pgn Philadelphia Gay News LGBT NEWS SINCE 1976
Vol. 42 No. 27 July 6-12, 2018
Family Portrait: Doug Greene: actor, artist, survivor PAGE 27
HONESTY • INTEGRITY • PROFESSIONALISM
Summer arts and concert preview
DVLF finally elects executive director PAGE 2
PAGE 25
Tabu to relaunch as gay bar
Catholic agency offers to cease ‘pastoral references’
By Adriana Fraser adriana@epgn.com
By Timothy Cwiek timothy@epgn.com
The Gayborhood’s Tabu Lounge and Sports Bar is moving , and its owners are officially re-introducing the longtime late-night establishment as a gay bar. The owners have purchased the iCandy building, triple the size of Tabu’s current location, at 254 S. 12th St. The new locale will open Sept. 24. “I am guaranteeing that there will be no question that when you walk into the bar on opening night, you’re in a walking into a gay bar,” said Jeff Sotland, one of the owners. “When we opened Tabu, we made a conscious decision to not call ourselves a gay bar,” he added. “We were opening a sports bar in the gay section of town, intending to be as welcoming to absolutely every single person in the community, geographically and demographically, as we could,” he said. “Times are changing, and we are off that. We are coming out of the closet.” Sotland said that over the last couple of years, Tabu’s owners were looking at options to expand the business, as it outgrew the building that has housed the sports bar since 2010. The move has been in the works for the last seven months, he added. Tabu will move from its twostory, 3,500-square-foot space to iCandy’s 12,000 square feet on three levels, including a roof deck. New sound and video systems will be installed in the first-floor sports bar and on the third floor, which will PAGE 15 be Tabu’s new
Attorneys for Catholic Social Services recently told a federal judge the agency will stop requiring “pastoral reference letters” from prospective foster parents if a freeze on foster-child referrals to CSS is lifted. U.S. District Judge Petrese B. Tucker must decide whether to issue a preliminary injunction lifting the freeze on foster-child referrals to CSS that was issued because the agency wouldn’t accept same-sex couples as foster parents. On June 18, during an injunction hearing, CSS Secretary James Amato testified that the agency requires “pastoral reference letters” from all prospective foster parents — thus raising concerns among city officials that CSS also discriminates against atheists and agnostics. In a June 21 letter to Tucker, city attorneys noted the letter requirement as another reason the judge shouldn’t lift the freeze. But in a June 25 letter to Tucker, CSS attorneys promised to stop requiring the letters if she issues an injunction permitting additional foster-child referrals to CSS. “[The] letters are not necessary for [CSS] to provide foster-care services consistent with its religious mission,” they wrote. Kenneth A. Gavin, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, had no comment last week when asked if CSS would adopt a publicly accessible antibias policy covering atheists, agnostics and LGBT people. CSS provides foster-care services for 107 children in city custody, but said it will have to end the program within the next several months unless the freeze is lifted. In separate contracts, CSS receives about $8.5 million annually from the city to provide “congregate-care” services for at-risk children who don’t have foster parents. In a related matter, the city announced on June 28 that it has resumed foster-care referrals to Bethany Christian Services of the Greater Delaware Valley, an agency that reportedly turned away a lesbian couple who wanted to be foster parents. Bethany, which has been providing foster-case services in Philadelphia for 20 years, recently adopted an antibias policy that satisfies the city’s nondiscrimination requirements, according to a city press release. A spokesperson for Bethany declined to provide a copy of the policy to PGN but cited “a long-standing history of partnering with government and secular organizations to aid children in crisis” in a PAGE 15
CREATING HISTORY: Kelly Burkhardt (left) indicates which portion of a story should be copied during the first William Way LGBT Community Center’s LGBTQ digitizing day June 30. The archive outreach for photos, diaries, letters, posters, buttons, badges, clothing and other miscellaneous ephemera is an ongoing process of collecting and cataloging the lives of LGBTQ people in the Greater Philadelphia area. This particular event was aimed at urging people of color and women to participate in greater numbers, although no one was turned away. The next digitizing day is scheduled for Oct. 27. Contact archives@waygay.org for more information. Photo: Scott A. Drake
Lansdale poised to pass LGBT ordinance By Timothy Cwiek timothy@epgn.com Lansdale, a borough in Montgomery with 16,000 residents, is poised to become the next municipality in Pennsylvania to enact an LGBT civil-rights ordinance. So far, 49 municipalities in the state have enacted such ordinances, including Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Allentown. Borough officials had planned to discuss the ordinance at a council meeting July 3. The measure is expected to come up for final passage at the borough council’s Aug. 13 public meeting, said Mayor Garry W. Herbert Jr. The proposed ordinance bans discrimination in the areas of housing, employment, commercial property and public accommodations within the borough. The protected categories include race, color, age, religious creed, ancestry, sex, national origin, handicap or use of guide or support animals, sexual orientation
and gender identity/expression. The ordinance also creates a five-member human-relations commission that will mediate antibias complaints filed with the borough manager. Complainants and respondents also have the option of utilizing an outside mediation agency. During a June 29 informational meeting sponsored by the borough, some residents asked if “political affiliation” could be added to the protected categories. But after the meeting, Herbert told PGN that “political affiliation” won’t be added and the commission won’t accept political-affiliation complaints. Herbert also noted that the ordinance doesn’t give commissioners authority to determine whether any type of unlawful discrimination occurred in the borough. If mediation isn’t successful, a complainant may file a civil action in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court, where remedies could be PAGE 2 obtained, he said.