Philadelphia Gay News Vol. 33 No. 29
Honesty Integrity Professionalism
July 17 - 23, 2009
Scouts’ case won’t be delayed By Timothy Cwiek PGN Writer-at-Large A Philadelphia judge has declined to grant a three-month extension in a case that could determine whether the local Boy Scouts chapter remains in a city-owned building. Common Pleas Judge Mark I. Bernstein is handling the city’s lawsuit to evict the Cradle of Liberty chapter from a city-owned building because the chapter won’t allow openly gay participants or pay fairmarket rent. Bernstein denied a joint request July 8, filed the previous day by lawyers for the city and the Cradle of Liberty chapter, who wanted to extend a July 6 discovery deadline to Oct. 5. The case has been before Bernstein since June 2008. The discovery phase allows both sides in a legal dispute to gather as much relevant evidence as possible for potential use in the trial. The Scouts have occupied a city-owned building on the
Ben Franklin Parkway near 22nd Street since 1928. But the city charges the Scouts’ antigay policy conflicts with the city’s gay-rights ordinance, enacted in 1982. “In consideration of the filed petition for extraordinary relief, said petition for relief is denied,” Bernstein stated in his July 8 ruling. “All previously entered case-management deadlines shall remain in effect ... This order [doesn’t] preclude additional motions or sanctions for failure to comply with previously entered discovery orders.” In May 2008, the Scouts filed a federal lawsuit, claiming they were being unfairly singled out by the city for enforcement of Philadelphia’s gay-rights law. That lawsuit has been before U.S. District Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter for 14 months, and he granted another round of extension deadlines last month. Unlike Bernstein, Buckwalter agreed to postpone See SCOUTS, Page 13
Equality Advocates board resigns By Jen Colletta PGN Staff Writer
SPARKLING STAR: Actor Chad Allen holds his newly received Artistic Achievement Award at opening-night festivities of Philadelphia QFest on June 9. The openly gay star of the festival’s opening film, “Hollywood je t’aime,” thanked the organizers and spoke briefly about his career and his four-and-a-half-year relationship with fellow actor Jeremy Glazer. Allen also appeared in several other films, including “Save Me,” “Third Man Out” and “On the Other Hand, Death,” and has performed on stage and in numerous television roles. Photo: Scott A. Drake
Nearly all of the board members of LGBT legal organization Equality Advocates Pennsylvania have resigned within the past two weeks. Ten of the 13 members stepped down in a move that Lynn Zeitlin, executive director of the group, said was part of a wider restructuring effort. The former board members include president Virginia Gutierez, vice president Trudi Sippola, treasurer Margaret Klaw, secretary Stephen Scardina and members Jodi Bromberg, Charles Ellis, Linda Aline Hawkins, Doug Metcalfe, Cody Poerio and Steven Sokoll. None of the members was willing to comment on the reason for their resignations, although Sippola said she felt it was “a good time for there to be some fresh energy on the board to take Equality Advocates into the next phase of its development.” Metcalfe, the former board
spokesperson who served on the body for seven years, said that “there are certainly some things that have happened in the organization that brought me to the decision that I needed to resign.” Under the restructuring, the organization will now be led by a steering committee including recently elected board members Brian Sims, Ann Loftus and Jay Meadway, as well as Zeitlin as an exofficio member. “The main purpose of this restructure is to expand as a statewide organization and to do the job that is our mission,” Zeitlin said. “I’m really very excited about the possibility of enacting legislation in Pennsylvania to achieve equality that LGBT people need and deserve.” Zeitlin said the board recently approved a resolution allowing for the restructuring. The proposal read, in part: “Equality Advocates Pennsylvania is reorganizing in order to work more effectively to achieve equality for LGBT See BOARD, Page 15
Mass. files suit against DOMA Pretend priest arrested By Jen Colletta PGN Staff Writer The United States government is being sued by one of its own over the federal ban on same-sex marriage. The state of Massachusetts filed suit against the federal government and numerous other parties last week, challenging the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act — the first state in the nation to do so. Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley filed the suit in U.S. District Court July 8, also naming the Department of Health and Human Services, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the Department of Veteran Affairs
and VA Secretary Eric Shinseki as defendants. The 1996 law prevents federal recognition of same-sex marriage and allows states the right to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages performed legally in other states. DOMA prohibits same-sex couples who have been legally married from having some 1,100 rights and responsibilities granted to heterosexual couples by the federal government, such as federal income-tax credits, healthinsurance coverage and Social Security and retirement benefits. Massachusetts was the first state in the nation to legalize samesex marriage in 2004 and, since then, more than 16,000 same-sex couples have received marriage
licenses there. The suit maintains that, prior to DOMA, the definition of marriage had been the “exclusive prerogative of the states,” but that Massachusetts and other states that now allow gay marriage must inherently discriminate against same-sex married couples in their states because of the denial of the federal benefits. “DOMA directly interferes with Massachusetts’ longstanding sovereign authority to define and regulate the marital status of its residents, which all states have enjoyed until this instance,” Coakley said during a press conference last week.
By Jen Colletta PGN Staff Writer
numerous times with the family of Police Office Richard Police arrested a man Hayes, who was this week who they allege critically injured had been impersonating a when a drunk driver Roman Catholic priest hit his patrol car last and visiting with families month. of slain and injured A police official, Philadelphia police however, thought officers. The man’s online Schlear looked social-networking pages too young to be a appear to indicate that he PAUL SCHLEAR priest and launched is gay. and conducted a Paul Schlear, 26, turned background check himself in to police July 13 and was on him, finding that he had only charged with criminal trespassing completed one year of education and false impersonation. He was at a seminary. released on $500 bail. In an interview with CBS 3 Police say Schlear donned a See PRIEST, Page 6 See DOMA, Page 7 priest’s clerical garb and visited