PGN June 29 - July 5, 2012 by The Philadelphia Gay News

A first-person LGBT-of-color account of Stonewall

Professional Portrait: Darrell Martin

PAGE 25

MANNA chief announces 2013 departure

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PAGES 2

June 29-July 5, 2012

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Vol. 36 No. 26

Gay man murdered in S. Philly By Jen Colletta jen@epgn.com

BALLROOM BRAWN: About 700 people packed into Dorrance Hamilton Hall at University of the Arts June 23 for the Crystal Ball. Staged by Philadelphia FIGHT and The Colours Organization Inc., the ballroom event, which returned in 2011 after a several-year hiatus, focused on HIV prevention. In addition to the ballroom competitions, which required participants to research and present facts about HIV/ AIDS, free rapid HIV tests were provided on site, an award was given to the house whose members attained the most HIV tests and youth presented tributes to HIV/AIDS advocates in the ballroom community, including commentator Father Jay Blahnik and the late Robert K. Burns, former executive director of Colours. Photo:

A gay man was killed in an apparent robbery in his South Philadelphia house last week. Police say Michael J. Fox, 30, was killed in his home at 906 S. Eighth St. A roommate found Fox in his bedroom facedown in a pool of blood shortly after midnight June 22. The cause of death is believed to be blunt-force trauma to the head. The time of death is unknown. Police say he was last seen alive June 20. Fox lived with two other men in the twobedroom apartment. Police immediately questioned the roommate who found the victim and, as of press time, it was unclear if police located the other roommate. There were signs of a struggle in Fox’s

bedroom, as there was an overturned television, table and other furniture, police said. A police investigator assigned to the case had not returned inquiries by presst ime. Fox was a former barback at Woody’s and most recently was MICHAEL J. FOX studying at Empire Beauty School to become a hair stylist. A native of Mays Landing, N.J., Fox is a 2000 graduate of Oakcrest High School and went on to study graphic design at a vocational school. He was a talented artistic roller skater and held regional and state titles in the sport, according to his obituary. Former Woody’s owner Bill Wood said

Jury awards $165k in police sex assault case

Scott A. Drake

Model convicted in ‘gay-panic’ case

By Timothy Cwiek timothy@epgn.com

A federal jury this week awarded $165,000 in damages to James Harris, a North Philadelphia man who says a city police officer repeatedly forced him to perform oral sex while on duty in a secluded area of Fairmount Park five years ago.

By Jen Colletta jen@epgn.com A model who alleged he accidentally killed a friend who was making unwanted gay advances was found guilty of firstdegree murder last week. A Philadelphia jury deliberated for just a few hours last Friday before returning a guilty verdict in the case against Raymond Armstrong. Common Pleas Court Judge Lillian Ransom immediately sentenced Armstrong to life without parole. Armstrong, 35, was accused of killing his longtime friend Anthony Williams, 37, in Williams’ Grays Ferry home in September 2008. A former defense attorney for Armstrong last year expressed the intent to employ a “gay-panic” defense — used to describe the sudden, violent reaction one may have when faced with unwanted sexual advances by someone of the same sex PAGE 21

the victim worked for him for about two years in the early 2000s. He said he saw him at Knock a few months ago and last week ran into his skating coach, who told Wood that Fox had just gotten back into the sport. Fox was arrested five times between 200508 — with four of the incidents taking place in a five-month period in 2008 — for such offenses as aggravated and simple assault, making terroristic threats, theft, robbery, possession of an instrument of crime, reckless endangerment, public drunkenness and other charges. He spent four months in prison in 2009 and was paroled to Miracles in Progress, an addiction-treatment center. A viewing was held Tuesday night in New Jersey. A scholarship is being established in Fox’s name. For information about donations, email starrfox@comcast.net. ■

PAGE 8

LGBT, HIV advocates testify before state aging officials AIDS IN AMERICA: The Wilma Theater hosted a discussion about the state of HIV/AIDS in Philadelphia June 25 to coincide with Philadelphia FIGHT’s AIDS Education Month and the theater’s run of HIV-themed “Angels in America.” The panelists included the city’s director of LGBT affairs Gloria Casarez (from left), William Way LGBT Community Center executive director Chris Bartlett, AIDS Activities Coordinating Office’s C. Denise Pressley, AACO’s first director and founder of Lavender Health David Fair, Mazzoni Center executive director Nurit Shein and activist and local coordinator of Positive Women’s Network Waheedah Shabazz-El. Photo: Scott A. Drake

By Jen Colletta jen@epgn.com Pennsylvania Secretary of Aging Brian Duke this week heard directly from LGBT and HIV advocates about the need for the state to provide services to the aging community in an inclusive way. A coalition of community representatives was among those who PAGE 21

Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com June 29 - July 5, 2012

LOCAL PGN

MANNA chief to leave next year By Jen Colletta jen@epgn.com The openly gay head of an agency that provides nutritional meals to those with HIV/AIDS and other illnesses announced this week that he will depart his post next year. Richard Keaveney will step down as CEO of Metropolitan Area Neighborhood Nutritional Alliance in June 2013. He has served as the chief of the agency for seven years and spent the previous six years as MANNA board president. Keaveney, founder and chairman of Toppers Spa Salons, planned to only remain in the MANNA position for two years and then jump back into the business world, but the economy of the past few years made such a decision imprudent. However, Keaveney, 57, said the timing is now better. “The collapse of the market in 2008 really prohibited entrepreneurs like myself to expand our businesses but, with the outlook somewhat brighter now, I would like to spend some time launching a new business model,” he said. The timing for his departure is also suitable for MANNA, he said. He agreed to take over operations at a time when the organization was floundering — it was operating with a half-million-dollar deficit, laid off a handful of employees

and was aiming to expand its programs to clients dealing with diseases other than HIV/ AIDS, without the corresponding funding. “Morale was really low,” he said. “I like a challenge, and I was willing and able to take on the two-year contract. And we are now in a very strong financial position and overall in a very, very good place.” When Keaveney came on as CEO, MANNA had an operKEAVENEY (RIGHT) IN THE MANNA KITCHEN ating budget of less than $3 WITH MAYOR MICHAEL NUTTER (SECOND FROM million annually with no subLEFT) AND VOLUNTEERS ON THANKSGIVING stantial savings; its budget now DAY 2009. PGN file photo/Scott A. Drake stands at more than $4 million 1,500 when Keaveney started. MANNA and the agency has accrued about $3 million in assets, much of which has seen a substantial influx in the number of business and corporate groups that is earmarked for programmatic growth. MANNA employed about 30 individu- come in to volunteer, Keaveney added. In June 2006, MANNA was able to als when Keaveney was hired and now has expand its mission to include people sufa staff of about 35. “Most of the positions we’ve expanded fering from all life-threatening illnesses, are in direct services,” he explained. “We which is what Keaveney called one of his had one nutritionist and now have three, proudest achievements. Also significant was when, a few years and we had two chefs and now have back, the agency was able to move from four.” The agency now employs two fulltime offering two meals five days a week to volunteer coordinators who oversee the three meals all seven days, he said. While the agency is in a much differwork of its approximately 2,500 annual volunteers — a figure that was at about ent place than it was when he took over,

Keaveney said MANNA will need to work hard to maintain that position. “What concerns me going forward is health-care reform and sustaining funding for our services,” he said. “I’m worried that support for HIV/AIDS programs and nutrition services could disappear in the next couple of years with Ryan White funding being threatened. MANNA has proven it keeps people out of hospitals, and the day eventually has to come where insurance companies and third-party providers would reimburse for part of what we do. So sustainable funding will be one of the biggest challenges coming up.” But Keaveney said he’s confident that the staff in place will be able to weather those challenges. “We’ve built a management team that should make my leaving MANNA a year from now not skip a heartbeat,” he said. The search process for Keaveney’s replacement will begin immediately and will initially be an internal search, which is expected to wrap up by the end of the summer. Keaveney said he’s “cautiously optimistic” that a suitable candidate will be found within MANNA’s management team but, if not, the search would move outward. Keaveney said he will remain a “strong donor” for MANNA and hopes to one day serve on the agency’s advisory board. ■

in Philadelphia PHILADELPHIA — NORTH OF C.C.

1 Shot Coffee, 1040 N. Second St. • 2601 Parkway Condos lobby, 2601 Pennsylvania Ave. • Bebashi, 1217 Spring Garden St. • Beehive Hair Salon, 2319 Fairmount Ave. • Beth Ahavah, 615 N. Broad St. • Bridgeview Place Condo lobby, 315 New St. • Colonnade Condos lobby, 1601 Spring Garden St. • Community College CCP Lambda, 1700 Spring Garden St. • Congresso de Latinos, American St. & Lehigh Ave. • Crooked Frame Café, 2545 Brown St. • Darling’s Diner, 1033 N. Second St. • Filter Coffee House, 331 Race St. • Girard Vet, 28th St. & Girard Ave. • HIV Early Intervention Clinic, St. Joseph’s Hospital, 16th St. & Girard Ave. • Logan View Apts. lobby, 17th & Callowhill sts. • Northern Liberties Iron Works, 821 N. Second St. • One Day At A Time, 2532 N. Broad St. • Philadelphian Condos lobby, 2401 Pennsylvania Ave. • PYT Restaurant, 1050 N. Hancock St., at the Piazza • Sammy’s Place, 1449 N. Fifth St., 1st ﬂoor • Shampoo, Seventh & Willow sts. • SILOAM Ministries, 1133 Spring Garden St. • Temple University Student Activity Center, 1755 N. 12th St. • Welker Real Estate, 2311 Fairmount Ave. • Whole Foods Market, 2001 Pennsylvania Ave. •

PHILADELPHIA — SOUTH OF C.C.

Bethel Community Home, 933-935 S. Third St. • Black N Brew, 1523 E. Passyunk Ave. • Carmen’s Country Kitchen, 11th & Wharton sts. • Class Act Auto Repair, 2042 S. Bancroft St. • Equal, 1516 Snyder Ave. • Essene, 719 S. Fourth St. • Expressive Hand, 622 S. Ninth St. • Fuel, 1917 E. Passyunk Ave. • Hideaway, Days Inn, 2015 Penrose Ave. • Jackson Place, 501 Jackson St. • Kris Restaurant, 1100 Federal St. • Rockerhead Salon, 607 S. Third St. • South Philly Bagels, 613 S. Third St. • Ultimo Coffee, 1900 S. 15th St. •

PHILADELPHIA — UNIVERSITY CITY

Annenberg Center, 3680 Walnut St. • Bucks County Coffee, 3430 Sansom St. • Bucks County Coffee, 40th & Locust sts. • Fresh Grocer, 4001 Walnut St. • Goodman Hall, 710 S. 42nd St. • International House, 3701 Chestnut St. • LGBT Center at Penn, 3907 Spruce St. • Old Quaker Condos lobby, 3514 Lancaster Ave. • Oslo Hall, 510 S. 42nd St. • Penn Bookstore, 3610 Walnut St. • Sheraton Hotel, 36th & Chestnut sts. • St. Mary’s Church, 3916 Locust Walk • University of the Sciences England Library, 4200 Woodland Ave. • University Lutheran Church, 3637 Chestnut St. • Wilson Hall, 708 S. 42nd St. • World Cafe Live, 3025 Walnut St. •

WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE YOUR BUSINESS OR ORGANIZATION ON THIS LIST? Contact Don at don@epgn.com or 215-451-6182 ext. 200 to arrange for delivery of complimentary copies.

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Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com June 29 - July 5, 2012

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Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com June 29 - July 5, 2012

We’ve added more places to pick up PGN! If you have a suggestion for a new location, or if you see a PGN box that might need some sprucing up or to be replaced, or contact Don at don@epgn.com or call 215-625-8501 ext. 200

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PREVIEW AT PIAZZA: QFest director of development Thom Cardwell and Fox 29 anchor Mike Jerrick welcomed guests to the preview party for the upcoming LGBT film festival. The party, held June 26 on the patio of the Havana Room at North Shore Beach Club, featured a bartender competition and gave a sneak peak at the lineup for the 18th annual festival. Tickets for QFest films can be purchased at www. qfest.com, by calling 267-765-9800 ext. 4 or visiting William Way LGBT Community Center and TLA Video in Bryn Mawr during selected hours. Photo: Scott A. Drake NEWS

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The views of PGN are expressed only in the unsigned “Editorial” column. Opinions expressed in bylined columns, stories and letters to the editor are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of PGN. The appearance of names or pictorial representations in PGN does not necessarily indicate the sexual orientation of that named or pictured person or persons.

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Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com June 29 - July 5, 2012

Mixed verdict ends landmark priest trial By Jen Colletta jen@epgn.com Monsignor William Lynn last week became the first Catholic official in the nation to be held criminally responsible for covering up sex-abuse allegations within the church. A Philadelphia jury last Friday found Lynn guilty of one count of endangering the welfare of a child, a felony. Common Pleas Court Judge Teresa Sarmina remanded bail, and Lynn was immediately taken into custody. On Tuesday, Sarmina conditionally approved a defense motion to grant Lynn entry into a monitored house-arrest program until his August sentencing. However, she ordered him to remain in prison until July 5, when attorneys will return for a hearing to address precautions to prevent Lynn from fleeing the country. Prosecutors argued against granting the convicted cleric bail, pointing to dozens of cases of accused priests who fled the country to the Vatican, which does not have an extradition agreement with the United States. Lynn could face up to seven years in prison. The case marked the first time a member of the church hierarchy was brought to trial

viction, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia for failing to adequately address abuse. The jury, which deliberated for 12-and- released a statement last Friday offering a a-half days, acquitted Lynn, 61, of another “heartfelt apology” to victims and pledgchild-endangerment charge and of one ing to “continuing to take vigorous steps to ensure safe church envicount of conspiracy. ronments for all the faithIt failed, however, to ful in Philadelphia.” reach a verdict in the “The Archdiocese of charges against Lynn’s coPhiladelphia is on a jourdefendant, James Brennan. ney of reform and renewal The former Archdiocesan that requires honesty and priest was charged with hope,” the statement conchild endangerment and tinued. “We are committed attempted rape for allegedly abusing a teen boy in to providing support and the 1990s. assistance to parishionAs of press time, ers as they and the church Philadelphia District seek to more deeply understand sexual violence, and Attorney Seth Williams to create an environment had not announced if his that is safe and welcoming office would retry the case MONSIGNOR LYNN to all, including past vicagainst Brennan. tims.” Williams said in a statement that Lynn’s conviction was “a long In September, jury selection will begin time coming.” for the joint trial of Charles Engelhardt, a “It is an important day for all institutional former Archdiocesan priest, and former abuse victims,” he said. “It is no easy thing Archdiocesan lay teacher Bernard Shero, to overcome decades of cover-up and a cul- accused of sexually abusing the same boy. ture of silence. This verdict will help put an The pair was indicted along with Lynn and end to the blind eye and the deaf ear with Brennan after a sweeping grand-jury report which so many victims of abuse have been released early last year. received.” Also indicted was Edward Avery, a forWithout directly commenting on the con- mer priest who was scheduled for trial with

Lynn and Brennan but who pleaded guilty to rape and conspiracy. The child-endangerment charge that the jury convicted Lynn on was connected to his handling of Avery’s case. Lynn served as secretary for clergy from 1992-2004 and was responsible for overseeing complaints of wrongdoing against Archdiocesan priests. Prosecutors contended Lynn knew of credible allegations of sex abuse against priests but consented to having them transferred to other parishes. Throughout the trial, the defense laid the blame for insufficiently handled cases on the late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, Lynn’s boss, who died shortly before the trial started. Williams said there was “no doubt” others in the Archdiocese were also culpable, but said the evidence against Lynn was substantial. “Lynn was charged because the church’s own documentation demonstrated his direct participation. Many bad men have done evil things and then hidden behind higher-ups,” he said. “With this verdict, there should be no doubt about the nature of Monsignor Lynn’s actions. As a Catholic, I am hopeful that his successors in the church, and in other institutions, will not tolerate such behavior in the future.” ■

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Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com June 29 - July 5, 2012

REGIONAL LOCAL PGN

Sandusky guilty, likely to spend life in prison By Jen Colletta jen@epgn.com The former football official at the center of the Penn State sex-abuse scandal could spend the rest of his life in prison after a decisive guilty verdict from a jury last week. Late Friday night, a jury in Bellefonte found Jerry Sandusky guilty of 45 of the 48 counts against him stemming from his sexual abuse of young boys. The jury convicted Sandusky of abusing each of the 10 victims involved. The former defensive coordinator of the Penn State football team was immediately taken into custody at the Centre County Correctional Facility after the verdict was read. He will be sentenced within 90 days and faces a maximum sentence of 442 years in prison. His attorneys have indicated that he will appeal the convictions.

The verdict came down after jurors deliberated for about 21 hours over a two-day span. The trial lasted less than two weeks, and eight of the 10 victims took the stand. The young men described a range of abuse that occurred in the past 15 years, from inappropriate hugging and kissing to forced oral sex and rape. Many of the victims were introduced to Sandusky through his Second Mile foundation, which he founded for at-risk youth. Prosecutors said Sandusky showered his victims with gifts and trips and frequently had the boys sleep at his house, where much of the abuse was said to have taken place. Defense attorneys, however, sought to discredit the victims, suggesting that they were coached by law enforcement and could be lying to get money. The defense team also attempted to characterize Sandusky’s behavior as non-predatory and a product of histrionic personality disorder. A number of character witnesses took

the stand in his defense, including his wife, Dottie, who denied ever witnessing inappropriate behavior with any of the youth she said he mentored. One of Sandusky’s six adopted sons, Matt, was originally slated as a potential defense witness but, as the trial drew to a close, offered to testify as a prosecution witness that his adoptive father also sexually abused him. Defense attorneys later said that they decided against having Sandusky testify in his own defense, as they believed Matt would be used as a rebuttal witness. The convictions were the result of a years-long investigation by the state attorney general’s office into Sandusky that was made public last fall — and which led to the arrests of two other Penn State officials, who were charged with perjury. The university terminated its president and and its famed football coach, Joe Paterno, who they say didn’t do enough to deal with allegations against Sandusky. Paterno died two months after he was

fired. Now that the trial is over, many expect the university to be bombarded with civil suits by the victims. New university president Rodney Erickson said in a statement after the verdict that, “while we cannot change what happened, we can and do accept the responsibility to take action on the societal issue of child sexual abuse — both in our community and beyond.” Erickson said the university plans to invite Sandusky’s victims to “participate in a program to facilitate the resolution of claims against the university arising out of Mr. Sandusky’s conduct. The purpose of the program is simple: The university wants to provide a forum where the university can privately, expeditiously and fairly address the victims’ concerns and compensate them for claims relating to the university.” Erickson said university counsel will reach out to the victims in the “near future” with additional details. ■

Are you a community leader?

