Day in the Life of ... : A pin-up model
Peaches and sour cream PAGE 21
Family Portrait: Ozzie Perez is all about fabulous
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Philly DA refuses court order in Nizah Morris case
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Sept. 18-24, 2015
Since 1976
PGN Philadelphia Gay News HONESTY • INTEGRITY • PROFESSIONALISM
Vol. 39 No. 38
City appeals sEPTA ruling By Timothy Cwiek timothy@epgn.com In a 35-page petition filed last week, the city asked the state Supreme Court to review a lower-court ruling exempting SEPTA from adherence to the city’s LGBT-inclusive antibias rules. The Aug. 7 ruling by Commonwealth Court was blasted by LGBT advocates, who maintain SEPTA’s LGBT riders and employees would be negatively impacted if SEPTA doesn’t have to comply with local antibias rules. SEPTA has about 9,000 workers and more than 600,000 riders daily. The transit system serves Philadelphia, four nearby Pennsylvania counties and some areas of New Jersey and Delaware. But SEPTA claims that, as a state agency, it doesn’t have to comply with the city’s LGBTinclusive antibias rules. Instead, it complies with the state’s antibias rules, which aren’t LGBTinclusive. The highly contentious litiga-
tion began 2009, after trans woman Charlene Arcila complained to the city’s Human Relations Commission about SEPTA’s placement of gender stickers on transpasses. Arcila died in April, and SEPTA no longer places gender stickers on transpasses. But Arcila’s complaint remains held in abeyance, due to the possibility that monetary damages will be awarded to her estate. In August, Commonwealth Court ruled that exposing SEPTA to complaints such as Arcila’s would be unduly burdensome. “Spending [public] funds to ensure compliance with any potential number of different local anti-discrimination statutes would divert [the funds] away from SEPTA’s core mission of providing public transportation,” the ruling stated. The city’s Sept. 8 petition claims that SEPTA has a $1.65-billion annual operating budget, and should be capable of complying with the city’s antibias rules. The petiPAGE 18
Three-alarm fire displaces dozens in gayborhood By Paige Cooperstein paige@epgn.com
ThREE-ALARM TUEsDAy: A fire broke out at a construction site at 13th and Chancellor streets early Tuesday morning, burning the old Letto Deli to the ground. The Gayborhood spot — formerly the home of a Dewey’s lunch counter that was closed by a fire in the 1960s — was being renovated for a new French restaurant. Dozens of residents of two nearby apartment buildings were evacuated, but no injuries were reported. There was no immediate word on the cause of the blaze. Photo: Scott A. Drake
Joseph Hallman awoke to several loud popping sounds about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday. He thought they were gunshots. When he got up to go to the bathroom, he looked out his ninth-floor window in Chancellor Apartments in the Gayborhood and saw flames climbing near the front of his building. A few moments later, the fire alarm began blaring and Hallman rushed down the stairs. “I’ve lived in Philadelphia all my life and never experienced a fire in or next to a high rise,” he said. “That was fear-inducing. Just the sheer movement of hundreds of people being evacuated, I’d never experienced it.” The Chancellor and Gramercy apartment buildings in the 200 block of South 13th Street were evacuated in the early morning hours of Sept. 15 after a three-alarm fire broke out at a nearby restaurant. Officials believe the fire started at the former Letto Deli, 208 S. 13th St., which is under construction to become a French restaurant, Maison 208. The cause was still under investigation at presstime. No one was injured. Firefighters spent over an hour battling the blaze, residents said. Hallman said he and his neighbors from the 24-floor Chancellor gathered on the sidewalk outside the building for hours waiting for news. It was chilly and several people had left their apartments without shoes or shirts, PAGE 14 he said.
Gender-neutral bathrooms proposed for Philly By Paige Cooperstein paige@epgn.com
LET’s DO ThE TIME WARP: The Bingo Verifying Divas performed “The Time Warp” to welcome guests to “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”-themed GayBINGO! Sept. 12 at Gershman Y. The event kicked off the 20th-anniversary season of the monthy fundraising event, which supports AIDSFund. The BVDs were joined on stage by members of Transylvanian Nipple Productions, a local “Rocky Horror” troupe. GayBINGO! returns Nov. 21 with a “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” theme. Photo: Scott A. Drake
Many single-use public bathrooms in Philadelphia could become gender neutral, pending an ordinance in City Council. Councilman Mark Squilla, who represents the First District including the Gayborhood, introduced the ordinance at Council’s Sept. 10 meeting. Council President Darrell L. Clarke referred the proposed ordinance to committee discussion. Supporters say the ordinance would make it easier for transgender and gender-nonconforming people to find a public restroom.
It’s also expected to help caretakers with opposite-sex charges and parents with children. “Philadelphia is a progressive city trying to meet the ever-changing needs of its residents and visitors,” Anne Kelly King, chief of staff for Squilla, wrote in an email to PGN. She said Nellie Fitzpatrick, director of the city’s Office of LGBT Affairs, approached Squilla with the idea. Earlier this year, Fitzpatrick helped launch the “Philly Gotta Go Guide,” an online resource that pinpoints public and commercial single-use, gender-neutral bathrooms on a Google map.
It’s available at http://ow.ly/ S39EM. “It became very obvious in speaking to individuals and looking at what we’ve done that there’s a need here,” Fitzpatrick said. The bathroom ordinance would apply to single rooms that include only one toilet and sink. The ordinance would amend the “Regulation of Businesses, Trades and Professions” section of the city code to require retail establishments, city-owned buildings and any entity that owns or leases a structure open to the public to mark all single-use bathrooms with PAGE 18