Grey Henson brings Mormon musical to stage PAGE 23
NJ school will work with the family of a trans student on gender-identity respect. PAGE 5
Transgender teen suicide is a call to arms PAGE 10
Family Portrait: Elizabeth Granahan hits the links PAGE 25
Aug. 22-28, 2014
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Vol. 38 No. 34
New LGBT film fest to debut
Philly AIDS Thrift to reopen Giovanni’s Room By Angela Thomas angela@epgn.com
By Gary M. Kramer PGN Contributor A n ew L G B T fi l m f e s t ival — qFLIX — is coming to Philadelphia next month. Thom Cardwell, who has been involved in dozens of area film festivals, is spearheading the five-day event, which will take place Sept. 18-22 at various venues along the Avenue of the Arts, including the Kimmel Center, the Prince Music Theater and the University of the Arts. “People were asking me about an LGBT film festival. I don’t want to live in a city that lost their [queer] film festival,” Cardwell said in a recent phone interview about why he started qFLIX. “We got some support from the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, the Wyncote Foundation and the Greater Philadelphia Film Office as well as our sponsor, the Philadelphia Independent Film and Video Association,” where Cardwell is on the board. “So I thought, rather than just talking about it or skipping a year and not having a festival, let’s go for it!” qFLIX will be different than QFest, or the Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, which would have celebrated its 20th anniversary in July but was postponed. Organizers said they might stage two mini festivals, one in the fall and the other in the spring. For qFLIX, both opening- and closing-night titles were being kept under wraps, but films that have been booked include “Tiger Orange” by director/co-writer Wade Gasque, a drama about the reunion of two estranged gay brothers (Frankie Valenti, aka adult-film star Johnny Hazzard, and co-writer PAGE 14
THE NEW CHAPTER: Philly AIDS Thrift announced this week that it has signed a lease for the space occupied by the recently shuttered Giovanni’s Room. The PAT outpost, officially opening in October, will be known as Philly AIDS Thrift @ Giovanni’s Room. Giovanni’s Room founder Ed Hermance (from left) was on hand for the lease signing Aug. 16, along with Alan Chelak, who will manage the new store, and PAT co-founders Christina Kallas-Saritsoglou and Tom Brennan. Last fall, Hermance announced his intention to retire and sell the business and buildings, but closed the shop in the spring after being unable to secure a buyer. Photo: Scott A. Drake
The doors to the nation’s oldest LGBT bookstore have been closed all summer. But a deal was inked last week that will reopen them. On Aug. 16, Philly AIDS Thrift signed a two-year lease to rent the Gayborhood building that houses Giovanni’s Room — and to open a new business that will, in part, keep the iconic name. Philly AIDS Thrift @ Giovanni’s Room will open Oct. 10, with sneak-peak shopping days throughout September. The store will offer new and used LGBTcentric books, as well as a wide variety of higher-end thrift-shop items. The new store will be considered an outpost of PAT’s successful flagship store at 710 S. Fifth St. PAT is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt charitable organization, which donates proceeds from sales to AIDS Fund, which distributes funding to area HIV/AIDS service organizations. PAT office manager Alan Chelak will manage the new shop, which will operate with two full-time employees and six people in all on payroll. Philly AIDS Thrift @ Giovanni’s Room will encompass the 3,000-square-foot building at the corner of 12th and Pine streets It will stock $15,000 worth of LGBT-related books, about 2,000 titles, as well as items such as clothing, jewelry and small furniture. The store will still offer books and ebooks online at www.queerbooks.com. PAGE 21 Chelak told PGN the store would
State agency: No public hearing in Morris appeal By Timothy Cwiek timothy@epgn.com The state Office of Open Records this week denied PGN’s request for a public hearing in its appeal for key records in the Nizah Morris case. The paper wants the agency to direct the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office to release computer-assisted dispatch records relating to the Morris case. PGN requested a public hearing to ensure careful scrutiny of the facts, prior to rendering a decision. Instead, the open-records agency said it will decide the appeal on written submissions. But it agreed to set new deadlines, to ensure PGN can respond to a submission the D.A.’s Office is expected to have filed by Aug. 21, the day after this PGN edition went to press.
The paper will have until 5 p.m. Aug. 26 to respond to the D.A.’s submission. A final determination by the agency will be issued on or before Oct. 10, the agency said. The paper seeks all dispatch records in the D.A.’s possession pertaining to a vehicle stop initiated by Officer Elizabeth Skala during the early-morning hours of Dec. 22, 2002. Shortly before the vehicle stop, Skala gave Morris a courtesy ride in Center City. Minutes after the ride, the transwoman was found with blunt-force trauma to her head. Skala’s unrelated vehicle stop took place near 13th and Market streets, while she was still assigned to handle Morris, who was extremely inebriated. It’s believed that dispatch records for the vehicle stop could help explain why Morris’ initial police-tracking numbers were voided
at the 911 call center. Voiding those tracking numbers cleared the way for responding officers to file paperwork that didn’t mention the courtesy ride, nor the subsequent assault. Despite repeated questioning by members of the public, local authorities have never explained why the tracking numbers were voided. The state’s open-records agency rarely holds public hearings, said Melissa B. Melewsky, medial law counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association. “The relatively small staff and large case load of the [agency] make it difficult for them to hold hearings,” Melewsky said. “But hearings can be a useful tool for litigants who have complex cases where testimony given under oath would be helpful. There’s really no subPAGE 20 stitute for cross-examining