Bia Vieira, longtime activist and vice president for community impact, Philadelphia Foundation Quincy Greene, founder, Educational Justice Coalition David Acosta, writer, poet, longtime HIV/ health activist, prevention coordinator for HIV programs at AIIDS Activities Coordinating Ofﬁce Joe Ippolito, founder/organizer of the Gender Reel multimedia festival Monica Bey-Clarke, author, entrepeneur, founder of My Family! books and products for LGBT families Sue Gildea, women’s commissioner, City of Brotherly Love Softball League

Alison Lin, co-founder, HotPot! Zane Booker, founder and artistic director, Smoke, Lilies and Jade Arts Initiative Wayne Knaub, commissioner, Greater Philadelphia Flag Football League

These people made the grade and were covered in PGN’s “Portrait” column by Suzi Nash. Every week, Suzi talks to people making a difference in Philadelphia. Has she talked to you yet?

PGN

Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com June 29 - July 5, 2012

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Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com June 29 - July 5, 2012

OFFICER from page 1

The jury ruled that Officer Michael Paige violated Harris’ constitutional right to bodily integrity, and his constitutional right to not be subjected to unlawful seizure of his person. Additionally, the jury ruled that Paige’s conduct caused Harris to suffer severe emotional distress. Harris was awarded $65,000 in compensatory damages, and $100,000 in punitive damages. Jurors deliberated about four hours before handing down their verdict. Brian F. Humble, an attorney for Harris, expressed mixed feelings about the verdict. “Eight people upheld the constitution, and vindicated my client,” Humble told PGN. “It’s a strong message, but the dollar amount doesn’t reflect the severity of the harm my client suffered due to the egregious acts of Officer Paige.” Harris said the case was never about money. “Money was never an issue with me,” he said. “My initiative was entirely to bring Paige to justice.” Brian M. Puricelli, an attorney for Paige, declined to comment about the verdict. S h a r p l y d i ff e r e n t p o r t r a i t s o f a Philadelphia police officer accused of sexual assault emerged in a federal courtroom this week. Officer Michael Paige allegedly forced James Harris to perform oral sex on him while on duty in a secluded area of Fairmount Park five years ago. Harris, 34, contends he was socializing with a friend inside his stepmother’s car at Belmont Plateau when Paige ordered him out, seized his personal papers — and then told Harris to take his friend home and return for his papers. Harris followed the officer’s instructions. When Harris returned to the park, Paige gave him his papers. But he also allegedly drove Harris to a secluded area for oral sex, then to a more isolated area for anal sex. “[Paige] slid his hands into my pants,” Harris testified.

PGN LOCAL

When Harris resisted the anal sex, Paige allegedly settled for more oral sex until he ejaculated into Harris’ mouth. “I’m not mistaken about what happened to me,” Harris told jurors. Officer’s version of events But Paige painted a very different picture of what transpired during those pre-dawn hours of March 16, 2007. He said Harris was in the park past curfew, naked from the waist down, sitting on the lap of another male inside his stepmother’s car. Additionally, Harris had a suspended driver’s license. Paige said Harris told him that an uncle molested him as a child — causing him to occasionally act out sexually with other men, even though he was in a “long-distance” relationship with a woman. Feeling sympathy for Harris, Paige decided to send him home with a verbal warning. “I cut him a break,” Paige testified. Paige said he never held any papers of Harris to induce him to return to the park. A short time later, Paige said, Harris returned to the park of his own volition to thank Paige for being so nice, and he allowed him to enter his police vehicle. “The whole session could be considered mentoring,” Paige testified. They talked about Paige’s job, hobbies such as weight-lifting and the importance of male-female relationships. “I tried to build a friendship,” Paige testified. They also drove around the park, while Paige pointed out spots where he disposed of condoms after having consensual sex with women while off-duty, Paige testified. But the show-and-tell came back to haunt him, Paige said, when several weeks later Harris gave investigators a Styrofoam cup containing Paige’s semen commingled with Harris’ saliva. Harris told investigators he’d been drinking iced tea out of the cup prior to giving oral sex to Paige.

Harris said when he returned to his grandmother’s car after the act, he spit into the cup to get rid of the foul taste in his mouth. Paige’s theory of the evidence Paige contends Harris obtained his semen by going back to the park and locating one of his used condoms. Harris then deposited some of Paige’s semen from the condom into the Styrofoam cup. “At some point in time, [Harris] must have grabbed one of my condoms and procured it for purposes of a civil lawsuit,”

OFFICER MICHAEL PAIGE

Paige said. The officer insisted he never had sex with Harris — consensual or otherwise. To the contrary, Paige testified he tried to help Harris overcome his sexual confusion by sharing stories of his own exploits with women. Outside the courtroom, Harris denied searching for a used condom, then depositing its contents into the cup. He also denied acting out sexually with men. “I’m 100-percent heterosexual,” he said. Additionally, Harris denied that he was partially clothed inside his grandmother’s car, and that he was sitting on his friend’s lap when Paige arrived. Harris also said he never told Paige that an uncle molested him. “First of all, I was never molested by an uncle,” Harris said. “And I wouldn’t say something like that to a person whose name I didn’t even know.” Defense rebuts Harris Harris testified that the alleged sexual assault caused him to seek counseling for post-traumatic stress disorder. “I’ve been treated for being sad, depressed and hurt — feelings of that nature,” Harris testified. But defense attorney Puricelli questioned the extent of Harris’ emotional distress, noting that he couldn’t specify any limitation on his ability to have fun in life. Puricelli also said Harris was exploiting his encounter with Paige for financial gain. “The evidence suggests that the plaintiff is just looking for a cash cow,” Puricelli told

jurors. Over the years, Harris has given conflicting versions of the incident, Puricelli said. “He tells a different story to different people,” the attorney told jurors. But Harris’ attorney refuted that point. “Any discrepancies in my client’s testimony are trivial facts, compared to the outlandish, absurd explanation by Officer Paige as to how his semen was commingled with my client’s saliva in that cup,” Humble said. Police officials testify Benjamin S. Levin, a forensic scientist for the Philadelphia Police Department, indicated in his testimony that DNA testing conclusively linked the semen inside the Styrofoam cup to Paige. Statistically speaking, an investigator would have to search the DNA of about 3.9 quintillion African-American males to find a similar DNA match, Levin said. Levin acknowledged that he couldn’t say how the semen got into the cup. Lt. Kevin Long of the Philadelphia Police Internal Affairs Division also gave testimony indicating that it was Paige’s semen in the cup. Puricelli emphasized to jurors that neither witness could definitively state that Paige and Harris had sex. “You’re being presented with scientific evidence that really doesn’t answer the question [of whether sex occurred],” Puricelli told jurors. Paige still a police officer Paige, 45, remains employed by the Philadelphia Police Department, patrolling the streets of West Philadelphia. He was dismissed from the police force shortly after the incident. But in 2008, Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Anthony J. DeFino dismissed all criminal charges against Paige after publicly questioning the credibility of Harris. Later, an independent arbitrator reduced Paige’s discipline from dismissal to a 30day suspension — clearing the way for Paige’s return to the police force in April 2009. His annual salary is $62,519, according to city personnel records. Humble, the attorney for Harris, urged jurors to send a message to city officials by awarding substantial monetary damages to Harris. “Stop police officers like Paige from preying on citizens,” Humble told jurors. The City of Philadelphia isn’t a defendant in the case, and it remains unclear if the city will be ordered to indemnify Paige. Attorneys for Harris say they want Paige and/or the city to pay their legal fees, which total about $400,000. Prior to the trial, U.S. District Judge Robert F. Kelly excluded any evidence about Harris’ prior criminal record, which consists of drug and traffic violations. The judge also excluded information about Paige’s exoneration in criminal court, and the arbitrator’s conclusion to reinstate Paige to the police force. ■

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Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com June 29 - July 5, 2012

PA Congressmembers call for LGBT tolerance abroad By Jen Colletta jen@epgn.com A coalition of Congressmembers, including two from Pennsylvania, is calling on the Department of State to take steps to alleviate anti-LGBT crimes in a Central American country. Eighty-four members of Congress this week issued a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, urging the department to press the government of Honduras to investigate an ongoing wave of violence against LGBT citizens. Among the signatories on the letter were Pennsylvania Congressmembers Chaka Fattah (D-2nd Dist.) and Mike Doyle (D-14th Dist.). “Honduras is currently experiencing institutional breakdown, widespread drug trafficking and judicial impunity, which have led to unprecedented levels of criminal violence,” the letter stated. “Of particular concern are recent reports which have indicated that members of the LGBT community have increasingly been victims of violent hate crimes.” In the memo, the Congressmembers ask how the department plans to intervene to prevent crime in general in the

country and if it intends to press the government for attention to the LGBT cases. A 2011 State Department report found that the Honduran law-enforcement system was riddled with corruption and officers frequently targeted vulnerable populations, including LGBT people. Since the coup that overtook the Honduran government in 2009, more than 70 LGBT people have been murdered in the country, Congressmembers wrote. They went on to call for specific information on cases like the 2009 shooting death of LGBT activist Walter Trochez and last month’s strangling death of out journalist Erick Martínez Ávila. “The fact that these crimes continue to occur with impunity leads us to question whether the government of Honduras has the will or the ability to bring these perpetrators to justice,” they wrote. The Congressmembers also asked for details on a number of LGBT-related cases that the Special Victims Task Force — an investigative body funded in part by the United States — closed. “It is essential to know the names of the victims whose cases have been closed, and the outcome in each case, in order to ensure accountability for

the resources the U.S. has allocated for the Special Victims Unit and for the Honduran LGBT community to know that these cases are being effectively prosecuted with U.S. assistance.” The coalition asked for the secretary to respond “with haste” so that “together we can measure the effective-

ness of the government of Honduras in bringing accountability for the murders of LGBT Hondurans. This will help to guarantee that President Obama’s directive to ensure all U.S. government agencies engaged overseas ‘respond swiftly to abuses against LGBT persons’ is rigorously implemented.” ■

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Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com June 29 - July 5, 2012

EDITORIAL PGN

Creep of the Week

D’Anne Witkowski

GOProud

Editorial

Seeking justice A gay man killed in his apartment, motive and killer unknown. A man convicted of killing another man, attempting to use a “gay-panic” defense. A man alleging sexual assault by an on-duty police officer. A church official convicted of child endangerment related to child sex abuse by a priest. A former football coach convicted on 45 of 48 counts for sexual assault of minors. A lesbian teen couple shot execution-style in Texas, one dead and the other in serious condition. LGBT murders in Honduras. Gay hazing on a Navy submarine. This week’s news is filled with far too many stories about assaults on the LGBT community. They range from heartbreaking to outrageous, saddening to vile. In South Philly, a 30-year-old gay man was killed in his apartment near Eighth and Christian streets and police have yet to release information about a motive or suspect. It’s not clear yet if he was targeted for his sexual orientation or if it was a robbery — or something else — gone awry. A model with a promising career was convicted of killing his friend after an alleged proposition. The judge refused to allow the “gay-panic” defense, and witnesses contradicted the defendant’s account of events. News coverage was wide and deep for the landmark conviction of a church official for covering up abuse by priests. So too was coverage of the Penn State coach who abused boys for years through the charity he founded. In both of these cases, trusted men of power took advantage of powerless boys who had little voice. In a small town in Texas, a lesbian couple was shot, one killed, at a local park. Police haven’t announced a suspect or motive yet. A group of Congressmembers are urging the Department of State to speak out against the violence in Honduras, where activists claim some 70 LGBT people have been killed since 2009. Last month, the country’s first openly gay candidate for Congress, a radio journalist, was murdered. The Navy released a report regarding allegations of hazing on a submarine sparked by gay jokes leveled at a sailor, who said another man tried to rape him at knifepoint in a foreign port, which resulted in relieving a top officer of his duties on the boat. A common thread in these cases is that the victims were perceived as LGBT or vulnerable — most were targeted because they were LGBT. Incidents such as these serve as rallying points for those who call for increased hate-crimes protections. While it’s true that crime is crime, it makes a difference when someone targets an entire category of people. It’s no longer about being in the wrong place at the wrong time — it’s about who you are. ■

There are some folks in this world who just don’t understand gay Republicans. I am not one of them. Though I should make clear that by “understand” I mean “acknowledge the rightful existence of” and not that I can make sense of the whole thing. But hey, to each his own — or her (Hi Mary, hi Heather. Congratulations and all that). Gays are a diverse lot and certainly that is true when it comes to politics. Yes, the Democrats are “better” on LGBT issues. Way, way better, actually, though not as great as they could, and should, be. And compared to Republicans, the Democrats are a non-stop Pride parade. Still, it is not a surprise that groups like GOProud, a conservative gay Republican group, exist. But it is kind of surprising that a group formed explicitly by a bunch of gays would “enthusiastically” endorse Mitt Romney for president. To say that Romney is antigay is an understatement, no matter what happened in Massachusetts on his watch. He’s renounced all of that, and the folks he has aligned himself with will make damn sure he stays that way. So what gives? Well, apparently if you’re a member of GOProud, gay-rights issues are irrelevant. According to GOProud’s executive director Jimmy LaSalvia, “We think that jobs, the economy, health care, retirement security and taxes are all ‘gay issues,’ and on every single one of those issues, Mitt Romney is light years better than President Obama.” Aww, isn’t that cute? Basically any issue is a “gay issue” so long as someone gay takes issue with it. Got that? Never mind that Romney’s policies would no doubt further hurt LGBT families. Take jobs, for instance. Romney won’t even take a stance on equal pay for women; you think he gives a shit about employment protection for homos? As for

health care, there are countless same-sex couples who cannot be on each other’s health care because they’re strangers in the eyes of the law. Retirement security for gays? Ha! They’ll spend it all on lawyer fees. And don’t get me started on taxes. Just ask a same-sex couple committed to each other for years, even decades, what it feels like to have to mark “single” on their tax return form. So yeah, these issues are gay issues, but saying that Romney is better than Obama here pretty much erases the whole gay part. GOProud doesn’t really give a shit about gay issues, unless we’re talking about gays with a lot of money. Don’t get me wrong. Money isn’t all bad and having lots of it must be nice. But it certainly does take the sting out of the everyday discrimination that the LGBT 99 percent face. So why be a gay group at all if you don’t think civil rights are important? Granted, LaSalvia acknowledges that the election is “bigger than just one issue.” No shit. I don’t have a problem with that. What I do have a problem with is an enthusiastic endorsement of an antigay presidential candidate from a gay group. It is indicative of some serious selfhatred and/or smug disdain for the issues that the everyday gay faces. I can’t help but picture GOProud members emailing each other steamy Ayn Rand fan fiction featuring John Galt and Howard Roark. “Gay Rights Shrugged,” perhaps. And just imagine what fun they could have with a title like “The Fountainhead.” Who knows? Maybe it’ll become a national phenomenon: “Fifty Shades of the Self-Loathing Gay.” ■

What I do have a problem with is an enthusiastic endorsement of an antigay presidential candidate from a gay group.

D’Anne Witkowski has been gay for pay since 2003. She’s a freelance writer and poet (believe it!). When she’s not taking on the creeps of the world, she reviews rock ’n’ roll shows in Detroit with her twin sister.

Tell us what you think Send letters and opinion column submissions to: pgn@epgn.com; PGN, 505 S. Fourth St., Philadelphia, PA 19147; fax: 215-925-6437.

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OP-ED PGN

LBJ equals Vietnam; Reagan equals ... Fact: Two of the some 500 people at might be substituted for vegetables to save the White House LGBT pride reception money in school-lunch programs or the took photos of themselves giving former president who exchanged arms for hosPresident Ronald Reagan’s portrait the fin- tages, but in the gay community he will ger. always be remembered as the president Fact: A local blog hears of it and exploits who failed to take action on the emerging the LGBT community with this headline: HIV/AIDS epidemic when thousands of “What Happens When You Let Gay Philly his citizens were dying from it — not even Activists Into the White House: They pose saying the word “AIDS” publicly until his second term, some four years after the for pics giving Ronald Reagan’s portrait CDC identified the disease. the finger.” Think of it this way: The It goes viral. And we do mean president of the United States viral. This was the headline in refuses to give funds for canLondon’s Daily Mail: “Gay cer research, refuses to menactivists travel all the way to the tion the word, meet with White House for first gay pride patients or even acknowledge event to SWEAR at Ronald its existence. If all that were Reagan’s portrait.” not enough, when the Second And The Washington Times: National March on Washington “Gay activists make obscene for Lesbian and Gay Rights gesture at Reagan White House occurred in 1987 — which portrait.” also marked the first time the It’s even the top headline — across all three columns AIDS Quilt was displayed at — on the Drudge Report. Rush the National Mall — the White Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and House staff gave instructions that the blinds be closed so even the White House issued a Mark Segal when the marchers passed by, statement. But its biggest play was on the first family wouldn’t have to conservative websites and news outlets like see or hear them. Thanks to that behavior by President Fox News, where it was the leading story Reagan, research that ultimately led to — even after the verdict in the Sandusky treatments such as inhibitors was delayed case came down. The response is a little out of the park, including obscene emails, by years. Literally, tens of thousands of voicemails and even death threats. lives were lost. I was at the same reception and was There’s a whole cottage industry out quoted in the article. And even though I there dedicated to making Ronald Reagan didn’t photograph myself with the Reagan godlike. But in the end, it will be historians portrait (mine was with W. and it was a who will write the final story. Most likely, thumbs-up with a smirk on my face), my those giving his portrait the finger will not staff and I also got some nasty treatment. be in those books, but the thousands of Let’s get real. They didn’t vandalize or deaths on his watch will be. steal the portrait. However inappropriate Consider this. When President Lyndon their actions were, ultimately, they gave Johnson is mentioned, many immediately think of Vietnam. Well, my good their views of a president who basically Americans, shouldn’t the same be true for did that same thing to the gay community Ronald Reagan and AIDS? We started with when it was dying from AIDS. facts, let’s end with facts. During the entire I’ll leave the wrong place, wrong time Vietnam War, there were 58,193 American debate to others, but what I learned from deaths. During Ronald Reagan’s presithis is how misinformed the public is dency, 61,857 Americans died from AIDS. regarding Reagan. And an appreciation for Reagan failed in his foremost duty as LGBT media, who understood those activist feelings and (for the most part) ignored president of the United State — to protect this silly blog. But maybe it should be its citizens. ■ looked at and maybe it gives us a cause of action. Mark Segal, PGN publisher, is the nation’s Reagan might be remembered as the most-award-winning commentator in LGBT media. He can be reached at mark@epgn.com. president who suggested that ketchup

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Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com June 29 - July 5, 2012 11

Street Talk What freedom do you value most in America? “Freedom of religion. I was in France not long ago — everything was oriented to the Catholic religion, even though Rachel Berger there’s a teacher’s assistant growing Lower Merion Muslim population. There was very little acceptance of religious diversity. It’s much better here, in that regard.”

