Lesbian filmmaker new film is a matter of “Circumstance.”
Family Portrait: Joe Ippolito
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ACLU of PA gets a new director
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Sept. 9-15, 2011
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Vol. 35 No. 36
Sims to run for PA House seat
Lawyer and activist Brian Sims hopes to unseat longtime Democratic LGBT ally Babette Josephs for the 182nd District. By Jen Colletta jen@epgn.com Although he recently stepped down as board president of Equality Pennsylvania, Brian Sims isn’t ending his advocacy for LGBT rights: Next spring he plans to vie to become the first openly gay state lawmaker in Pennsylvania. Sims intends to run in the April 2012 primary for the 182nd District House seat, currently held by Rep. Babette Josephs (D). Last month Sims announced he would not run for another term as board president of Equality PA after two years at the helm, in which he oversaw the restructuring of the agency. He also recently stepped down from his two-year tenure as a member of the national campaign board of Victory Fund, which works to elect LGBT candidates to public office. He noted that his experience with that organization proved influential in his decision to run for the state House. “Victory Fund did a very good job of crunching the numbers and coming up with the data on the net effect an LGBT person can have in office, and when I joined the board, I just buried myself in those numbers,” he said. “What’s clear is that there is no statistical substitute for having a gay person in a legislative body — no matter how strong the allies, no matter how many the allies, LGBT issues that can be
BRIAN SIMS Photo: Scott A. Drake
affected by the legislature are affected most when there is an openly gay person serving. From a school board to Congress, whether a gay person introduces a piece of pro-LGBT legislation or not, that person’s colleagues will be working with them on traffic law, on how to handle educational funding, and when that pro-LGBT bill
comes up, they will have had all that time to interact with an LGBT person, which can have an enormous effect on furthering that legislation.” Josephs, who has long been an ally to the LGBT community, has represented the 182nd District since 1984. Sims, who served as Josephs’ campaign treasurer in the 2010 election cycle, said his run for office is not a commentary on her work on LGBT issues. “It’s because of someone like Babette that I’m able to run,” he said. “It’s because of the attention she’s brought to women’s rights, reproductive rights, social-justice issues, civil rights and gay rights that someone like me has the opportunity to run and win in this district. Her work has allowed me to do it; it’s not despite it. Her approach since when she started serving was to create an environment where diversity — whether it be gender, sexual orientation, racial and ethnic diversity — could flourish, and that’s the case.” When working with LGBT advocates to identify possible out candidates, Sims, who said community members have asked him to run numerous times, heard his name again. “After years of trying to help get people elected who know our issues and then after years of also advocating for those issues, it became obvious to me that the person I was looking for for this district was me,” he said. “I PAGE 23
Murphy to celebrate DADT repeal in Philly By Jen Colletta jen@epgn.com The military’s ban on openly gay servicemembers will be officially relegated to the history books later this month — an occasion the Philadelphia LGBT and ally community will celebrate. The community is invited to the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Repeal Celebration Happy Hour from 5-7 p.m. Sept. 20 at Tabu, 200 S. 12th St. Former Pennsylvania Congressman Patrick Murphy will headline the event, organized by Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, Equality Pennsylvania and Chatterblast Media. Murphy, an Iraq War veteran, was the lead sponsor of the bill that repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Murphy lost his Congressional seat a month before the bill received final Congressional approval, after he’d taken over the proposed measure in summer 2009, and said the fight was more challenging than he originally envisioned. “It was a lot tougher than I thought it would be,” he said. “Even though most Americans and most folks in Washington knew it was right to PAGE 16
New exhibit looks at 30 years of AIDS By Jen Colletta jen@epgn.com This fall, Philadelphia will showcase an interactive, multimedia history of the AIDS epidemic. The William Way LGBT Community Center will host “1981-Until It’s Over,” a display created by AIDS Fund to examine the myriad milestones
in the 30 years of the epidemic, along with the past 25 years of Philadelphia’s AIDS Walk. “We felt that we wanted to commemorate these milestones,” said AIDS Fund executive director Robb Reichard. “We wanted to take a look back at where we were and where we are now.” The exhibit will run Sept. 15Dec. 15, with an opening reception the first evening from 6-8 at
the center, 1315 Spruce St. The show will be constructed around one panel for each of the 30 years of the epidemic, detailing information on the most newsworthy items relating to HIV/AIDS each year. The exhibit is presented in a national context but will have a heavy local focus, Reichard said. While each panel will contain highlights of that year, binders
will also be available for guests who want to learn more about certain occurrences. For instance, while President Reagan’s first address on the disease in 1987 is noted on the panels, the full text of the speech in which he referenced the epidemic is included in the supplemental material. By the time Reagan had even said “AIDS” in public, the FDA had already PAGE 16