Frenchie shares her joie de vivre
Professional Portrait: Jeffrey Shablin PAGE 17
New information on the search for an AIDS cure
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Aug. 17-23, 2012
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Vol. 36 No. 33
Voter-ID law upheld
EQPA leader gets national role By Jen Colletta jen@epgn.com The head of Pennsylvania’s statewide LGBT-rights organization will bring his local experiences to a national stage. Equality Pennsylvania executive director Ted Martin was elected last weekend to the board of directors of the Equality Federation, a coalition of LGBT-rights state agencies. He will also serve on the board of the Equality Federation Institute, the organization’s outreach branch. The election took place Aug. 11 during the group’s annual conference, held this year in Portland, Maine. This marks the first time in five years that a Pennsylvania representative will serve on the board. Martin took the helm of Equality PA in 2010. He said his involvement in the board will help to raise Pennsylvania’s profile in the LGBTrights world, which could have myriad effects. “I want to be able to bring back ideas to Pennsylvania, make national contacts, which could help with creating new funders, making new allies,” he said. “Generally, I hope this helps publicize what we’re doing here. For so long, not many people knew what was happening in Pennsylvania and I think this’ll help put us on the map, and show people that there’s a lot of great work�� being done in Pennsylvania.” Equality PA board president Adrian Shanker said Martin’s election “further highlights that Pennsylvania is a state to watch for LGBT equality.” “Since 2010, we have played a role in many important victories PAGE 7
By Jen Colletta jen@epgn.com
FUNDS FROM PHILLY: About 55 supporters turned out Aug. 14 to Brian Sims’ campaign headquarters for a fundraising event for Victory Fund, which works to elect openly LGBT candidates. Among the guests were Sims (from right), who is set to become Pennsylvania’s first out state lawmaker in November; VF board member Harvey Hurdle; VF-endorsed candidate Chris Dietz, who is running for the 104th District seat in the Pennsylvania House; former VF-endorsed Philadelphia City Council candidate Sherrie Cohen; VF development director Tim Meinke; and VF board relations associate Derek Jansante. The event raised more than $15,170. Photo: Scott A. Drake
Philly welcomes out Israeli diplomat By Jen Colletta jen@epgn.com Elad Strohmayer has lived and worked in diverse locales such as Angola, Israel and Washington, D.C. — and now has a new city to call home. Strohmayer this week began his position as the Deputy Consul General at the Consulate General of Israel to the Mid-Atlantic Region, based in Philadelphia. The consulate serves as the official liaison between
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the State of Israel and residents of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Delaware, Kentucky, West Virginia and Southern New Jersey. Strohmayer, 31, who is openly gay, will wear a wide array of hats in his new role — working alongside newly minted Consul General Yaron Sideman to oversee the consulate’s press and publicaffairs efforts, academic and public-speaking engagements, policy and political work, PAGE 2 commer-
ELAD STROHMAYER Photo: Jen Colletta
A judge this week upheld Pennsylvania’s new voter-identification law, which critics say could make it harder for low-income, elderly and transgender voters to head to the polls. Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson ruled Wednesday in the highly publicized case, denying plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction, which would have stopped the law from going into effect in November. Republican lawmakers approved the measure this past spring in an action that some say was designed to limit participation by Democratic voters in upcoming elections. The challenge to the law was spearheaded by the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania. Among the witnesses were several elderly voters who have been unable to attain proper identification, as well as a transgender Pittsburgh man who contends his ID card could be challenged by poll workers. Simpson wrote that the witnesses presented were compelling, but their testimony did not constitute evidence that would call for the overturning of the law. “Petitioners’ counsel did an excellent job of ‘putting a face’ to those burdened by the voter-ID requirement,” Simpson wrote. “At the end of the day, however, I do not have the luxury of deciding this issue based on my sympathy for the witnesses or my esteem for counsel. Rather, I must analyze the law, and apply it to evidence of facial unconstitutionality brought forth in the courtroom, tested by our adversarial system.” In order for a preliminary injunction to be granted, the plaintiffs must have demonstrated a number of factors; however, Simpson argued that they failed to prove an injunction was needed to prevent immediPAGE 7 ate and irreparable harm
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