“Freedom of the press, because of the different perspectives that you get in the media. Sometimes the views Jordan Daniels are polar teacher opposites. Baltimore But you always get a lot of different ideas. Then, you have the freedom to form your own opinions. Nobody foists an agenda on you.”

“Freedom to question the actions of your government. And to whistle-blow when you see wrongdoing. You can Sarah Ferst hold the nonprofit fundraiser government Society Hill more accountable here than elsewhere. I was living in Central and South America recently: In a lot of places, the government is very corrupt.”

“The freedom to pursue the American dream. In America, you have the opportunity to get a solid education, Cleon Jones to work teacher hard and to Atlanta succeed in life. That’s what I value most about this country.”

Letters and Feedback Separating trans, gay and lesbian histories Last week, PGN published an article about Locust Street between 12th and 13th being renamed Barbara Gittings Way [“‘Gittings Way’ in the works,” June 22-28]. Malcolm Lazin, who proposed the renaming, referred to Gittings as the mother of the LGBT movement. Just because something (or someone) is lesbian and gay doesn’t make it LGBT. In the ’60s, when Gittings was one of the organizers of the Annual Reminders protest at Independence Hall, the point of the men dressing in suits and the women wearing dresses and carrying pocketbooks was they did not want drag queens, effeminate males and butch dykes — the homosexual stereotypes — at the protest. The reason effeminate males, drag queens and butch dykes were the stereotype is because they were the only people who were out of the closet.

Rock Hudson certainly wouldn’t turn from kissing Doris Day and say, “I really want to suck tonsils with Troy Donahue!” That may have been the official moment that the movement began intentionally excluding and harassing gender-variant people out of the movement. On the other hand, the earlier successful May 1965 sit-in demonstration by drag queens at Dewey’s (a restaurant at 17th and Chancellor streets where Little Pete’s is located) allowed straight-appearing gay men such as Clark Polak from the Janus Society and lesbians to join them. Social class may be the reason why the Independence Hall demonstrations by Gittings and others are promoted as historic while the earlier sit-in demonstration by drag queens at Dewey’s to be served has PAGE 12 been ignored.

PGN OP-ED

Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com June 29 - July 5, 2012

LETTER from page 11

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der persons are murdered. A transgender person only has to accidentally encounter a man who thinks he has the right to kill him or her. Even after Lazin must have known that the victim was in drag (some of the speakers before him had mentioned it), he still could not make his mouth say transgender at his memorial service for a murdered transgender person on Transgender Day of Remembrance. I have nothing against a corner or street being named after Barbara Gittings. I think it is very appropriate that there is a library collection named after her. [But] 13th and Locust during the ’60s and ’70s was a multicultural meeting place for drag queens and transsexuals. Spruce Street was the gay and lesbian gathering place with the Allegro, Westbury and Mistique, among other bars. Why not make Spruce between 13th and Juniper (where the William Way Center is located) or even Broad Street Barbara Gittings Way? Barbara Gittings may be the mother of the lesbian and gay movement. She is simply not my mother. — Cei Bell Philadelphia

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In November 2009 in Puerto Rico, Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado was murdered. It was initially reported as a gay murder. Malcolm Lazin chose to hold a memorial service for what he thought was a murdered gay man on Transgender Day of Remembrance. At the gay memorial service, he had several speakers and the Gay Men’s Chorus (I don’t think the chorus ever offered their services to Transgender Day of Remembrance in solidarity). It came out in the meantime that the gay male victim was in drag, making it a transgender murder. Someone might nitpick that being in drag doesn’t necessarily make him transgender, but the murderer wasn’t parsing definitions. Lazin used the opportunity to speak about Barbara Gittings and her Independence Mall Protest. He also made an ignorant statement about how blacks were lynched for being uppity and comparing that to homophobic murder. What Lazin didn’t comprehend is that blacks did not have to do anything to be lynched. They only had to encounter white people who thought they had the right to lynch them. This is very similar to the way transgen-

LOCAL PGN

News Briefing PAC temporarily suspends public meetings Members of the Police Advisory Commission say their monthly public meetings have been suspended temporarily while they try to resolve internal personnel issues at the agency. “The public activities of the PAC have been temporarily suspended while we’re resolving personnel issues,” said PAC chair Ronda B. Goldfein. Goldfein declined to go into specifics about the personnel matters being addressed by the commissioners. The PAC didn’t hold a public meeting in May or June, and no public meeting has been scheduled for July, according to the PAC’s website. The April PAC meeting was particularly stormy, when PAC executive director William M. Johnson publicly disagreed with the commissioners’ decision to close about 100 police-misconduct cases. Johnson, 54, supervises four PAC staffers and oversees an annual budget of about $300,000. He has served as executive director since June 2004. Johnson had no comment about the suspension of PAC’s public meetings, nor his future with the agency. The PAC was formed about 18 years ago in response to concerns from LGBTs and others that police misconduct wasn’t being

— Timothy Cwiek

Uncles to get remodel Uncles bar will shut its doors next week for a remodeling initiative that could keep the Gayborhood staple closed through most of the summer. Uncles, 1220 Locust St., will close July 1. Owner Steven Carlino estimated the bar will remain closed four to six weeks but said the project could take longer. Carlino said the bar will be remodeled and new floors, ceilings and a sound system will be installed. There will also be windows installed along Camac Street to open up the venue.

Free tour of LGBT history Free Tours by Foot is launching its latest venture with a tour of Philadelphia’s LGBT history. The LGBT Tour will run the first and third Sunday of July

and August at 2 p.m., departing from the Independence Visitor Center, Sixth and Market streets. The free tour will stop everywhere from the site of the Annual Reminders of the 1960s to Washington Square for an exploration of Baron von Steuben’s past. The tour will also look at the LGBT community of more recent times, with visits to Giovanni’s Room, William Way LGBT Community Center, Woody’s and The Bike Stop. The tour will run approximately two hours. Reservations can be made at www.freetoursbyfoot.com.

Philly vigil for Texas shooting The Philadelphia LGBT and ally community will come together Friday night to pay tribute to a young lesbian couple shot last weekend in Texas. The vigil will be held from 7:30-9 p.m. June 29 at Love Park. Mollie Judith Olgin, 19, and Mary Kristene Chapa, 18, were both shot in a park in Portland, Texas, last Friday night. Olgin died, and Chapa is in stable condition. Police have not confirmed that the couple was targeted for their orientation but said the attack did not appear to be random. The couple had been together for five months. The local vigil, hosted by organizers of the Philadelphia Dyke March, will include speakers who will address violence against lesbians, as well as a moment of silence. For more information, v i s i t w w w. fa c e b o o k . c o m / events/201502233309303/. ■

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addressed properly by city officials. Though it has no enforcement powers, the PAC investigates complaints of police misconduct, and makes recommendations for corrective action when appropriate. The PAC is currently investigating the case of Nizah Morris, a transgender woman found with a fatal head wound in 2002, shortly after she received a courtesy ride from Philadelphia police. A new set of commissioners reopened the Morris case two years ago, and they hope to issue a revised report within the next few months.

Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com June 29 - July 5, 2012 13

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— Jen Colletta

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Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com June 29 - July 5, 2012

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Media Trail Airman, partner united in civil union at NJ base Atlantic City News reports an Air Force airman and his partner have been united in a civil union ceremony held at the military base where the airman is stationed. Dozens of friends and family members attended the June 23 ceremony for Tech. Sgt. Erwynn Umali and Will Behrens. It was presided over by Kay Reeb, a Navy chaplain with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, who also serves at Joint Base McGuireDix-Lakehurst. “We are so honored to be a part of this historic moment to be one of the first gay couples allowed to unite in a civil union on a military base,” the couple said in a statement after the ceremony. “We hope to be an inspiration to others in the LGBT community that struggle with the challenge of marriage equality ... this issue is not just about the military, but the equal sacrifice and shared burdens of our loved ones who are civilians.” Among those attending the event held at the base’s chapel was former Marine Staff Sgt. Eric Alva, the first U.S. servicemember seriously injured in the Iraq War. He later revealed that he was gay and became a prominent advocate for ending the military’s ban on openly gay servicemembers. Air Force Capt. Ryan Quinn, who also attended the event, said he was “amazed by the beauty” of the ceremony.

Ill. prosecutors won’t defend gaymarriage ban CBS News reports opponents of a gay-marriage ban in Illinois don’t have to worry about a fight from attorneys who would normally be responsible for defending the state’s laws. Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez both have refused to defend the ban, saying it violates the state constitution. That sets up a scenario where a judge quickly could strike down the 16-year-old law.

The American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal filed separate lawsuits against Cook County Clerk David Orr. He’s responsible for issuing marriage licenses in the county. Alvarez represents Orr and she says they both agreed with the plaintiffs. But supporters of the ban aren’t giving up. Peter Breen of the Thomas More Society says he’s trying to ensure the law is defended.

Denver police: most progressive trans policies Advocate.com reports the GLBT Community Center of Colorado recently announced that the Denver Sheriff’s Department has issued new policies for dealing with transgender inmates. The policy changes include allowing trans inmates to use their preferred name and pronoun and choose the gender of the person who searches them and incorporates trans inmates into work release, classes and other group activities. There will now be a transgender review board with an LGBT community advocate who can help staff determine where the inmate should be placed as well. The new policies will go into place in January.

Thousands march for Gay Pride NPR.com reports loud sirens, flashing lights and countless rainbow flags and banners accompanied uniformed police officers, cheerleaders and politicians who marched in San Francisco’s gay pride parade June 24, the 42nd year the city has celebrated the LGBT community. More than 200 floats made their way down Market Street, the city’s main thoroughfare. A few marchers were dressed in elaborate, brightly colored outfits made from balloons, while many other participants and parade watchers wore hardly anything. Organizers said San Francisco’s weekend events are the largest LGBT gatherings in the nation, but thousands were also celebrating in Chicago and New York City, where paradegoers are toasting the anniversary of the state’s same-sex marriage law. ■ — compiled by Larry Nichols

Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com June 29 - July 5, 2012 15

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Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com June 29 - July 5, 2012

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What are the possible side effects of EGRIFTA®? EGRIFTA® may cause serious side effects including: � Serious allergic reaction. Some people taking EGRIFTA® may have an allergic reaction. EGRIFTA® is a registered trademark of Theratechnologies Inc. Distributed by EMD Serono, Inc., Rockland, MA 02370

S:10.85 in

What should I tell my healthcare provider before using EGRIFTA®? Before using EGRIFTA®, tell your healthcare provider if you: � have or have had cancer � have diabetes � are breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed. It is not known if EGRIFTA® passes into your breast milk. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that HIV-infected mothers not breastfeed to avoid the risk of passing HIV infection to your baby. Talk with your healthcare provider about the best way to feed your baby if you are taking EGRIFTA® � have kidney or liver problems � have any other medical condition Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take, including prescription and nonprescription medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. EGRIFTA® may affect the way other medicines work, and other medicines may affect how EGRIFTA® works. Know the medicines you take. Keep a list with you to show your healthcare provider and pharmacist when you get a new medicine.

� Increase in glucose (blood sugar) intolerance and diabetes. Your healthcare provider

T:11.35 in

Who should not use EGRIFTA®? Do not use EGRIFTA® if you: ��have pituitary gland tumor, pituitary gland surgery, or other problems related to your pituitary gland ��have active cancer (either newly diagnosed or recurrent) or are receiving treatment for cancer ��are allergic to tesamorelin or any of the ingredients in EGRIFTA®. See the end of this leaflet for a complete list of ingredients in EGRIFTA® ��are pregnant or become pregnant. If you become pregnant, stop using EGRIFTA® and talk with your healthcare provider . See “What should I tell my healthcare provider before using EGRIFTA®?”

Stop using EGRIFTA® and get emergency help right away if you have any of the following symptoms: – a rash over your body – hives – swelling of your face or throat – shortness of breath or trouble breathing – fast heartbeat – feeling of faintness or fainting � Swelling (fluid retention). EGRIFTA® can cause swelling in some parts of your body. Call your healthcare provider if you have an increase in joint pain, or pain or numbness in your hands or wrist (carpal tunnel syndrome)

NEWS PGN

International Newspaper editor won’t write about gay-marriage laws A Danish newspaper editor said he would refuse to include any news about the country’s recently implemented marriage-equality laws. The laws allowing gay couples in Denmark the right to marry in state churches came into force recently. But a newspaper editor in northern Jutland refused to include stories about the new law, which he says he disagrees with on principle. Preben Eskildsen is the editor and owner of the Jutland newspaper Vesthimmerlands Folkeblad, which has a circulation of 10,000. When he was contacted by a local priest, Roar Pedersen, who suggested he include reports on the country’s new gay-marriage laws, Eskildsen refused. The editor replied: “I can write whatever the hell I want to about gay marriage, but it is wrong and I will not waste space on it.” Pedersen said it was a “problem for democracy” if the editor refused to acknowledge an issue because he disagrees with it. Eskildsen told the news outlet: “I am very much against gay marriage in the Church of Denmark and I think that the church minister is interfering in something he should not meddle in.”

Last known gay Jewish Holocaust survivor dies The last known gay Jewish survivor of the Holocaust has passed away in Berlin, just days before he was due to celebrate his 89th birthday. Gad Beck was a Zionist resistance fighter during the Second World War and, in postwar Germany, a bold activist for gay rights when homosexuality was still illegal. Under the Nazi regime, he famously dressed up as a Hitler Youth member and entered a deportation camp to free his lover,

Manfred Lewin. However, Lewin refused to be separated from his family, with whom he was later deported to Auschwitz, and killed there. Beck’s life has been documented in two films, “The Life of Gad Beck,” and “Paragraph 175,” the latter a look at Nazi persecution of homosexuals under the eponymous penal-code, which provided legal mandate for the deportation of thousands of homosexuals in occupied territories. As the Nazi policies against Jews became progressively more brutal, Beck joined an underground Zionist resistance movement, Chug Chaluzi, and used his fellow gay acquaintances to help rescue Jews in Berlin. However, just before the end of the war in 1945, a Gestapo-appointed Jewish spy betrayed him, and he was put in a transit camp in Berlin before being liberated by the Allied forces. He emigrated to Israel in 1947 but returned to Germany in 1979, when he was appointed as the director of the Jewish Adult Education Center in Berlin. Beck — survived now by his partner of 35 years, Julius Laufer — once said: “Only Steven Spielberg can film my life: forgive me, forgive me.”

Man charged with murder of S. African trans gay activist A suspect in the murder of Thapelo Makuthle reportedly has been charged. The suspect, Sizwe Tajini, resides with his father in the village of Seoding, where the victim also lived, near Kuruman, Northern Cape, South Africa. Makuthle, a gay man, was brutally murdered on June 8 in Kuruman, Northern Cape, his head almost severed. During a court hearing June 26 in Kuruman, Tajini was said to have admitted to carrying out the murder alone. Shaine Griqua, director of the LGBTrights group LEGBO Northern Cape, reported that Tajini “stayed silent most of the time and showed no remorse.” “He also made contemptuous, arrogant facial expressions and body posturing at the LGBT activists who were in attending the court hearing,” he said. According to Griqua, police caught Taijini June 24 in his mother’s home in Welkom, when he used the victim’s stolen laptop.

Gay is our middle name.

Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com June 29 - July 5, 2012 19

Griqua called upon community members to attend demonstrations that will be held in front of the court calling for justice and sending messages against hate crimes. “This is the second murder reported to us by an organization in the Northern Cape, although other crimes and violence has been reportedly on the increase,” he said. “LGBT people here and throughout South Africa are living in fear, afraid of being the next victim.” Recently traditional tribal leaders and a prominent MP from the ruling ANC party have called for the removal of LGBT rights from the South African constitution. African LGBT refugees fleeing to South Africa also report being met with hate crimes and violence in their supposed country of refuge.

