Strike three for Milano killer
Family Portrait: Ellen Braun takes us out of town PAGE 25
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Summer Wedding Issue PAGES 8-17
Out comedic duo takes Ambler by storm PAGE 23
Big business ops for Attic youth PAGE 5 Aug. 14-20, 2015
Since 1976
PGN Philadelphia Gay News HONESTY • INTEGRITY • PROFESSIONALISM
Vol. 39 No. 33
LGBT advocates blast SEPTA ruling
Christie again vetoes pro-trans bill
By Timothy Cwiek timothy@epgn.com
By Jen Colletta jen@epgn.com New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican presidential contender, this week vetoed legislation that would have eased restrictions for changing gender markers on birth certificates. The state’s current law mandates proof of gender-reassignment surgery before a birth certificate can be changed. The New Jersey legislature in June approved a bill that would have required proof of clinical treatment for gender transition, but not surgery, in order for the gender marker to be updated. Nine other states plus Washington, D.C., have enacted similar laws. The legislature passed a similar bill last year, but Christie also vetoed that measure. “Gov. Christie has elected to allow his state’s birth-certificate laws to deteriorate despite the overwhelming majority of support from the legislature to modernize,” said Arli Christian, state policy counsel for National Center for Transgender Equality. “His veto keeps in place outdated, burdensome requirements that make it incredibly difficult for transgender people to get birth certificates that match who they are.” Garden State Equality executive director Andrea Bowen called the surgery requirement “absurd and gruesome” but also “out of line with what the federal government does for U.S. passports and Social Security records and what New Jersey already does for its drivers’ licenses.” Like the stipulations of the vetoed bill, those departments rely on verification from a medical professional. “What the governor has done is nonsensical, cruel and, if you care at all about good government processes, illogical,” Bowen said. n
OUT FOR ONO: Hundreds turned out to Morgan’s Pier Aug. 6 for the monthly Our Night Out LGBT social, sponsored by Delaware Valley Legacy Fund. The Benjamin Franklin Bridge served as the picturesque backdrop for the outdoor event at the riverside restaurant and bar. The next ONO will be held Sept. 15 at Uptown Beer Garden. Photo: Scott A. Drake
New initiative to push for antibias law By Jen Colletta jen@epgn.com A coalition of local and national agencies launched this week to organize business support for legislation to ban LGBT discrimination in Pennsylvania. PA Competes is a new effort spearheaded by Equality Pennsylvania, the state and national chapters of American Civil Liberties Union, American Unity Fund, Gill Action and Human Rights Campaign. The campaign is designed to mobilize support from businesses large and small across the state in favor of adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the state’s nondiscrimination law. “The bottom line is that in order to be prosperous, our state has to appeal to as large an audience as possible, in terms of customers and employees,” said PA Competes board president and Equality PA executive director Ted Martin, who noted that all 23 of the Fortune 500 companies located in Pennsylvania have already enacted LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination policies. “They made that leap to say that they don’t discriminate a long time ago, long before the legislature, because they know this makes good business sense.
That’s the message PA Competes is trying to get across.” The website includes information about the current state of LGBT nondiscrimination in Pennsylvania, including a review of the 34 municipalities that have enacted their own ordinances and statistics about the overwhelming public support for such measures. It lists the 31 businesses that signed on to support the campaign as it launched and encourages businesses and individuals to sign a pledge in support of amending the state law. Martin said coalition partners will also work on the ground to get the message out. “We’re going to focus on winning business support but also on working closely with Republicans so we can get as broad a coalition as possible of people looking to win nondiscrimination,” he said. “We’re going to have a large field presence and Equality PA will also be using our efforts and our work to move both the legislature and the public on this issue.” LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination legislation, led by state Rep. Dan Frankel (D-23rd Dist.) and state Sen. Larry Farnese (D-First Dist.), has long been stalled in both houses of the legislature. The bills’ reintroduction is expected shortly. n
LGBT advocates are blasting last week’s Commonwealth Court ruling that exempts SEPTA from Philadelphia’s antibias laws. The city wants SEPTA to adhere to its LGBTinclusive antibias ordinance but SEPTA says it doesn’t have to because it’s a state agency. In a 5-2 ruling last week, Commonwealth Court sided with SEPTA, claiming the state legislature only intended for SEPTA to be subjected to state antibias rules, which don’t have LGBT protections. The contentious litigation has ensued for several years, and it’s expected to continue with another city appeal in state Supreme Court. SEPTA has about 9,000 workers and more than 1 million riders daily in Philadelphia and four nearby counties. The agency filed suit against the city in 2009, after trans woman Charlene Arcila complained to the city’s Human Relations Commission about SEPTA’s placement of gender stickers on its transpasses. Arcila died in April, and SEPTA no longer places gender markers on transpasses. But Arcila’s complaint remains held in abeyance, due to the possibility that monetary damPAGE 12
12 men arrested in sting near Rehoboth By Timothy Cwiek timothy@epgn.com Twelve men were arrested by Delaware police last month at a gay-male cruising area about 3 miles northwest of Rehoboth Beach. The arrests took place in a section of Cape Henlopen State Park known as Wolfe Neck, according to a statement issued by the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. The men were charged with violations such as criminal solicitation, offensive touching, lewdness, indecent exposure and loitering to engage in or solicit sex, according to the statement. John F. Brady, an attorney for two of the men, said authorities are continuing to engage in undercover sting operations in the area. PAGE 13