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QFest siizzlers, smilers and so-sos PAGE 19
Family Portrait: Domenico Sciancalepore
Evidence descrepency in Morris case could be key in a federal investigation
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July 12-18, 2013
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Vol. 37 No. 28
PA couples sue for marriage equality
Senate committee passes ENDA The LGBT community has another victory to celebrate this week, as the federal Employment Nondiscrimination Act was voted out of a Senate committee, the first time it’s seen movement in several years. On July 10, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pension voted 15-7 in favor of ENDA, which would protect members of the LGBT community from workplace discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. The bill will now be brought to the Senate floor in the fall. Committee member Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania voted in favor of ENDA, along with all of his Democratic colleagues and three Republicans: Sens. Orrin Hatch, Lisa Murkowski and Mark Kirk. ENDA hasn’t seen a vote since it made it through a successful full House vote in 2007 but was not introduced in the Senate. The HELP committee is chaired by Sen. Tom Harkin, a longtime ENDA supporter. “This bill renews our historical commitment to the advancement of civil rights, and to the American ideal of a meritocracy in which people are judged on their talent, ability, and qualifications — not by the color of their skin, their religion, their gender, their national origin, their age, whether they have a disability, their sexual orientation or their gender identity,” Harkin said in a statement Wednesday. The bill was introduced in April by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and in the House by Rep. Jared Polis (DColo.). — Angela Thomas
By Jen Colletta jen@epgn.com
HISTORY IN HARRISBURG: Philadelphia residents Helena Miller (left) and wife Dara Raspberry, along with their 6-week-old daughter, spoke at a Tuesday press conference in Harrisburg announcing a historic challenge to the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. Miller and Raspberry are among 23 plaintiffs who are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and Philadelphia firm Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin & Schiller. This is the first time that a lawsuit has challenged the constitutionality of Pennsylvania’s marriage inequality. Photo: Dani Fresh
For the first time ever, samesex couples are suing the state of Pennsylvania for the right to marry. The American Civil Liberties Union and its Pennsylvania chapter Tuesday morning filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania on behalf of 23 plaintiffs, who are calling on the federal court to declare that the denial of marriage rights to same-sex couples in Pennsylvania is a constitutional violation. The ACLU is being assisted in the suit by firm Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin & Schiller, based in Philadelphia. Named as defendants in the suit are Gov. Tom Corbett, Health Secretary Michael Wolf, Attorney General Kathleen Kane and two registers of wills in Washington and Bucks counties, who denied marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Nils Hagen-Frederiksen, Corbett’s press secretary, said the governor was not yet ready to release an official statement on the suit.
Marriage-equality suit renewed in N.J.
Victims of the night: Stories of trans sex workers By Victoria A. Brownworth Special to PGN Final installment in a series Chantal,* Eva* and I are sitting in a taqueria in Kensington. We’re celebrating Eva getting a job in a nail salon, a job she was literally desperate for and is excited to have. Eva has been struggling to get out of sex work for “three long years. Feels like so much longer, you know?” She says she feels free, tossing her hair back in emphasis.
Eva looks happy. I know what it took for her to get to this place. Eva’s close friend Chantal got out a few months ago and has been urging Eva to do the same. “I’m done with that s---,” Chantal says, and makes a disgusted face. “Now I’m out, I see how bad I been treated and for how long?” She waves a beautifully manicured hand in an exaggerated, dismissive manner, as if she could brush away the pain of her years on the street that easily. As they talk about their new PAGE 13 lives and
“The complaint was filed, we received a copy and we’re in the process of reviewing it,” he said. Kane’s spokesperson, Joe Peter, said Tuesday that the office is “aware of the lawsuit filed this morning by the ACLU. We have the matter under review.” Mary Catherine Roper, senior staff attorney at the PA ACLU, said the agency’s decision to file the suit was directly related to last month’s Supreme Court ruling striking down a key section of the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal ban on same-sex marriage, as unconstitutional. Pennsylvania has had its own similar ban on same-sex marriage since 1996. “We’ve been preparing for this for a long time but didn’t file sooner because we were waiting for the decision. We knew what the Supreme Court said was going to matter,” Roper said, noting that she anticipates the landmark DOMA ruling will be at play in the state suit. “Justice Kennedy really expressed beautifully the harm that comes from not recognizing marriage for commitPAGE 5
By Angela Thomas angela@epgn.com
OUT ON THE RIVER: Team Philadelphia chair Bob Szwajkos welcomed the bustling Our Night Out crowd to the Water Works Tuesday night. More than 200 guests packed the Boathouse Row venue for the monthly social, with this month’s festivities hosted by Team Philly, local LGBT sports clubs, GO Athletes and the Philadelphia Freedom Band. ONO will next be held Aug. 8 at M Restaurant. Photo: Scott A. Drake
A week after the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down a key section of the federal ban on same-sex marriage, attorneys in New Jersey asked the court to find New Jersey’s civil-union law unconstitutional. Lambda Legal filed a summary judgment motion July 3 asking Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobson to avoid a trial and rule that the state’s civil-union law does not go far enough to protect same-sex couples and to instate marriage equality. Oral arguments in PAGE 12 the case are set for Aug.