Iran stifles publisher for ‘promoting’ gay sex and immorality Iranian authorities announced June 22 that the reason they shut down a prominent publishing house in Tehran was due to its “promotion of homosexuality, incest and sexual relations between men and women outside marriage.” On June 8, Iranian officials decided to permanently shut Cheshmeh (“Spring” in Persian), one of Iran’s leading publishing houses, particularly respected in the country’s literary, academic and intellectual cir-

cles. The initial explanation for the government’s withdrawal of Cheshmeh’s license was that some of their books offended religious beliefs. However, Bahman Dorri, the deputy minister at the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, told Iranian media that the charges against the Cheshmeh publishing house goes beyond offending religious beliefs and includes cases of “promoting homosexuality, incest and immoral sexual relations.” According to Dorri, the content of some of Cheshmeh’s books were so graphic that “even the censorship officers were ashamed to review the books.” In response, Hossein Alizadeh, from the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, stated: “The decision of the Iranian government to close down Cheshmeh is a perfect example of how the sodomy law and anti-lesbian gay bisexual and transgender hysteria harms the entire society, including intellectuals and members of civil society who are simply interested in examining the issue of homosexuality.” Gorji Marzban, Iranian LGBT activist and chair of the Oriental Queer Organization based in Austria, differed in his understanding of the significance of the ban: “In fact this ban is not an LGBTrelated issue. There are eight different publication houses that have been banned by the government, of which Cheshmeh is just one.” ■

PGN NEWS

Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com June 29 - July 5, 2012

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Lesbian teen couple shot in Texas By Jen Colletta jen@epgn.com Police in Texas are on the hunt for the perpetrator who gunned down a young lesbian couple last weekend. Nineteen-year-old Mollie Judith Olgin died of her injuries, while Mary Kristene Chapa, 18, was transported to a local hospital and is in stable condition. Both were shot in the head. A suspect or motive has yet to be identified. Passersby in Violet Andrews Park found the two teenage girls in a grassy area of the nature park in Portland, Texas, early Saturday morning. Two witnesses heard what they said could have been gunshots or firecrackers around midnight Friday but police were not called at the time. Investigators on the scene found a bullet casing from a “large caliber handgun” but no weapon. Olgin’s vehicle was found near the scene. The teens, who were reportedly a couple for five months, were found in an area of kneehigh grass just below a wooden observation deck that overlooks the park. Investigators believe that the teens were walked from the deck, down the hill, where they were shot execution-style. LGBT advocates have likened the incident to the 1998 murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard, who was lured to a remote area, beaten and tied to a fence. Portland Police Chief Randy Wright told a local news station that the crime has the “earmarks of a targeted attack,” but stopped short of saying if police believe it was related to the victims’ sexual orientation. “Information from family and friends indicates that Mollie and Mary were engaged in a samesex relationship,” police said in a statement Tuesday. “However, there is no current evidence to indicate the attacks were motivated by that relationship.”

As of press time, Chapa had not yet been interviewed because of her condition. The investigation is being led by Portland Police Department, and on Sunday criminal-investigative unit Texas Rangers were brought in to assist. The shooting is unusual for the small south Texas town of 16,000 residents outside of Corpus Christi, which last reported a murder in 2010. Human Rights Campaign president Chad Griffin expressed condolences to the victims’ families and said his agency is urging law enforcement to look at all aspects of the case. “Regardless of the motivation behind this tragedy, we must send a strong message that violence against anyone is never acceptable,” Griffin said. “We have reached out to law-enforcement officials at both the federal and local levels and hope to see a thorough investigation. These women, and all victims of violent crimes, deserve nothing less.” Equality Texas said in a statement that it has been in touch with the Department of Justice’s Community Relations Service, which provides mediation and conflict-resolution and works to prevent and respond to hate crimes, and the agency has offered its assistance. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is also assisting in the case. Friends of the victims have told local media outlets that the teens’ relationship was widely accepted in their circles. Equality Texas is holding a candlelight vigil Friday night, and communities around the country are doing the same. Philadelphia will hold a vigil from 7:30-9 p.m. at Love Park, with a moment of silence for Olgin and Chapa and speakers who will address violence against women and lesbians specifically. For more information, v i s i t w w w. fa c e b o o k . c o m / events/201502233309303/. ■

E-mail us: pgn@epgn.com

Liberty City Press JUNE 25-JULY 1, 2012

\\\

politics

Neilson Needs a Moving Van

Democratic Family Feud

Northeast house seat relocated to York County, again

Latest redistricting angers Latinos by Patrick Kerkstra

ome of Philadelphia’s Hispanic political leaders are outraged by the latest developments in Pennsylvania’s tortuous redistricting process, claiming that the city’s Democratic legislators excluded them from negotiations and �� Harrisburg. �� sion adopted the latest in a long line of redistricting maps. This version �� second majority Hispanic district. �� Hispanics under the new map than the old, but it is still a majority Hispanic district. �� district as well. Instead, the redistricting commission—with the bless��

On Memorial Day, state representatives Angel Cruz, Rosita Youngblood and Curt Thomas met with staff and representatives of Latino Lines to talk redistricting. JOE GARCIA / Photographer

�� western North Philadelphia, now straddles Broad Street. That means, demographically, the new �� nos, but not enough to consider it a Hispanic district. “This is a continuing saga of politicians trying to protect themselves and not create districts that are representative of the demographics �� He insisted that the responsibility for the latest map lies �� Philadelphia Democrats. In other words, this is a family feud. �� crats said they understood and respected the frustrations of �� process was as open as possible, saying that the map represents their honest best effort. “The short answer is, you’ll

never draw a perfect map. It’s an exercise in the doable and not an �� the head of the Philadelphia delegation, staunchly defended the redistricting process and said it was far more transparent than past efforts. “My role in the redistricting process was simply to serve as fa�� It’s certainly true that there are winners and losers in every �� have gotten the short end a few decades running. ��

�� the Northeast has been moved �� This is the second time in the �� son’s seat has been relocated. The �� Neilson is hoping for a similar outcome the second time around. �� special election to replace State �� in November, Neilson will hold the seat for two years before the redistricting plan goes into ef�� Philadelphia. �� Not everyone is sympathetic to Neilson’s plight. Continued on page 2

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Liberty City Press is a collaborative publication effort of the Philadelphia Multicultural Media Network.

lifestyle

\\\ Liberty City Press

Neilson Needs a Moving Van

Continued from page 1

��

“He doesn’t have a district.

Neilson calls home. Quite the

��

So did someone have it in

��

coincidence.

��

for Sabatina? He couldn’t be

is not some poor guy who got hit ��

Perhaps more intriguing than

�� Philadelphia Democrats redrew the districts that surround the old

�� Neilson—who could be a formi-

reached by press time. When �� shrugged. “There’s not a place they could put me where I wasn’t ��

dable challenger in any Northeast

��

So was this about slapping down

district—in someone’s district.

��

the short straw. Sabatina’s new

Boyle-protection scheme? PK

Neumann Baseball Overcomes Adversity

innings. Extra-inning wins against non-league powers Germantown �� School highlighted the regular season. Neumann won two state �� controversy. Two calls in particu�� to replay the game with different umpires. He shared his thoughts to two daily newspapers minutes �� later, he changed his tune. “I am good at being a hitting [instructor] and leading a baseball team, �� I couldn’t be prouder of this ��JT

Continued from page 12

about the former coach’s actions

�� our school, our students couldn’t ��

��-

portive.

��

its third league title in four years,

�� -

mann-Goretti defeated Monsi-

��

(Left) Locals Jennifer Caison (right), and Melissa Thompson (left) rented bikes from Wheel Fun Rentals and enjoyed a bike ride along Kelly Drive. SARAH J. GLOVER / Photographer

Fun Wheels for Rent in City Park System Locals and residents see the sites on rented bikes from Wheel Fun Rentals by Sheila Simmons

ordan Schneider, her three children and their nanny pedal �� cycle, its yellow awning and red metal frame beaming in the sun �� Schneider unsnaps her helmet and �� scampers into a nearby two-seater �� balancing my body on the narrow pair of wheels and pedaling my way through a self-guided sculpture tour under the warm, spring sun. It’s possible, in part, through �� -

�� which anticipates it’ll get a much �� concession fees for Philadelphia �� I choose a cruiser and hand �� one-hour rental fee and some ��

of the informative, easy-to-read tour maps and getting a spiel on �� safe; cross busy streets at stop signs and stop lights; watch for �� small animals—I push off along �� Soon, I’m appreciating the �� way—the bold emotion in the �� ture, trees hugging the riverline, �� a catch, couples sharing a caress �� renters. �� delphia, decide to add another hour to their rental so they can �� seeing. “We’re being spontane�� Wheel Fun Rentals is open seven days a week in the summer, 9 a.m. to sunset. For fall hours and more information, visit wheelfunrentals.com/ listlocations/176.

J U N E 2 5 - J U LY 1 , 2 0 1 2

Liberty City Press is a collaborative publication effort of the Philadelphia Multicultural Media Network.

��

Give Me Liberty in our next issue: regaining our Fourth of July mojo…local pol’s $1 million mistake …Philly’s diva icon takes on the world … 19-year-old coach rocking math, civics and science. liberty city press. read it…

or else.

Liberty City Press \\\ Editorial

Shane Creamer is a Bully The Ethics Board chief’s poison pen crosses ethical line

�� had crossed the line. The executive director �� guilt for violating the city’s ethics law and face the �� doing business with the city. �� told a news reporter that his campaign intended to �� campaign operatives. �� a campaign operative. Months earlier, attempting to enforce a subpoena against one outside the board’s jurisdiction, his poison pen threatened to deep-six an �� Sometimes the only way to change a bully is to

beat him up. In this case, the bully beat himself up. �� punishment? The board settled with its executive �� student will tell you, that would violate a right far more fundamental—the right to free speech guar��stitution. �� He remains forced to disclose and explain the accusation of ethical lapse on every law-school �� employer. �� bully. There is nothing ethical about that.

opinion

Ethics Law Can’t Stop Board’s Incompetence

$227K down the drain trying to reinvent the wheel ��ics laws lies a presumption that �� to their friends is a bad deal for the taxpayers—clean up the system and you save taxpayers money. ��petence, the city’s Ethics Board has now lost more money trying to clean up this culture than all �� since coming into existence. �� Dave Davies reported that our city’s Board of Ethics and Division of Technology scrapped “a �� develop software to implement �� disclosure law…[designed]… �� Board of Ethics Executive Di�� “It became apparent that we weren’t going to get a product that was functional or usable on �� If this were some ground�� the city was trying to implement—a web portal no one had

designed before—the Board of Ethics might get a pass. But it is anything but new. ��cago and Houston all have such a solution, leaving Philadelphia with the dubious distinction of �� without this technology. �� now on their second three-year ��

��

�� burg? The Pennsylvania Department of State has had one �� of the online build-out and is �� Strong ethics laws may put �� they can’t do away with pure incompetence.

A retaliatory email from Ethics Board Executive Director Shane Creamer. Recipient’s name kept conﬁdential upon request.

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Liberty City Press is a collaborative publication effort of the Philadelphia Multicultural Media Network.

sports

\\\ Liberty City Press

Neumann Baseball Overcomes Adversity With the guidance of Coach Zolk, team wins league and district titles

by Jeremy Treatman Neumann-Goretti coach Mike Zolk (left) and ﬁrst baseman Josh Ockimey (right) pose for a photo on their home ﬁeld at 25th and Moore streets. SARAH J. GLOVER / Photographer

f Penn State’s new foot�� wants to lead the Nittany �� less, successful transition at State �� Neumann-Goretti High School �� standout second baseman, suddenly found himself running a championship-caliber program the year after it was plagued by

a scandal. The team’s two-time �� for allegations of sexual abuse of minors. He was also charged with providing drugs and alcohol �� school, especially the members of the baseball program. “I have been through a lot of �� said, “the passing of parents, even the passing of a player. But I never had to deal with the

[aftermath] of an [alleged] sexu�� by many of the players to start hitting with them at his batting cages in South Philadelphia. Soon after, school administrators �� the whole community. “We had a team meeting and I met with all of the parents right ��eryone what happened was no one’s fault on this team. This was

�� come together, let’s get past this, �� come right to me. I will deal with anything that comes from this. You guys don’t need to worry �� It proved to be great advice. �� one person said anything to him or his players the entire season Continued on page 2

“He’s the best hitter in the city,” Coach Mike Zolk said. “And prob-

The Next Ryan Howard

ably the state.”

Neumann sophomore Josh Ockimey hits it out of the park

tic 440-footer over the center-ﬁeld fence at Widener University, which

In each of the past two seasons, Neumann-Goretti High School’s base-

League semiﬁnals. “That was the longest ball I ever hit,” Ockimey said.

ball success hinged on senior leader-

Ockimey actually had a more inﬂuential home run. His second home run as a freshman beat La Salle Catholic High School in the Catholic

no exception. Among the senior stars

League semiﬁnals.

were: pitcher Joey Gorman, a St. Jorigan, a Temple recruit; shortstop Marty Venafro; catcher Nicky Nardini; pitcher

secured the win over Monsignor Bonner High School in the Catholic

ship and production. This year was

seph’s signee; center ﬁelder Jimmy Ker-

Neumann-Goretti ﬁrst baseman Josh Ockimey SARAH J. GLOVER / Photographer

Ockimey launched seven home runs this year, including a majes-

Ockimey would like to earn a scholarship in two years. But he is also hoping for more. “I know it’s too early to think about this, but I want to be in the [major league draft].”

Joe Kinee; and outﬁelder Anthony

His coach thinks that will happen. “I really do see that happening for

Adams. But scouts of Neumann base-

him one day,” Zolk said. “It would be great if he can make it to one day

ball are shifting attention to sophomore

where we see him on television.”

ﬁrst baseman Josh Ockimey, a mus-

The slugger works with an individual trainer on strength and con-

cular, 6-foot-4-inch stalwart who can

ditioning. Then he spends hours in the cages, reﬁning his stroke. “I’ve

literally hit the ball out of stadiums.

worked hard,” he said, “and enjoy playing.” JT

Saints Seniors Served as Coaches

Neumann-Goretti’s upperclassmen take charge during the team’s tough time �� their disgraced former head �� niors on the Neumann-Goretti High School baseball team gathered all team members for an emergency meeting. “They just were reinforcing the point that, because one man �� “They said we are going to move �� was time for him and his fellow �� “When everything went down, we were hearing all these rumors that the younger players �� Gorman said. “We just wanted �� going to leave. It was important �� hood stayed and enjoyed the great experience we all have had �� Gorman wasn’t sure the campaign would end as well as it did, though. �� they won they championships �� This is something none of us ��JT

J U N E 2 5 - J U LY 1 , 2 0 1 2

Liberty City Press is a collaborative publication effort of the Philadelphia Multicultural Media Network.

NEWS PGN ARMSTRONG from page 1

— although the judge disallowed that defense. However, when he took the stand last Thursday, the defendant, who has modeled for companies such as Target and Kenneth Cole, told jurors the altercation that led to Williams’ death stemmed from an attempted sexual assault. Armstrong said he was sleeping in an upstairs bedroom of Williams’ house when he woke to find Williams attempting anal sex with him. He said he pushed him off and the pair struggled from the bedroom into the bathroom and to the top of the stairs. Armstrong said his wrist got tangled in Williams’ shirt and the two fell down the steps. The cause of death was ruled strangulation. Assistant District Attorney Mark Levenberg, who prosecuted the case, told PGN Armstrong was “blowing smoke” on the stand. “Clearly he was in a rage for whatever reason AGING from page 1

offered testimony at a public hearing on the proposed State Plan on Aging on Monday, calling on the state to include specific language to address the needs of LGBT elders and those with HIV/AIDS in the plan. The list of witnesses that addressed LGBT and HIV issues included LGBT Elder Initiative cochairs Heshie Zinman and Terri Clark and communications chair Ed Bomba, William Way LGBT Community Center executive director Chris Bartlett, Public Health Management Corporation researcher Lee Carson, Mazzoni Center executive director Nurit Shein, SeniorLAW Center executive director Karen Buck and Center for Advocacy for the Rights and Interests of the Elderly executive director Diane Mennio. “There were quite a number of us, so clearly it was a critical mass for the secretary to hear,” Shein said. “We had a very strong presence and very strong testimony. I was pleasantly surprised to see the secretary himself was there. He was really listening and I hope he was also hearing us.” The advocates strategically crafted their testimony to each address a different aspect of the need for and means to achieve full inclusion, discussing everything from cultural-competency training to LGBT representation on state aging boards and councils. “It doesn’t mean much to just include the language in there if there’s no other action,” Zinman said. “It’s meaningful to have real representation from these communities at the table.” Shein focused her testimony on the need for gathering information on the LGBT aging community. “The state of Pennsylvania does not collect any data that is specific to LGBT older adults,” Shein said. “So how can we address the barriers and the needs of this population if we don’t know how many there are, where they are? How can we create competency within our institutions if we don’t even count this population? If we don’t count the population, the population and our needs are invisible.” Some of the advocates also addressed the overall context of the state’s aging-services system, which they said is being shaped by Act 22, legislation passed last year that allowed the Department of Public Welfare to institute cost-cutting measures

and took it out on someone who was trying to help him and ended up strangling him to death,” Levenberg said. Williams’ neighbors said Armstrong, who frequently stayed at Williams’ house, arrived at the home in an agitated state Sept. 27 and attempted to vandalize a number of cars before Williams, who worked at a West Philadelphia car dealership and owned his own modeling and photography business, brought him inside. Witnesses said Armstrong emerged a few minutes later, naked, and proclaimed that he was “Adam, son of God.” Levenberg said Armstrong’s version of the events on the stand was “incredible.” “His story didn’t match the physical evidence and it was completely inconsistent with his conduct afterward,” he said. “I think he would have said anything to try to get himself out of this.” Armstrong’s defense attorney did not return a call for comment. ■ without the usual regulatory-review process. The changes that will go into effect July 1 include cuts to reimbursement rates for home-care providers and other new policies that advocates say would make it more challenging for the elderly to transition into home- and community-based services from a nursing-home facility. “The primary goal of the State Plan on Aging is to improve ‘access to care at the right time, with the right intensity and in the right setting’ and I find that ironic considering the system is just being decimated by the changes being made to long-term living and home- and community-based services,” Mennio said. “The changes in homecare services are going to force more people into institutions. No one wants that to happen and, if it does, we simply don’t have enough open nursing-home beds. We are at a crisis point right now, and it’s not going to get any easier for any older adults, including LGBT people.” LGBTs could be even more impacted because of a lack of sensitivity and inclusion, which Mennio said should be addressed through the State Plan. “Service providers often do not have programs that are accessible to a wide range of people, so some older individuals may not feel comfortable accessing services,” Mennio said. “We know from our work that many longterm-care facilities have a real lack of understanding about people who may be of different sexual orientations. Everyone should be treated with dignity and respect, and this is something we’re very concerned about. The system that’s created needs to be accessible to all people.” Zinman said the coalition will continue to meet and press the state to adequately address the needs of all older-adult populations, specifically the LGBT and HIV/AIDS communities. “We need to create a movement,” he said. “People need to have an understanding of what is going on in the system so that we can advocate on behalf of all older people in the state.” The draft State Plan on Aging can be viewed at www.aging.state.pa.us. Comments on the proposal must be submitted by June 29 to RAStatePlanonAging@state.pa.us or to David Gingerich, Acting Deputy Secretary of Aging, 555 Walnut St., Fifth Floor, Harrisburg, PA 17101. ■

