers, Stewart and Gibson were served a “large amount of alcohol” at the party, even though both men were underage and Stewart was passing in and out of consciousness. After the party, the men returned to their dorm room, where Gibson allegedly raped Stewart. Due to Stewart’s inebriated state, he couldn’t function normally and defend himself, according to court papers. Stewart sustained tearing to his rectum
and colon and acquired the human papilloma virus (HPV), resulting in pre-cancerous lesions on his colon that had to be removed surgically. The surgical procedures left him scarred and disfigured, according to court papers. The acts of the fraternity and Gibson were “outrageous, atrocious and completely intolerable in civilized society and went beyond all possible bounds of decency,” according to Stewart’s suit. For his part, Gibson acknowledged that both men consumed alcohol at the party. But he said their subsequent sexual activities were consensual. “[Stewart] consented to and was a willing participant in the sexual activities between the parties,” according to court papers filed by Gibson. Both men have graduated from Penn and no longer reside in the area. “My client has left the Philadelphia area and is trying to move forward with his life,” said Alan E. Denenberg, an attorney for Stewart. He declined to say whether Stewart PAGE 12 identifies as gay, but
In a banquet room decorated with goldframed portraits and crystal chandeliers, Dr. Rachel Levine, Pennsylvania’s newly minted Physician General, gave a keynote address last week at the Union League of Philadelphia on the state of women’s health. Less than 24 hours before, she had been unanimously confirmed to her new post by the state Senate. As Levine stood at the podium, the smell of bacon began to overpower the lingering odor of old, white men that still clung to the oak-paneled walls, and as she began speaking, she did so as the highest-ranking transgender person in Pennsylvania government history — and the first-ever transgender person appointed to a governor’s cabinet in the Keystone State. “It was a very big day for me,” Levine told PGN, in her first sit-down interview since being confirmed to the position. “I’m absolutely thrilled.” Wasting no time, the 57-year-old doctor, who stood tall with frosted blond curls, got right to business. “The biggest health problem we have in our state is the opioid crisis,” Levine said. Opioids refer to heroin and addictive pain medications like Vicodin, PAGE 22
DR. RACHEL LEVINE DELIVERING THE KEYNOTE ADDRESS AT LIFECYCLE WOMANCARE’S STATE OF WOMEN’S HEALTH JUNE 10 AT THE UNION LEAGUE Photo: Grimm & Grove Communications