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Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com June 29 - July 5, 2012 21

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PGN NEWS

Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com June 29 - July 5, 2012

Report: Submarine hazing centered on homosexuality

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By Brock Vergakis The Associated Press NORFOLK, Va. — A Navy hazing case that led to the firing of the top enlisted officer aboard a nuclear submarine was sparked by gay jokes about a sailor who said another man tried to rape him while in a foreign port, according to an investigative report obtained by The Associated Press. The report sheds light on a hazing case that led to the reassignment of Master Chief Machinist’s Mate Charles Berry, who had been serving as “chief of the boat” on the Kings Bay, Ga.-based USS Florida. The Navy announced March 30 that Capt. Stephen Gillespie had relieved Berry as chief, due to dereliction of duty. Aboard a submarine, the chief of the boat advises the commanding officer of issues involving enlisted sailors. The Navy’s announcement said the case involved allegations of hazing aboard the Florida but gave no details. It said Berry was not involved in the hazing, but had knowledge of it and failed to inform his chain of command. Lt. Brian Wierzbicki, spokesperson for Kings Bay’s submarine force, said last Saturday he did not immediately have a contact number for Berry. The AP left a voicemail message at a phone listed for a Charles Berry in St. Marys, Ga. An investigative report obtained by The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act says the hazing was directed at a sailor who had reported that another man pulled a knife and tried to rape him while in the port at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. All names in the documents provided to The Associated Press were redacted. The report says the sailor was generally well-liked on the ship and endured the torment for months because he thought it would eventually stop. Among other things, he was called a derogatory term for a gay person and referred to as “Brokeback,” a reference to the gay-themed movie “Brokeback Mountain.” In addition, someone posted a drawing of a stick figure being sexually assaulted. Before a group training session on the repeal of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, the sailor was subjected to comments

about coming out of the closet and asked when other sailors could meet his boyfriend and whether his boyfriend was Filipino, the nationality of the person he said tried to rape him. The report says the sailors who made the derogatory comments didn’t realize their shipmate had a knife pulled on him or the psychological toll the comments were taking on him. After eight months of harassment in 2011, the sailor eventually wrote a note saying he had suicidal thoughts and that he could snap and hurt himself or someone else. The report says there was a culture of hazing and sexual harassment aboard the submarine and there was inadequate knowledge about the Navy’s policies against it to stop the behavior before the sailor reached that point. More counseling and training was ordered at all levels to avoid similar problems in the future. “The Navy’s standards for personal behavior are very high and it demands that sailors are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve. When individuals fall short of this standard of professionalism and personal behavior, the Navy will take swift and decisive action to stop undesirable behavior, protect victims and hold accountable those who do not meet its standards,” the Navy said in the March 30 statement. Berry was temporarily assigned to another post in Kings Bay. Several other junior sailors who participated in the harassment also faced disciplinary action, including loss of rank and pay. Military suicides in response to hazing have recently gotten the attention of Congress. The nephew of Rep. Judy Chu (DCalif.) killed himself after enduring hazing by his fellow Marines in Afghanistan. A congressional hearing on military hazing was held earlier this year, and Chu is pushing a proposal to better track and define hazing in the Uniform Code of Military Justice. “We’re talking about acts that can result in death, but if not death, then clearly trauma. These are folks that can have post-traumatic stress syndrome because of the acts of others,” Chu said. “These are peers administering justice to peers. What happened to the hierarchy that is supposed to be occurring in the military?” ■

PGN NEWS

Calif. same-sex marriage foe now endorses unions By Lisa Leff The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO — The chief witness who testified in favor of California’s gay-marriage ban during a landmark trial on the measure’s constitutionality reluctantly came out in favor of gay and lesbian unions last Friday, saying he now thinks “that the time for denigrating or stigmatizing samesex relationships is over.” In an opinion piece published in The New York Times (http:// nyti.ms/Lo6a6V), Institute for American Values president David Blankenhorn partly attributed his change of heart to a recognition that years of opposing samesex unions had done nothing to strengthen the institution of marriage among heterosexuals. “I had also hoped that debating gay marriage might help to lead heterosexual America to a broader and more positive recommitment to marriage as an institution. But it hasn’t happened,” Blankenhorn wrote. “If fighting gay marriage was going to help marriage over all, I think we’d have seen some signs of it by now.” Human Rights Campaign president Chad Griffin, who spearheaded the lawsuit challenging the voter-approved ban on behalf of two same-sex couples that led to Blankenhorn’s testimony, applauded his former adversary’s conversion on the issue. “While it can be difficult as a public figure to change course, I applaud him for taking a courageous and principled stand. His experience wrestling with the issue of marriage equality and coming out on the right side of history will be an inspiration to millions of fair-minded Americans who are in the same place,” Griffin said. The lead defense attorney for the ban, known as Proposition 8, issued a statement minimizing the impact of his former witness’ words. “While we strongly disagree with the position Mr. Blankenhorn has now taken, his change of view, much like President Obama’s evolution, brings into sharp focus that people of goodwill, with malice toward none, can disagree in good faith and that the courts should not foreclose the continuing debate currently taking place across the country on this vitally important issue,” said Charles Cooper, who represents Prop. 8’s sponsors.

Blankenhorn’s reversal is likely to have more of a public-relations effect than a legal one in the gay-marriage debate. The federal judge who presided over the 2010 trial disqualified Blankenhorn as an expert witness, saying he was more of a commentator than a researcher and that his testimony had not been cogent. An appeals court affirmed the trial judge’s conclusion that the ban was unconstitutional. Prop. 8’s sponsors said this month that they plan to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Blankenhorn, an author whose New York-based think tank has been one of the traditional-marriage movement’s most consistent, if moderate, voices, was one of two witnesses that lawyers for the sponsors of California’s same-sex marriage ban called to the stand in January 2010. With that proceeding, the voterapproved measure became the subject of the first federal trial to examine if laws limiting marriage to a man and a woman violate the civil rights of gays and lesbians. During two days of testimony, he repeatedly stated that the rights of same-sex couples should come second to preserving the cherished, social institution of marriage based on the moral imperative of maximizing opportunities for children to know both their biological parents. But he became combative and jumbled during an exhaustive cross-examination, eventually allowing that permitting gay couples to wed was consistent with the American values of equality and fairness. In his New York Times commentary, Blankenhorn wrote that while he still thinks children benefit from knowing both their biological parents, he has concluded that it is just as important for same-sex couples to be treated equally under the law. “I don’t believe that opposite-sex and same-sex relationships are the same, but I do believe, with growing numbers of Americans, that the time for denigrating or stigmatizing same-sex relationships is over,” he said. Another factor in his endorsement of same-sex marriage, Blankenhorn said, was what he termed “an underlying antigay animus” among “much of the opposition to gay marriage.” ■

Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com June 29 - July 5, 2012 23

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By The Rev. Irene Monroe Excerpt from the anthology “Love, Christopher Street” “By institutionalizing memory, resisting the onset of oblivion, recalling the memory of tragedy that for long years remained hidden or unrecognized and by assigning its proper place in the human conscience, we respond to our duty to remember.” — UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura FRIDAY, JUNE 27 WAS THE last day of school that year. And with school out, my middle-school cronies and I looked forward to a summer reprieve from rioting against Italian, Irish and Jewish public-school kids for being bussed into their neighborhoods. However, the summer months in Brooklyn’s African-American enclaves only escalated rioting between New York’s finest — the New York Police Department — and us. During this tumultuous decade of black rage and white police raids, knee-jerk responses to each other’s slights easily set the stage for a conflagration, creating both instantaneous and momentary fighting alliances in these black communities across gangs, class, age, ethnicity and sexual orientations — against police brutality. That night of June 27 started out no differently than any hot and humid summer Friday night in my neighborhood. Past midnight, folks with no AC or working fans in their homes were just hanging out. Some lounged on the fire escapes while others were on the stoops of their brownstones laughing and shooting the breeze. Some were in heated discussion of black revolutionary politics, while the Holy Rollers were competing with each other over Scripture. The Jenkins* boys were drumming softly on their congas to the hot breezy mood of the night air. And directly under the street lamp was an old beat-up folding card table where the Fletchers and the Andersons, lifelong friends and neighbors, were shouting over a game of bid whist. The sight of Dupree galloping up the block *Names have been changed.

PGN FEATURE

toward us abruptly interrupted the calm of the first hour of Saturday, June 28. Dupree stopped in front of the gaming table and yelled out, “The pigs across the bridge are beating up on black faggots — right now!” Cissy Anderson, who was just moments from throwing in her hand to go to bed, let out a bloodcurdling scream that shook us and brought a momentary halt to everything. Nate Anderson grabbed his wife to comfort her and said, “Cissy, calm down.” Those of us not still paralyzed by Cissy’s scream quickly gathered around Dupree to hear more. “The motherfuckers are taken to going a f t e r t h e w e a ke s t among us. The pigs busted into this bar and started beating on them.” “Nate,” Cissy cried out to her husband, “what we gonna do?” Someone from the crowd shouted, “Let’s go whip their flat white asses!” Laughter erupted from the crowd, but so too a volley of humorous and heated insults about the NYPD. “ W E G OT T O ACT. DAMNIT! We got to act — right now!” Dupree stomped his foot and gave a Black Power fist salute. Heads nodded in agreement as noisy anger rose from the crowd and fighting alliances formed. More people poured onto the street as news spread. The Jenkins boys pounded their drums in a whipping beat, raising a fierce rage and collective resolve. ”Where in the fuck is this bar?” someone else from the crowd shouted. “Some place called Greenwich Village,” Dupree shouted above the noise. “You mean upstate New York?” someone

Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com June 29 - July 5, 2012 25

Bulletin Board Get Out and Play Professional Portrait Q Puzzle Scene in Philly Worth Watching

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questioned. “I ain’t got no car,” another voice shouted. “Ain’t that Connecticut?” someone else shouted. “I still ain’t got no car,” shouted the familiar voice. “No, dumb ass. It’s someplace in lower Manhattan,” Dupree, annoyed, shouted back to whomever asked the question. Less than 12 hours ago was the last day of school and none of us school kids could have expected to be in another riot so soon, and especially outside of Brooklyn. Very few of us that night would have known of Greenwich Village, not only because of the insularity of our neighborhoods, but also because of our undisclosed history and impermanent residency in the Village. GREENWICH VILLAGE IN THE 1800s had housed the largest population of former slaves in the country. “Little Africa,” the area around Bleecker, MacDougal, Sullivan and Thompson streets, established the country’s first black newspaper, Freedom’s Journal (1827-29), and first black theater, the African Grove (1821-23). But gentrification forced racial relocation and led to Harlem becoming the Mecca of black America. On the surface, the Village appeared then and appears to this day to be a site of easy racial and social coexistence. Its worldly reputation as an artists’ enclave, a Bohemian hot spot and a gay refuge of progressive thinkers and cultural tolerance already attracted people worldwide. And for African Americans running away from the stinging indignities of Jim

Crow America and the religious homophobia of the black church, it brought hope. But the Village’s entrenched milieu of race and class elite liberalism relegated blacks to the margins of the community. For LGBTQ African Americans, our presence in the Village by the 1960s had less to do with the white LGBTQ community’s marginal tolerance of us than it had to do with our permanent eviction from Harlem. As a black cultural and social Mecca, Harlem was home and refuge to New York City’s black population beginning in the early 1900s. And within Harlem various groups of African Americans found their specific niche of self-expression and acceptance. By the time of the Harlem Renaissance, roughly from 1920-35, LGBTQ African Americans, too, carved out for themselves a queer space of self-expression and acceptance. During the Harlem Renaissance, a subculture of African-American LGBTQ artists and entertainers emerged. Rent parties, speakeasies, sex circuses and buffet flats were places where many of the major gay and bisexual male literary figures like Alain Locke, Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Wallace Thurman and Richard Bruce Nugent met, and many of the major bisexual and lesbian blues singers like Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, “Moms” Mabley, Mabel Hampton, Alberta Hunter and Gladys Bentley performed. The renowned Savoy Ballroom and the Rockland Palace hosted drag ball extravaganzas with prizes awarded for the best costumes. Langston Hughes depicted the balls as “spectacles of color.” George Chauncey, author of “Gay New York,” wrote that during this period, “perhaps nowhere were more men willing to venture out in public in drag than in Harlem.” Harlem was both a complicated open and closeted queer social hot spot. The annual Hamilton Lodge event openly referred to the drag ball extravaganzas as the “Parade of the Pansies,” “Dance of the Fairies” and “Faggots’ Ball.” These balls were wildly popular and growing among Harlem’s working class, but the constant harassment by white policemen patrolling the neighborhood made the trans community a conspicuous target along with

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Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com June 29 - July 5, 2012

public denouncements of them by black ministers like the famous Adam Clayton Powell Sr. of the Abyssinian Baptist Church. By the ’50s, the country was on a campaign to restore traditional gender roles that had been disrupted by World War II, and McCarthyism was its policing mechanism. Special attention was given to LGBTQ Americans because J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI and the police department kept a running list of us. Many of Harlem’s prominent LGBTQ denizens, who enjoyed a relative openness about their sexual orientation from the 1920s through the 1940s, were driven into the closet. By the 1960s, known queer spaces in black urban communities like Harlem had for the most part disappeared. With the early part of the 1960s shaped by the Black Civil Rights Movement that was led by homophobic African American ministers, and the latter part of the ’60s shaped by the Black Power Movement that was built on the most misogynistic and homophobic strains of black nationalism, black LGBTQ sexualities were perceived as a threat, not only to black male heterosexuality, the black church and community, but also the ontology of blackness itself. WHEN DUPREE STOPPED IN FRONT of Mr. Fletcher’s game table, he was signaling to his aunt and uncle that their son Birdie, who sang like a beautiful songbird, was more than likely in the melee across the bridge. Everyone knew Birdie was gay, and we wondered where he and his “brother-girls,” as he dubbed them, had gone on the weekends when they laughed and spoke in code on Sundays about their exploits while robing-up for choir. C I S S Y D E T E S T E D T H AT H E R ELDEST, Nate Turner “Birdie” Anderson Jr., went outside the community to a white neighborhood to be himself. As it was, Cissy felt she had no control in protecting her children. Her youngest children were ensnared in the ongoing bussing debacle where the court mandated they attend school outside of their neighborhood, and now Birdie went out of the neighborhood to Greenwich Village. She worried about cops killing him, or a gang of white thugs chasing him to his death. And her fears were not unfounded. That’s what had happened to her middle brother, Herndon, 20 years before, in 1949 in Lynchburg, Va. He was gang-raped, but his death was reported as a lynching. Herndon was

gay, an effeminate and slight man, no more than 5-feet-7-inches tall, weighing roughly 140 pounds, like his nephew Birdie. When he went to visit friends on his own while strolling down dirt roads in Lynchburg, rednecks — a bunch of them together — would try to catch him. When they did, they would tie him to the back seat of their pick-up truck and take him into the woods to gang-rape him, and make Herndon perform fellatio on them. On the day they killed Herndon, he’d refused to give them the satisfaction they demanded. The men mutilated Herndon, vying for his genitals as souvenirs to sell; but they eventually divided the pieces among themselves and kept them. Nate Sr., too, worried about his eldest son. When Birdie told his dad he was gay, his father asked him if he understood that he didn’t know how to keep him safe, especially if his son wandered out of his purview. Mr. Anderson took great pride in keeping his family together and safe, which is why he had hightailed it up North to Brooklyn, bringing his childhood sweetheart Cissy with him after he’d shot dead two of Herndon’s rapists — and turned Bo Milt, the third rapist, into a quadriplegic by repeatedly running him over with his truck while Bo Milt yelled, “Nigger, stop!” NATE TURNER ANDERSON SR. WAS a race man: like the African prince High John the Conqueror, he was handsome, charming, beguiling and not to be messed with. At 6-feet8-inches tall, Nate Sr. was barrel-chested and a blue-black complexioned man of few words with a distinctive bass voice that commanded attention. When his voice rose above Dupree’s and the crowd, we were as shocked to silence as we were by Cissy’s bloodcurdling scream. “My son is somewhere there and I need you all to help me find him and bring him home safely to his mother and me.” The charge to find Birdie trumped, for some, our rage to fight cops. Rechanneling our energy around Nate Sr., groups of us hopped the IRT Seventh Avenue subway line to the Village. Coming out of the subway station at Christopher Street we could hear the commotion. The shoving and pushing by both protesters and police yanked three of us away from the core group; we were left to fend for ourselves. When we made our way into the crowd

ON THE FIRST NIGHT OF the Stonewall Inn riots, African Americans and Latinos were the largest percentage of the protesters because we heavily frequented the bar. For black and Latino homeless youth and young adults, who slept in nearby Christopher Park, the Stonewall Inn was their stable domicile. The Stonewall AS THE MOMENTUM Inn being raided was nothing OF THE crowd pushed new. In the 1960s gay bars my small group to Waverly in the Village were routinely Place, a block away from the raided, but, “Race is said to Stonewall, we witnessed two have been another factor. The white cops pummeling a black decision by the police to raid drag queen. “I should shove the bar in the manner they did this stick up your ass,” said may have been influenced by one of the cops as he pulled the fact that most of the ‘homosexuals’ they would encounter up her dress with a nightstick were of color, and therefore in his hand. The taller of the even more objectionable.” two cops yanked off her wig and laughingly tossed it to the Rev. Irene Monroe (Source: “Stonewall riots,” TVox Wikimedia Foundation Inc.) other cop. In spotting us, the cop who Although, today, African-American and caught the wig threw it at us yelling, “You nigger fags get away!” Latino trans communities are relegated to the The wig missed and landed about a foot margins of Greenwich Village, if not expulsed away from us, but the cop’s words hit, strik- from it, these communities, nonetheless, force ing fear. And with just the three of us traveling their way into being a visible and powertogether — the boys were high school football ful presence in our lives, leaving indelible linebackers and me, a middle schooler — and imprints while confronted with not only transbeing the youngest and only girl with them, I phobia but also “trans-amnesia.” The inspifelt vulnerable after having lost Nate Sr. and ration and source of an LGBTQ movement the group. Witnessing the beat-down and dis- post-Stonewall is an appropriation of a black, robing of the drag queen made me want to cry, brown, trans and queer liberation narrative but I fought back the tears and ran, following and struggle. The Stonewall Riots of June 27the boys down the block. 29, 1969, in Greenwich Village started on the When we came home the night of June 28, backs of working class African-American and we still had no idea of Birdie’s fate. Throughout Latino queers who patronized that bar. Those that day and the night before we had witnessed brown and black LGBTQ people are not only so many Birdies beaten badly. We stopped by absent from the photos of that night, but have the Andersons to convey our concerns and that been bleached from its written history. Many we had looked for Birdie. Cissy told us that LGBTQ blacks and Latinos argue that one of he was safely home, having sustained a num- the reasons for the gulf between whites and ber of blunt trauma injuries — a black eye, themselves is about how the dominant queer assorted bruises, broken ribs, a sprained ankle community rewrote and continues to control and a busted lip. None of us know how Nate the narrative of Stonewall. ■ Sr. found Birdie in the riot, but he did — we “Dis-membering Stonewall,” reprinted with assumed parental instinct trumped the seem- permission, is an excerpt of the anthology ingly impossible. “Love, Christopher Street,” in stores now. The When I look back at the first night of the Rev. Irene Monroe is a syndicated religion colStonewall Inn riots, I could have never imag- umnist, a blogger for The Huffington Post and ined its future importance. The first night a contributor to “CRISIS: 40 Stories Revealing played out no differently from previous riots the Personal, Social, and Religious Pain and with black Americans and white policemen. Trauma of Growing up Gay in America.” She And so too, it being underreported. But I was received her doctorate from Harvard Divinity there. School.

swarming the front of the Stonewall Inn, we too threw bottles, garbage and anything we could get our hands on. In the midst of the riot I realized the moment looked and felt similar to the Martin Luther King riot. But this time I knew who the LGBTQ folks fighting along with us were.

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Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com June 29 - July 5, 2012

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“Queer 2 the T” producer TS Hawkins (left) and co-hosts M Diggs (second from right) and Z Morris (right) at the opening of “Angels in America” at the Wilma Theater with actor James Ijames (second from left), who plays Belize in the performance.

By Larry Nichols larry@epgn.com I normally don’t get to break the fourth wall like this, but in this case I made an exception and I’m glad I did. Earlier this month, I had the distinct pleasure of venturing out to Germantown to talk with the personalities involved with “Queer 2 the T,” a radio show airing on G-town Radio, a 24-hour Internet station. “Queer 2 the T” is a forum for queer-identified, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and straight allies to discuss news, concerns and pop culture, as well as play music and get into whatever else comes to mind. The show is hosted by creator and producer TS Hawkins, an author and poet, as well as co-hosts Z Morris and M Diggs. They quickly pointed out that, collectively, they are “TMZ,” but they didn’t plan it that way. (Thank goodness because they are far more entertaining and relevant than that popular piece of tabloid television.) The dynamic among the three was apparent early on. Hawkins is the sunniest and bubbliest of the trio and usually the calm center that steers the show. Morris, a self-described “female-bodied/gender non-conforming New Orleans-reared poet and spoken-word artist” is the conscience of the group, seeing the underlying social and political ramifications no matter what direction the conversation veers off into. Diggs, a Philadelphia native and artist, listens intently and gets her commentary jabs in, which are often profound and darkly comical at the same time.

Since there wasn’t a scheduled guest for the show the week I showed up, I got invited to sit in. And why not? I’ve done radio before. Plus I have a voice that was made for radio — and probably a face for it too. Anyway, things kicked off on a socially conscious note as we discussed Janet Jackson producing a film about transgender people. Morris seemed to think it was not a good thing and was really giving Ms. Jackson the mental stink-eye about it. It took us a minute to hash it out, but we got Morris to come around on the issue once we all understood that Jackson wasn’t directing the project, just getting financial support for it. Then we steered into a deep discussion about the lack of diversity in film and our collective disdain for Tyler Perry films. Halfway through the show, the silliness started percolating to the surface. I’m partly responsible. But we really tried to get intellectual about issues like the recent “zombie attacks” (I blamed the phenomenon on gluten-free diets), the anthropological appeal of red beverages and the beef between 50 Cent and Oprah. No, really. There were some strange tangents but it got deep. Hawkins and company are on a mission to spread the word about “Queer 2 the T” nationwide, if not worldwide, via Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. ■ “Queer 2 the T” airs live 8 p.m. Mondays on www.gtownradio.com. Rebroadcasts (including the one with yours truly) are available at http://queer2thet.blogspot. com.

PROFILE PGN

Professional Portrait

Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com June 29 - July 5, 2012 29

Suzi Nash

Darrell Martin: Event manager, songwriter, devoted dad For a good time, call Darrell Martin. Seriously. The impresario of fun has been a purveyor of good times, from singing and writing hit songs to his current gig as owner of Hip Philly. The married father of two took a moment out of his busy schedule to talk with us. PGN: Hey Mr. Martin, tell me a little about your beginnings. DM: Let’s see, I was born and raised in New York, and growing up there was amazing. I grew up in the projects with a single mom, a couple of siblings and lots of extended family. I always, always loved music. From a young age I sang in the choir of a Baptist church and I went to a high school that specialized in the performing arts, where I majored in music and dance. I kind of knew what I wanted to do since I was 10. PGN: That young? DM: [Laughing.] Yes — believe it or not, it started when I saw the movie “A Star is Born” with Barbra Streisand! I know that’s really corny — and too gay — but it’s true! PGN: Tell me a little about your mom. DM: Oh, my mom was the coolest disco queen you can imagine. She’s deceased now, but she was a very vivacious woman. She’s very outspoken and always spoke her mind. She was the 13th of 15 kids so I guess she had to be to get heard. I’ve inherited a lot of those traits from her; I’m very straightforward. PGN: Background? DM: My mom’s black and from South Carolina and my dad’s Puerto Rican, but I never really knew him. A couple of visits here and there were it. I think that’s part of the reason why I work so hard at being a good dad. I also get the nurturing side from my mother: She was always taking in kids who needed help. Every time I turned around there was a second cousin or something living with us, including two teenage cousins that she adopted right before she died that are now with us. My partner Craig and I were even approached to do a reality-TV show. An interracial gay couple in a house packed with four girls — two babies and two teenagers — seems crazy. But we love it. It’s what makes life great. PGN: What was your favorite game as a kid? DM: Wow, I’ve done a lot of interviews and never been asked that! Probably kickthe-can. It was kind of a metaphor for life because if you got caught, you could have someone rescue or help you. You could rely on each other, unlike some games where, when you’re out, you’re out!

PGN: Tell me about a favorite teacher. DM: Oh boy, I have two. Can I have two? The most influential teacher I had was Nat Horne. He ran a small theater on 42nd Street. I interned for him when I was 14. He was a black and Latin man who owned his own company and was respected all over the world. Seeing someone with the same background doing such great things was inspiring. I was on scholarships and had taken all sorts of classes but he would sit me down and tell me what things would really be like in a career in the arts. He became a mentor as well as a teacher. The second was Terri Siegel, who taught English. She constantly correct our grammar and insisted that we speak properly, “It’s not ‘I got.’ It’s ‘I have.’” I loved her for that. PGN: I wish more teachers would do that. It makes me crazy when they allow the kids to sound like dolts. Or worse, when I see some teachers being interviewed about a strike or something and they don’t speak proper English themselves! DM: Yes, it’s so important. It wasn’t as necessary in the record industry, but at Hip Philly and Hip Parties, I’m dealing with a lot of high-end clients and it’s essential that I not only speak the King’s English, but have a decent vocabulary as well. I may be holding court with CEOs of large companies and other movers and shakers. So having a teacher like Terri was really important to me. PGN: Speaking of movers and shakers, you’ve made your mark now, but what was your first job? DM: Jeepers, I got my first job when I was 14. We were poor so I needed to help my mother out and I got a job at a bingo hall in Astoria, Queens. I worked the concession stand selling bagels and hotdogs to all the Irish, Italian and Jewish little old ladies. I did that for two years. My mother worked the night shift at the post office. We were never hungry and our clothes were always clean, but we didn’t have a lot — at all. So I tried to chip in. PGN: When did you come out? DM: I knew since I was about 4 or 5 that I was gay. I like a lot of girl things, playing with dolls, braiding hair, stuff like that. [Laughs.] I remember seeing my aunt with my uncle and thinking, “I want a husband some day.” And I have one! PGN: True. Jumping to your music career, what was one of the first “big-time” experiences? DM: I’ve been blessed to have a few exciting moments, and I certainly hope they don’t end, but I guess the first crazy exciting moment was the first time I saw my name in Billboard magazine. It was in 1993 and I got a phone call from my best friend who was

also in the music industry, who called me and said, “They reviewed you in Billboard magazine. How did they even know you?” I was in class and ran out to the nearest stand that sold it and bought a copy. I still remember standing on the corner on Seventh Avenue and reading that first review. It was a real honor just to be reviewed and they reviewed me right alongside Prince and Whitney Houston! There have been more prestigious and more lucrative accomplishments since then, but that was a special moment. PGN: Did you stop people on the street to show them? DM: [Laughs.] I did! I did. Then I got right on the train and went to the projects to show my mom. Part of me was excited because, I thought, soon I’ll be able to rescue my mother and get her out of here, and part of me was excited because it meant I was becoming a real performer. Little did I know how long and hard and joyous and frustrating that journey was going to be.

One side of me was like, whoa, that can’t be real. The other side was like, That’s me! And the business side was freaking out, Do they like it, are they still dancing or did it clear the floor? It was a combination of joy and a panic attack! PGN: And what brought you to Philadelphia? DM: A couple of reasons. I was very close to my grandmother and my husband was very close to his grandparents. We wanted our kids to have the same thing. After my mother died in 2005 — she was a heavy smoker and died of cancer — we moved here to be close to his parents. I love them and they come to every recital, every teacher conference — there are eight of us who move as a group! It’s great. I also used to get a lot of requests to do party events here in Pennsylvania and I got to know and love Philly. It’s cool. All my New York people were like, “What? Philly?” They figured if I were ever to move from New York, it would be to Miami or L.A. But I’m like, yeah, Philly’s hip. PGN: Tell me about Hip Philly. DM: It’s a great concept. We have a huge space in the Piazza with a state-ofthe-art sound system and lights, video screens, etc., that can be rented out for private events. We set up and break down everything. If it’s a kids’ party, we provide supervision so the parents can relax. We’ve recently opened an outdoor lounge too and a small stage. We also have a party bus and Hummer that can seat 40 people. People use them for a night on the town, bachelor parties, you name it. One of our testimonials is from the owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, who uses us for everything from social and personal limo service to airport service.

PGN: And what’s Hip Party? Photo: Suzi Nash DM: That’s our event comPGN: What was it like the first time you pany. We’ve done events heard your music played in a club? for corporate clients like American Express DM: Oh my God, I’m from that era of and private families like Howard Stern and houses and voguing, part of that whole Ron Howard. Again, we do lighting, music, “Paris is Burning” scene. We were with the everything to make the event a success. only Latin house at the time, Extravaganza, PGN: And what does your hubby, Craig, and we were at Sound Factory and the do? Garage and all those places. The first time DM: He’s the director of Live Arts Brewery I ever heard my song at a club was at the and Philly Fringe, so it was a good move for Sound Factory, and the legendary DJ Junior him as well. Vasquez was playing it. It was very surreal: PAGE 30

PGN

Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com June 29 - July 5, 2012

Q Puzzle Friends of Dorothy Fight Back Across

1. Grief over her death may have helped inspire the Stonewall Riots 5. Recesses for Rev. Perry 10. Some writers work on it 14. Fortune-teller’s opening 15. Vintner’s fruit 16. Spicy stew 17. 1-Across played Esther in this 1944 classic film 20. Easy ___ (simple) 21. Corporate VIP 22. Drama queen’s emotion, perhaps 23. “Guys and Dolls” co-creator Burrows

25. It’s in a grand seizure 27. 1-Across played Vicki in this 1954 classic film 32. Mine, to Rimbaud 34. Well-worn 35. Wife of Charlie Chaplin 38. Do damage to 39. Avoid going straight 40. Good buddy on a radio 41. Chorus butches 43. Porter’s “I ___ a Kick Out of You” 44. Shooting type 45. Rue’s role on “The Golden Girls” 47. “Spartacus” swordsmen’s defenses 49. Mary Cheney’s partner Heather 50. QB’s misfire 51. 1-Across played

PORTRAIT from page 29

PGN: How did you meet? DM: It’s really, really corny. I met Craig at the Gay & Lesbian Center in New York. I was going there for a men of color event and he was standing with some friends. I was flirty, flirty and we exchanged numbers and ended up courting for about a year. In 1999 — oh wait, I hope that’s right ... He’s going to kill me if I get it wrong. In June of ’99 he proposed on the night of the summer solstice. Every year we take off our rings and then give them back to each other to say, Today I choose you again. PGN: So you’ve worked with a lot of artists from Howie Dorough of the Backstreet Boys to Pink. Who were two of your favorites? DM: Probably one of the most creative people I know and a great person to work with is RuPaul. I mean an absolute joy. We knew each other from back in the day when he had a record called “Red Hot.” A few years later he called me and said he was working on a CD and asked me to listen to it to see if I wanted to produce it. I listened to the music he sent me and I’m crazy, I listen to something and just start hearing things. I starting singing the

Dorothy in this 1939 classic film 58. Speed at which you come 59. Did a slow burn 60. Russian river 62. Beat barely 63. Write “The Hot’l Baltimore” 64. Catch sight of 65. Cowardly lion actor 66. Like some sentences 67. Give the slip to

Down

1. Iwo ___ 2. Objectifies, sexually 3. Bottomless 4. Himalayan legend 5. Improve wine or cheese 6. Spending span at Barneys 7. Right in the head

8. Brits that cruise together? 9. Get hard 10. Shakespeare’s “anon” updated 11. Butt ___ (sex toy) 12. New Haven collegians 13. Playbill list 18. Sexual partners, to the insensitive 19. Composer Edouard 24. Small rum cake 26. Highly competent 27. Primary blood carrier 28. Early church member named for a member? 29. “Bus Stop” playwright 30. What you burn to get to Uranus 31. Dynamite inventor

words “How do I look? You look good” to one of the tracks — “Looking Good, Feeling Gorgeous” — and that became the hook. That was on a Friday, and by Monday morning we were in the studio adding it to the song. That track has been used in several movies and got to No. 2 on the U.S. Billboard charts. PGN: I know that song: It’s very catchy and the video is crazy. DM: Yeah, RuPaul is my favorite of all artists to work with. The second would be Sheryl Lee Ralph. She was the original Deena Jones in “Dreamgirls” and won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. She’s also married to Pennsylvania state Sen. Vincent Hughes and does a lot of activist work, including producing a big AIDS fundraiser, “Divas Simply Singing.” I love her, we’re like brother and sister. The thing about both of them is that they’re amazingly down to earth. RuPaul especially. Any time we’re out in public, he’ll stop and talk to anyone, complete strangers. And it’s always about them. If he met you, before you could ask him a single question, he’ll ask all about you. “So I heard you do karaoke, is it fun? Are you seeing anyone? What’s going on in your life?” So many

32. Moby Dick chaser 33. Shopaholic’s heaven 36. Cry out for 37. They’re performing, in “Fame” 42. Flat-bottomed boat 44. Chinese (prefix) 46. Young one in the meat trade 48. In the closet 51. Cry of pride 52. Cole Porter’s “Ridin’ ___” 53. Communications Z 54. Ugandan tyrant 55. Decorate anew 56. Roughly 57. Cooks in a microwave 58. Come together 61. Ingredient in some cakes

artists are self-centered but they both truly have an interest in others. And they’re both funny, which makes work so much more enjoyable. PGN: What was a highlight in your career? DM: Probably my first tour and watching RuPaul shoot the video to my song. PGN: OK, some random questions. Do you remember the first record you bought? DM: Don’t laugh. Dennis Edwards, “Don’t Look Any Further.” PGN: Best concert experience? DM: Barbra Streisand. I’ve seen her three or four times and I cry like a baby each time! PGN: What is the scariest thing you have ever done for fun? DM: Roller coasters. They scare the shit out of me but I love them. PGN: When did you last climb a tree? DM: Three months ago! My children love trees. They’re big animal lovers and tree huggers, but my 7-year-old climbed a little too high and got scared, so Daddy had to go get her.

PAGE 32

PGN: Before we go, tell me a little more about the fam. DM: I have two girls, 9 and 7. We adopted them from birth; one’s African American and the other is straight-up Puerto Rican. Cute as buttons. They’re sweet, warm friends to each other and to the world. The youngest, Mayacarol, is very sweet but reserved; our other daughter, Liana, is feisty. She’s mostly polite, but she can be very frank. Our mutual friend Noel Zayas says she’s definitely Puerto Rican. She’ll say, “You smell ... really bad.” She doesn’t beat around the bush. They both, without any encouragement from me, like to sing and write. They love it. We have a little recording studio in the house and they’ve made three or four records already. I know every parent thinks their children are talented, but as they say, “These girls can saaang.” It’s scary. Frankly, I was hoping they’d become teachers or doctors! ■ For more information, visit www.hipphilly.com. To suggest a community member for “Professional Portrait,” write to portraits05@aol.com.

ONSCREEN PGN

Lots of skin, some heart in ‘Magic Mike’ By Gary M. Kramer PGN Contributor “Magic Mike,” the stimulating malestripper movie, is all goose-bump and grind. When the “cock-rocking kings” — Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer, out actor Matt Bomer and Joe Manganiello — take the stage and take off their clothes to “It’s Raining Men,” viewers excited by all the buff bodies on display may scream like the female customers in the film. Steven Soderbergh’s enjoyable comedy-drama serves up sexy male flesh and bare-ass actors along with a memorable shot of a penis pump that earns the film its “hard” [ahem] R rating. The thong-thin plot has Tatum — whose real-life story inspired this film — playing the title character, a Tampa roofer who strips for cash he needs to open a handcrafted furniture business. When Mike befriends the broke 19-year-old Adam (Pettyfer) on a roofing job, he soon enlists Adam’s assistance at Xquisite, a male

ALEX PETTYFER (ADAM/THE KID, LEFT) RECEIVES ADVICE FROM STRIP-CLUB OWNER MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY (DALLAS) IN “MAGIC MIKE.” Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures/Claudette Barius

strip club. In a twist borrowed from the old showbiz warhorse “42nd Street,” when a dancer can’t take the stage, Adam gets a chance to strut his stuff. He takes off his clothes and comes back a star. Yet he is a lost young man. He asks Mike to be his best friend. Mike agrees, and assures Adam’s no-nonsense sister Brooke (Cody Horn) that he will take care of her kid brother. Mike’s story, however, is the film’s central focus. Trying to open his own business, he is frustrated that he cannot get a loan from a female bank officer — a woman who would be throwing money at him if she were in the audience for one of his shows. Mike also has relationship troubles. He has no-strings-attached sex with Joanna (Olivia Munn), a bisexual student, but gets discouraged that he can’t have emotional intimacy. Mike also pines for Brooke, who mostly disapproves of him.

Brooke’s banter with Mike forms the backbone of the film and gives “Magic Mike” its emotional core. (It also provides a pricelessly funny line when Joanna tries to coerce Brooke to have sex.) But the rest of the film lacks real momentum. “Magic Mike” has a traditional three-act structure that, when stripped to its barest elements, consists of exposition (in this case, exhibition), “rising action” (sex, drugs and financial strains that derail Mike’s career plans) and climax (Mike developing a true sense of who he is). While the story is hardly novel, it is the film’s unique setting and sense of humor that makes this romp so entertaining. “Magic Mike” features several hilarious moments, such as Dallas (Matthew McConaughey), the owner of Xquisite, teaching Adam how to dance like a pro. ”Fuck that mirror like you mean it!” he instructs Adam in one of the most quotable lines. The outrageous stage routines are also riotous. Watching a “Tarzan” scenario play out on stage is almost as funny as a bit where “Big Dick Richie” (Manganiello) hurts his back giving a fireman’s carry to a plus-size patron. Oddly, the film is even better when it gets serious. When Adam tells Mike how grateful he is that he got into stripping — he enjoys the money, drugs and women that come with his new “career” — he is incredibly sincere. It reveals more about his character than any scene of him naked. Likewise, an interesting sequence in which Adam, on ecstasy, is encouraged to grope the breasts of fellow stripper Ken’s (Bomer) wife at a party leads to both men telling the other “I love you.” Soderbergh teasingly cuts away before the scene devolves further, but the bond between these men is interesting and palpable. Alas, “Magic Mike” keeps supporting characters such as Ken and Big Dick Richie mostly in the background. This will disappoint fans hoping to see more of Bomer and Manganiello, but the film is designed to showcase Tatum. The beefy actor will dazzle viewers when he is on the dance floor or when he turns up undressed or, in one scene, dressed as Marilyn Monroe. Tatum exudes charisma: He is endearing while trying to impress Brooke and sympathetic as his fortunes reverse. In support, McConaughey is suitably slick and sleazy as the lizardly Dallas, generating the most laughs with his overthe-top performances on stage. In contrast, Pettyfer is appropriately stiff in his ingénue role. The actor makes Adam likable but never truly desirable — which is exactly why Pettyfer’s performance works. Soderbergh’s film teases and seduces, and it gets viewers’ money by taking off its clothes. Those who give themselves over to the dubious pleasures of “Magic Mike” won’t mind a bit. ■

Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com June 29 - July 5, 2012 31

Worth Watching

SHE WORKS HARD FOR THE MONEY: Watch the out financial expert dish on how to make your money work for you on “The Suze Orman Show,” 9 p.m. June 30 on CNBC.

YOU B.E.T.-CHA!: A Whitney Houston tribute and performances by Nicki Minaj and Chris Brown are on tap for the 2012 BET Awards, live from Los Angeles at the Shrine Auditorium and hosted by Samuel L. Jackson, 8 p.m. July 1 on BET.

AMERICANA: Since this is a patriotic time of the year, why not catch a new episode of “American Pickers,” where Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz, along with their trusty assistant Danielle, sift through countless piles of grimy junk in search of collectible relics from the past, 9 p.m. July 2 on The History Channel.

FIREWORKS: International pop superstar star Katy Perry performs at the 2012 “Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular,” 9 p.m. July 4 on NBC.

Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com June 29 - July 5, 2012

OUT & ABOUT The week ahead Fri. 06/29 Holler! On open-mic night, 7 p.m. at Giovanni’s Room, 345 S. 12th St.; 215-923-2960. Iron Maiden and Alice Cooper The influential hard-rock acts perform 7:30 p.m. at Susquehanna Bank Center, 1 Harbour Blvd., Camden, N.J.; 856-365-1300. Mary J. Blige The R&B singer performs 8 p.m. at Caesars Atlantic City, 2100 Pacific Ave.; 609-3484411. The Jacksons The musical family performs 8 p.m. at the Borgata Hotel, Casino &

Spa Event Center, 1 Borgata Way, Atlantic City, N.J.; 609-317-1000. Burlesque Showcase Sisters Nightclub gets down with the naughty entertainment 9 p.m.-1 a.m., 1320 Chancellor St.; 215-735-0735. John Oates Half of Hall & Oates performs 9 p.m. at the Borgata Hotel, Casino & Spa Music Box, 1 Borgata Way, Atlantic City, N.J.; 609-317-1000.

Sat. 06/30 Shawn Colvin The singer-songwriter performs 7:30 p.m. at World Cafe Live, 3025

Walnut St.; 215222-1400. Sugar Town The monthly show of lady DJs and rockers features performances by Betty Iron Thumbs, Bedroom Problems, Attia Taylor and Liz & The Lost Boys, 7:30 p.m. at Kung Fu Necktie, 1250 N. Front St.; 215-291-4919. Tenacious D The comedic rock duo performs 7:30 p.m. at Festival Pier at Penn’s Landing, 121 N. Columbus Blvd.; 215-5699400. Brad Paisley The country singer performs 8 p.m. at Susquehanna Bank Center, 1 Harbour Blvd., Camden, N.J.; 856-365-1300. Crosby, Stills & Nash The folk-rock

PGN ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT LISTINGS

group performs 8 p.m. at the Borgata Hotel, Casino & Spa Event Center, 1 Borgata Way, Atlantic City, N.J.; 609-317-1000. Tracy Morgan Maybe he’ll say something stupid again, 9 p.m. at the Borgata Hotel, Casino & Spa Music Box, 1 Borgata Way, Atlantic City, N.J.; 609-317-1000.

LOOKING SHARP: The rock band Scissor Sisters is back with a new album, “Magic Hour,” and comes through Philadelphia to heat things up 8 p.m. July 5 at The Electric Factory, 421 N. Seventh St. For more information or tickets, call 800-7453000.

Sun. 07/01

Theodore Fuller The author of “The Secret Taboo: Homophobia in Black America” hosts a reading 5:30 p.m. at Giovanni’s Room, 345 S. 12th St.; 215-923-2960.

Styx, REO Speedwagon and Ted Nugent The classic-rock acts perform 7 p.m. at the Borgata Hotel, Casino & Spa Event Center, 1 Borgata Way, Atlantic City, N.J.; 609-317-1000.

Aziz Ansari The comedian performs 7 and 10 p.m. at Kimmel’s Merriam Theater, 250 S. Broad St.; 215-790-5800.

Garrison Starr The out singersongwriter performs 8 p.m. at World Cafe Live, 3025 Walnut St.; 215-222-1400.

Mon. 07/02 Groove Night Local musicians join forces to bring the R&B, soul, jazz and funk, 7 p.m. at World Cafe Live at the Queen, 500 N. Market St., Wilmington, Del.; 302-994-1400. Shaun of the Dead vs. Juan of the Dead The two horrorcomedy films are screened 8 p.m.

at the Trocadero Theatre, 1003 Arch St.; 215-922-6888. Lipstick Mondays A weekly drag show featuring a changing roster of queens takes the stage 9 p.m. at The Raven, 385 W. Bridge St., New Hope; 215-8622081.

Tue. 07/03 Unlabeled: The Acoustic/ Electric Open Mic for Up and Comers Sign up and play, 7 p.m. at World Cafe Live at the Queen, 500 N. Market St., Wilmington, Del.; 302-994-1400. Questlove presents Philadelphia Sound Konnoisseurs Questlove, DJ J. Rocc, DJ Jazzy Jeff and Rich Medina throw down in advance of the July 4 celebration

Q PUZZLE from page 30

9 p.m.-3 a.m. at Voyeur Nightclub, 1221 St. James St.; livenation.com.

Wed. 07/04 Philly 4th of July Jam Wawa Welcome America! Festival presents The Roots backing performances by Queen Latifah, Daryl Hall, Common, Joe Jonas and more, 7-11 p.m. at Benjamin Franklin Parkway, 20th Street to Eakins Oval; www. welcomeamerica. com. 4W5 Blues Jam Local musicians get down 7 p.m. at World Cafe Live at the Queen, 500 N. Market St., Wilmington, Del.; 302-994-1400.

Thu. 07/05 Scissor Sisters The rock band with gay members performs 8 p.m. at The Electric Factory, 421 N. Seventh St.; 800-745-3000. Robyn (DJ set) The synth-pop star DJs at Voyeur Nightclub, 1221 St.

James St.; 215-7355772. Bob and Barbara’s Drag Show The outrageousness begins 11 p.m. at Bob and Barbara’s, 1509 South St.; 215-545-4511.

Fri. 07/06 Jamie Foxx, Lavelle Crawford & Donnell Rawlings The comedians perform 8 p.m. at Caesars Atlantic City, 2100 Pacific Ave.; 609-3484411. Meshell Ndegeocello The out singersongwriter performs 8:30 p.m. at World Cafe Live at the Queen, 500 N. Market St., Wilmington, Del.; 302-994-1400. Bob Saget The comedian performs 9 p.m. at the Borgata Hotel, Casino & Spa Music Box, 1 Borgata Way, Atlantic City, N.J.; 609-317-1000.

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Send notices at least one week in advance to: Out & About Listings, PGN, 505 S. Fourth St., Philadelphia, PA 19147 fax: 215-925-6437; or e-mail: listings@epgn.com. Notices cannot be taken over the phone.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT LISTINGS PGN

Yanni The classical music star performs June 30-July 1 at Kimmel’s Academy of Music, 240 S. Broad St.; 215-7905847.

Continuing The Art of German Stoneware Philadelphia Museum of Art presents an exhibition of stoneware ceramics from German-speaking centers in modern-day Germany and the Low Countries, through Aug. 5, 26th Street and the Parkway; 215-763-8100. Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story Walnut Street Theater presents the story of the early rock ’n’ roll star through July 15, 825 Walnut St.; 215574-3550. HOT & COLD: After our favorite synth-pop singer Robyn closes a night opening for Coldplay on their arena tour, she’ll spin a DJ set at Voyeur Nightclub 10 p.m. July 5, 1221 St. James St. For more information, call 215-735-5772.

Opening Coldplay & Robyn The rock and pop artists perform 8 p.m. July 5-6 at Wells Fargo Center, 3601 S. Broad St.; 800-298-4200. Influx The James Oliver Gallery presents an exhibition by artist Joe Meiser June 30-Aug. 4, 723 Chestnut St., fourth floor; 215-9231242. Prom Philadelphia Museum of Art presents an exhibition of photographs by Mary Ellen Mark, July 1-Oct. 28, 26th Street and the Parkway; 215-763-8100.

Collab: Four Decades of Giving Modern and Contemporary Design Philadelphia Museum of Art presents an exhibition that includes some of the finest examples of European, American and Japanese design, through fall, 26th Street and the Parkway; 215-763-8100. From Asbury Park to the Promised Land: The Life and Music of Bruce Springsteen The National Constitution Center presents an exhibition looking at The Boss’ entire career, with numerous items never before seen by the public, through Sept. 3, 525 Arch St., Independence Mall; 215-409-6895. Ralph Eugene Meatyard: Dolls and Masks Philadelphia Museum of Art presents an exhibition of works by the photographer and artist that explores concepts in visual perception, through Aug. 5, 26th Street and the Parkway; 215-7638100.

TOCCARRA BAGUMA AND KERRY MURDOCH AND MATTHEW COSTELLO, GEORGE WILKINSON, NEW YORK CITY, 2007. BROOKLYN, N.Y., 2007. SAVE THE LAST DANCE: Philadelphia Museum of Art presents “Prom” an exhibition of photographs by Mary Ellen Mark depicting the teenage rite of passage, July 1-Oct. 28, 26th Street and the Parkway. For more information, call 215-763-8100. Photos: Mary Ellen Mark

Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com June 29 - July 5, 2012 33

Rockwell Kent — Voyager: An Artist’s Journey in Prints, Drawings and Illustrated Books Philadelphia Museum of Art presents an exhibition of works by the famous printmaker and illustrator, through July 29, 26th Street and the Parkway; 215-763-8100. Secret Garden Philadelphia Museum of Art presents an exhibition uniting works in fiber by Ted Hallman, Sheila Hicks and Jim Hodges, through July, 26th Street and the Parkway; 215-763-8100.

Closing Angels In America, Part 1: Millennium Approaches Wilma Theater presents the Tony Awardwinning epic play through July 1, 265 S. Broad St.; 215-546-7824. A Grand Night for Singing Walnut Street Theater presents Broadway’s tribute to the genius of Rodgers & Hammerstein through July 1 at Independence Studio on 3, 825 Walnut St.; 215-574-3550. Tulipomania: The Musical Arden Theatre Company presents the world premiere of a musical paralleling modern-day financial collapses with Holland’s tulip craze of 1636, through July 1, 40 N. Second St.; 215-922-1122. ■

STORMY WEATHER: The out singersongwriter and musician Meshell Ndegeocello is back with her sexy and thought-provoking brand of R&B, funk, rock and whatever else inspires her on the road in support of her new album “Weather,” 8:30 p.m. July 6 at World Cafe Live at the Queen, 500 N. Market St., Wilmington, Del. For more information or tickets, call 302-9941400.

SPORTS PGN

Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com June 29 - July 5, 2012

Get Out and Play

Scott A. Drake

What it means to be a champion

In conjunction with the Nike LGBT Sports Summit and Portland Pride, Nike unveiled three varieties of “pride sneakers” in June. The Lunar Flow Portland Pride sneaker (shown), the New York Stonewall and the black Flytop for San Francisco are all limited editions. The catch: You have to go to the represented cities to purchase them, and each city only carries its namesake.

Nike held its first LGBT Sports Summit with LGBT activists, allies, athletes, coaches and administrators from across the continent June 15-17 in Portland, Ore. How cool is that? Organizers decided early in the planning to leave the sports organizations on the sidelines the first year and focus on organizations that were already making strides in their own areas. Included were groups like Athlete Ally, Campus Pride, ESPN, Federation of Gay Games, GLAAD, GLSEN, NCAA, Our Group and the You Can Play project. Philadelphia’s Our Group executive director Anna Aagenes attended the event and gave high scores to the organizers and the summit. Our Group works to support

and empower LGBTQA student athletes throughout the country and make sports accessible and welcoming to LGBT kids, coaches and fans. “The Nike LGBT Sports Summit has meant the world to me,” Aagenes said. “As an openly bisexual athlete, I had few role models to turn to when I was involved in high school and college sports.” One of the primary goals for the summit participants was a redefinition of champion as “a person who is inclusive of all those who choose to participate in sports and someone who stands up against bullying and antigay language.” Four goals were laid out for the next year: • The major American professional sports

Food & Drink

THE ABBAYE EXCELLENT BELGIAN AND MICROBREW SELECTIONS

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leagues will be engaged to work with our member organizations toward inclusion in their league. • The visibility of out collegiate athletes, coaches and allies will be increased through a multi-pronged approach. • The national youth and adult recreational leagues will receive an LGBTQ inclusive model policy, and at least five leagues will have adopted such a policy. • Two million young people will have heard a new, inclusive definition of “athletic champion,” and their physical-education teachers and coaches will have received inclusive training resources. Alleys and gutters The Philadelphia Gay Bowling League

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Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com June 29 - July 5, 2012 35

will host its annual Liberty Belle Invitational Tournament through July 1. The tournament includes singles and doubles competitions on Saturday and team competitions on Sunday, but Friday afternoon before official registration there is a fun eight-pin no-tap at Laurel Lanes in Maple Shade, N.J. (Eight-pin no-tap means if you knock down eight, nine or 10 pins on your first ball, it counts as a strike.) Laurel Lanes is the venue for all of the subsequent challenges as well. LBI registration is held 710 p.m. July 29 at DoubleTree Hotel, 237 S. Broad St., in conjunction with the opening-night hospitality party. DoubleTree is also the location of the 24th annual tournament awards banTEAM PHILADELPHIA FRONTRUNNERS PARTICIquet Sunday from 6-8 p.m. It is PATING IN THE NEW YORK CITY PRIDE RACE preceded by an hour-long cockINCLUDED TROY FAMOUS (FROM LEFT), KELLEE HAND, BRIAN ARCEDERA AND ANNA AAGENES tail reception, while an afterparty at a Gayborhood bar is still joined the New York Front Runners in in the works. the Pride Race June 23 in New York The $21,000 prize fund guarantees firstCity. Anna Aagenes led all Front Runner place winners $500 each, and there are women in the 5-mile race, finishing in raffles, 50-50 drawings and other ways to 31:54 minutes and placing second in her grab cash and prizes. So, grab your shoes age group and eighth overall among all and your balls and get rolling! For more 2,607 women, leading the Front Runner information, visit www.libertybelle.org. women to take first place in their division.

play dates, the mid-August fall season start and the Revs’ preparations for the Denver Gay Bowl are on the sidelines. Let us know when the homecoming parties are!

Who knew it was so fun to run? More Pride Dan Anders, Brian Sims and Bob The Greater Philadelphia Flag Football Szwajkos will be among the 500-plus League’s competitive team, the Philly runners in the Back on My Feet 20in24 Revolution, bettered their last Chicago Midnight Madness Run July 14-15 in Pride Bowl outing at this year’s fifthFairmount Park. annual event. Philly Revolution Silver Almost as much fun as last month’s finished 11th overall out of 24 teams with ODDyssey half-marathon and costume their first-ever A-squad victory and taking competition, the Midnight Madness Run down the New York City XTreme 19-18 in has its own fun run. For one thing, the overtime. Dre Dionne threw three touchsingle-lap 8.4-mile run starts at midnight downs in that contest to lead them to their Saturday night and runners will wear first win over XTreme since The Revs fluorescent items or clothes or carry glow began playing competitively. sticks, or employ some other creative way Revolution Blue finished 11th out of 12 to stay visible. Szwajkos and others will on the B-squad side, placing 23rd overall, be running under the Team Philadelphia and had its own standout player, Justin umbrella in that event. Dolci, who racked up eight catches over Openly gay Sims, who is running for five games for a total of 182 yards offense. a state House seat, and out Philadelphia More than 40 people trekked out to the Circuit Judge Anders are going for disWindy City to represent Philadelphia’s tance and endurance. Sims has set a fastest growing LGBT sports league. Open 100-mile goal in support of a friend and Anders is planning to start at 10 a.m. Saturday, continue all day and expects to “likely be there at midnight, but God only knows if I’ll be running, sleeping or something else!” The primary goal of BoMF is “changing the direction of people’s lives by changing the way they see themselves.” BoMF works to create independence within the homeless by first building confidence and self-esteem through running, and focuses on the inherent desire to PHILLY REVOLUTION SILVER TEAM MEMfeel useful and important. Our best BERS BO BANWO (FROM LEFT), CO-CAPTAIN to all of you. For more information, MORGAN SAMPSON JR., CLIFTON GIBSON visit www.20in24.com. AND CO-CAPTAIN ANDRE DIONNE IN CHICAGO On June 23, Team Philadelphia Photo: Tom B.

To submit information for Get Out and Play, email scott@epgn.com.

Short stops • Congratulations to out Temple Men’s Gymnastics member Evan Burke. Burke didn’t compete most of the year due to a broken foot, but he will return next year to finish his eligibility and as one of the team-chosen co-captains. Kudos! • Falcons Summer League 2012 continues through Aug. 1 and they are still welcoming newcomers. Games start at 6 p.m. every Wednesday at Edgly Fields. The fun and friendly play is 6-on-6, coed, without goalkeepers; falcons-soccer.org. • Philly Roller Girls start the flat-track late-season rounds July 14 at Temple’s Liacouras Center, 1776 N. Broad St.; phillyrollergirls.com. • New York City Front Runner Robert Lennon will be reading from his new book “The Miles,” 5:30 p.m. July 7 at Giovanni’s Room. Runners and allies are welcome. All of these organizations welcome visitors, fans and cheerleaders: Get out of the house, out of your routine and go to a game. Better yet, get out and play! ■

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■ AIDS Library: 215-985-4851

■ Mayor’s Director of LGBT Affairs: Gloria Casarez, 215-6862194; Gloria.Casarez@phila.gov; Fax: 215-686-2555

■ AIDS Treatment Fact line: 800662-6080

■ The COLOURS Organization Inc.: 112 N. Broad St., third floor; 215-496-0330 ■ Equality Pennsylvania: 215731-1447; www.equalitypa.org ■ Equality Forum: 215-732-3378

■ Mazzoni Center: 215-563-0652; www.mazzonicenter.org. Legal Services: 215-563-0657, 866-LGBTLAW; legalservices@mazzonicenter. org ■ Mazzoni Center Family & Community Medicine: 215-563-0658 ■ Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (Philadelphia): 215-572-1833

■ Philadelphia Lesbian and Gay Task Force: 215-772-2000 ■ Philadelphia Police Department liaison — Deputy Commissioner Stephen Johnson: 215-683-2840

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■ SPARC — Statewide Pennsylvania Rights Coalition: 717-9209537 ■ Transgender Health Action Coalition: 215-732-1207 (staffed 3-6 p.m. Wednesdays and 6-9 p.m. Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays)

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Health

AIDS Services In Asian Communities Provides HIV-related services to Asians and Pacific Islanders at 340 N. 12th St., Suite 205; 215-629-2300. www.asiac.org. Gay and Lesbian Latino AIDS Education Initiative Free, anonymous HIV testing from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday at 1207 Chestnut St., fifth floor; noon-6 p.m. Tuesdays at the Washington West Project, 1201 Locust St. 215851-1822 or 866-222-3871. www.galaei.org. Spanish/English HIV treatment Free HIV/AIDS diagnosis and treatment for Philadelphia residents are available from 9 a.m.-noon Mondays and 5-8 p.m. Thursdays at Health Center No. 2, 1720 S. Broad St.; 215-685-1803. HIV health insurance help Access to free medications and confidential HIV testing ■ Gay and Lesbian Lawyers of Philadelphia GALLOP holds board meetings at 6:30 p.m. the first Wednesday of the month at 100 S. Broad St., Suite 1810; GALLOP also provides a free referral service; (215) 6279090; www.galloplaw.org. ■ Greater Philadelphia Professional Network Networking group for area business professionals, self-employed and business owners meets monthly in a different location throughout the city, invites speakers on various topics, partners with other nonprofits and maintains a Web site where everyone is invited to sign up for email notices for activities and events; www.gppn.org.

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■ Philly Pride Presents: 215875-9288

■ Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations: 215-686-4670

Anonymous, free, conﬁdential HIV testing Spanish/English counselors offer testing 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday at Congreso de Latinos Unidos, 3439 N. Hutchinson St.; 215-763-8870 ext. 6000.

available by appointment at 13 S. MacDade Blvd., Suite 108, Collingdale; Medical Ofﬁce Building, 722 Church Lane, Yeadon; and 630 S. 60th St.; 610-5869077.

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Mazzoni Center Family & Community Medicine Comprehensive primary health care, preventive health services, gynecology, sexual-health services and chronic-disease management, including comprehensive HIV care, 809 Locust St.; 215-563-0658.

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Professional groups ■ Independence Business Alliance Greater Philadelphia’s LGBT Chamber of Commerce, providing networking, business development, marketing, educational and advocacy opportunities for LGBT and LGBT-friendly businesses and professionals. Visit www.IndependenceBusinessAlliance.com for information about events, programs and membership; 215-557-0190; 1717 Arch St., Suite 3370. ■ National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association The Philadelphia chapter of NLGJA, open to professionals and

students, meets for social and networking events; www.nlgjaphiladelphia.org. ■ Philadelphia Gay Tourism Caucus A regional organization dedicated to promoting gay and lesbian tourism to the Greater Philadelphia region holds meetings every other month on the fourth Thursday (January, March, May, July, September and the third Thursday in November), open to the public; P.O. Box 58143, Philadelphia, PA 19102; www.philadelphiagaytourism.com. ■ Philly OutGoing Professionals Social group for gay, lesbian and bisexual professionals meets for social and cultural activities, 856857-9283; popnews19@yahoo. com.

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Mazzoni Center Free, anonymous HIV testing; HIV/AIDS care and treatment, case management and support groups; 21 S. 12th St., eighth ﬂoor; 215-563-0652. www.mazzonicenter.org.

Washington West Project Free, anonymous HIV testing. Walk-ins welcome 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Friday except for noon-1 p.m. and 5-6 p.m., and 1-5 p.m. Saturday; 1201 Locust St.; 215-985-9206.

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■ Philadelphia Police Liaison Committee: 215-760-3686; ppd. lgbt@gmail.com

■ Barbara Gittings Gay and Lesbian Collection at the Independence Branch of the Philadelphia Free Library: 215-685-1633

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■ Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Peer Counseling Services: 215-732-TALK

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■ AIDS Law Project of Southern New Jersey: 856-933-9500 ext. 221

■ ACLU of Pennsylvania: 215592-1513

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■ AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania: 215-587-9377

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■ Rainbow Room — Bucks County’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning

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■ William Way Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center: 1315 Spruce St.; 215-732-2220; www.waygay.org. Hours: 9 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Friday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Peer counseling: 6-9 p.m. Monday through Friday Library hours: 12-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 12-3 p.m. and 6-9 p.m. Friday; 126 p.m. Saturday. Volunteers: New Orientation: First Wednesday of the month at 7:30 p.m.

■ Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Center at the University of Pennsylvania 3907 Spruce St., 215-898-5044; center@dolphin.upenn.edu. Hours: 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday.

and Allies Youth Center: 6-8 p.m. Wednesdays: Doylestown Planned Parenthood, The Atrium, Suite 2E, 301 S. Main St., Doylestown; 215-957-7981; rainbowroom@ppbucks.org

Community centers

■ The Attic Youth Center: For LGBT and questioning youth and their friends and allies. Groups meet and activities are held 4-8 p.m. MondayFriday; case management, HIV testing and smoking cessation are available Monday-Friday. See the Youth section for more events. 255 S. 16th St.; 215-545-4331.

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Community Bulletin Board

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Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com June 29 - July 5, 2012

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REALPGN ESTATE

Classifieds

Home of the Week PAGE 54

PGN does not accept advertising that is unlawful, false, misleading, harmful, threatening, abusive, invasive of another’s privacy, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, hateful or racially or otherwise objectionable, including without limitation material of any kind or nature that encourages conduct that could constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any applicable local, state, provincial, national or international law or regulation, or encourage the use of controlled substances.

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MAY 1 - 7, 2009 All real-estate advertising is subject to Title VIII

PHILADELPHIA GAY NEWS

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of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (Fair Housing Act), as amended. Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of REAL ESTATE REAL ESTATE 1968 (Fair Housing Act), as amended, prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental and ﬁnancing of dwellings, and in other housing-related transactions, based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status (including children under the age of 18 living with parents or legal custodians, pregnant women, and people securing custody Beds: 4 of children under the age of 18), and handicap Baths: 2.5 (disability). PGN will not knowingly accept any 1608 Spruce St., Philadelphia, PA 19103 Price: $559,900 real-estate advertising that is in violation of any AVENUE OF THE ARTS applicable law.

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ROOMMATES PGN WILL NOT PUBLISH RACIAL DISTINCTIONS IN ROOMMATE ADS. SUCH NOTATIONS WILL BE EDITED. THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION. ___________________________________ GREATER NE PHILA. Have your own bedroom in a beautiful split level home with 2 gay men. House is 4 BR, 2 full baths, W/D, upper and lower decks, use of kitchen. Property is by Welsh & the Boulevard, 1 min. to 58 bus. We ask only that you be at least reasonably neat and employed. Rent is $600 + 1/3 utils. Contact Dave at 215-698-0215. _______________________________36-32

ADOPTION ADOPTION A childless, ﬁnancially secure couple (37&42) seeks to adopt. Together 18 years. Flexible work schedules. Expenses paid. Call Rich & Tim 1-800-494-4533. _______________________________36-26 A childless couple seeks to adopt. Loving, happy home with tenderness, warmth & love. Flexible schedules. Financial security. Expenses paid. Regis & David (888)986-1520. _______________________________36-26

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Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com June 29 - July 5, 2012 37

Featured property: PHILADELPHIA GAY NEWS

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LOOKING FOR ROMANCE Attractive GWM, warm, sensitive, caring, 48 y.o. with a smooth gymnast build looking for other GWM, 30-50, who is also in good shape. I live in NE Phila. I’m looking for guys who are also sensitive, caring with a fun personality. If this sounds interesting to you feel free to call me, David, 215-698-0215. _______________________________36-29 BM, 60 looking for British gent, 35-45 for intimate encounters. 215-763-3391, 6PMMidnight. _______________________________36-29 GWM, 63 hot, down to earth 5’6’ slim, nice looking, energetic. I’m a Bottom looking for a TOP only- for reg get togethers. Clean and discreet. Leave VM 215-264-1058. _______________________________36-27 I’m looking for a very well endowed top who is looking for a very nice white butt. 215-7322108 8-11 PM. _______________________________36-28 WM, NE Phila. If you’re looking for hot action, call 215-934-5309. No calls after 11 PM. _______________________________36-27

PERSONALS Meet singles right now! No paid operators, just real people like you. Browse greetings, exchange messages and connect live. Try it free. Call now 1-800-914-8742. _______________________________36-26

Listings for everything you need. Click on the resource button on the home page to start shopping today!

Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com June 29 - July 5, 2012 39

HELP WANTED

Out of High School? Over 18? Your 1st Phenomenal Opportunity to Travel While Earning Big $$$. No Experience Necessary. Paid Training. Transportation/Lodging Provided. 1-866-921-3440. _______________________________36-26 CDL-A DRIVERS NEEDED! Up to $5,000 Sign-On Bonus for Experienced Drivers! New student pay AND Lease Program Now Available! 877-521-5775 www. USATruck.jobs _______________________________36-26 PROFESSIONAL CLASS A DRIVERS OTR tractor trailer, good pay, great home time, health insurance, 401K, paid vacation, bonus package, and top equipment all in a small company atmosphere, backed up with large company benefits. Call Victoria 877-833-9307 or visit www.pamdrivers.com _______________________________36-26 HIRING EXPERIENCED/INEXPERIENCED TANKER DRIVERS! Great Benefits and Pay! New Fleet Volvo Tractors! 1 Year OTR Exp. Req.- Tanker Training Available. Call Today: 877-882-6537 www. OakleyTransport.com _______________________________36-26 CLASS A DRIVERS Regional Up to 42 CPM. Weekly Pay, Benefits, Home Time, Sign ON BONUS, Paid Orientation. 2 Years T/T EXP. 800-524-5051 www. gomcilvaine.com _______________________________36-26 Drivers: New Freight lanes in your area. Annual Salary $45K to $60K. Flexible hometime. Modern Fleet of trucks. CDL-A, 3-months current OTR experience. 800-414-9569 www. driveknight.com _______________________________36-26 Exp. Reefer Drivers: GREAT PAY /Freight lanes from Presque Isle, ME, Boston-Lehigh, PA. 800-277-0212 or primeinc.com _______________________________36-26 AVERITT Is Looking for CDL-A Drivers! Great, Low-cost Benefits Package and Weekly Hometime. 4-Months T/T Experience Required. Apply Now! 888-362-8608 Visit AVERITTcareers. com Equal Opportunity Employer _______________________________36-26 JOIN MARTEN TRANSPORT Regional Runs Available! More HOMETIME & EARNING POWER; EXCELLENT PAY & BENEFITS! Recent Increase on AUTOMATIC DETENTION PAY! Plus: FLEX FLEET opportunities >> 4 DAYS ON, 4 DAYS OFF! << OR >> 7 DAYS ON, 7 DAYS OFF! << (866) 370-4469 www.drive4marten.com CDL-A, 6 mos. exp. required. EEOE/AAP _______________________________36-26 Drivers: CRST offers the best Lease Purchase Program *SIGN ON BONUS *No down payment or credit check *Great Pay *Class A CDL required *Owner Operators Welcome Call: 866-403-7044. _______________________________36-26

WANTED: LIFE AGENTS Earn $500 a Day, Great Agent Beneﬁts. Commissions Paid Daily. Liberal Underwriting. Leads, Leads, Leads, LIFE INSURANCE, LICENSE REQUIRED. Call 1-888-713-6020. _______________________________36-26

We’re a Driver’s Company that’s focused on drivers. Solos .437 & Teams .513 1 yr OTR Exp CDL-A-HazMat. Solos $2000, Teams $7500 Sign-On. 877-628-3748 www.DriveNCTrans.com _______________________________36-26

ADVERTISING SALES REPRESENTATIVE WANTED

PGN currently has an advertising sales position available for an energetic, self-motivated individual with outstanding communication skills. Our ideal candidate must have polished sales skills with experience in lead generation and cold calling, combined with a track record of closing the sale. QUALIFICATIONS:

• Two years of successful sales experience, preferably in print and/or online sales • Strong verbal and writing skills • Excellent at relationship building • Ability to work independently and part of a team • Knowledge of local media market and/or LGBT community a plus • Computer literacy a must Salary/Benefits: Salary plus commission. Our benefits package includes medical and dental insurance, paid holidays, vacation and a casual work environment. Qualified individuals interested in applying are encouraged to send their resume to dan@epgn.com.

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Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com June 29 - July 5, 2012

PGN

THURSDAY, JULY 5 � 2PM – 9PM MUST BE 21 OR OLDER TO ENTER SUGARBEACH.

LET LOOSE AND SHOW YOUR TRUE COLORS AT SUGARBEACH FOR AN OVER THE RAINBOW BEACH PARTY WITH CO HOSTS STACEY VEY, OWNER OF STIR LOUNGE AND “SANDY BEACH” 2PM – 4PM

Giant Rainbow Twister, Drag Hula Hoop contest, Sausage “eating” contest and Annette & Frankie look-a-like contest

2PM – 6PM

Stacey Vey and “Sandy Beach” host the afternoon with DJ Jimmy DePre spinning LGBT party favorites

4PM – 6PM

Beach Blanket Bingo Divas

6PM – 9PM

Miss’d SugarHouse Drag Queen Competition

6PM – 9PM

Live music by Sister Funk

Sit back under the palms and enjoy food specials and cocktails from the Tiki Bar from Saturday, June 30 to Sunday, July 8. VISIT SUGARHOUSECASINO.COM FOR FULL EVENTS SCHEDULE. E.