pgn Philadelphia Gay News LGBT NEWS SINCE 1976
Vol. 42 No. 38 Sept. 21-27, 2018
Foster-care court challenge update PAGE 2
Family Portrait: George Franklin is leading MACT into a new era PAGE 19
HONESTY • INTEGRITY • PROFESSIONALISM
Getting ‘Syked’
Judge allows ballistics evidence in trans murder
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Wagner faces backlash for transphobic meme By Adriana Fraser adriana@epgn.com
IN MEMORIAM: Nearly 100 people, including family, friends and neighbors, gathered for a “Call to Action” march at Hunting Park Avenue and Old York Road Sept. 12 to memorialize Shantee Tucker, 30. Tucker, a trans woman, was shot eight times in Hunting Park on Sept. 5. After the march, a vigil was held during which Tucker’s mother (second row, left) and cousins eulogized the victim and spoke of the importance of finding her killer and reporting information to the police, even if anonymously. Photo: Kelly Burkhardt.
Bi Visibility Day seeks to dispel myths By Ray Simon PGN Contributor Bi Visibility Day promises to bring some well-deserved attention to an often-overlooked and occasionally misunderstood part of the LGBTQ community. The event will be held 6 p.m. Sept. 23 at William Way LGBT Community Center, 1315 Spruce St. The Bisexual Pride flag will be raised and there will be brief remarks from community members, including Amber Hikes, director of the Mayor’s Office for LGBT Affairs, and Katie Schank, a therapist at Mazzoni Center. Afterward, attendees are encouraged to head over to the Toasted Walnut, 1316 Walnut St. for conversation and drinks. This year marks Philadelphia’s third-annual celebration of Bi Visibility Day. It was organized by a handful of local residents, including Steven Johnston, who founded the group Philly Bi Visibility in 2016, and Janice Rael, an out bisexual and activist from South Jersey. Bi Visibility Day may not draw crowds as
large as Gay Pride, but it is especially meaningful to people who identify as bisexual, explained Terri Clark, prevention services coordinator at Action Wellness. The event gives bisexuals a kind of permission to come together as part of the larger LGBTQ community, she said, adding it’s also a way to educate other identities. “It gives the rest of the lesbian, gay, transgender and our hetero allies the opportunity to make the ‘B’ visible, to see that and to learn more and more about it.” In fact, said Clark, there are plenty of people whose attraction, behavior or identity could be described as bisexual. “We as a bi community often talk about the ‘bi umbrella.’ Under it are people who might identify as queer or pansexual or homoflexible or heteroflexible.” Bisexual individuals are frequently misidentified based on the gender of their partner, Clark noted. A bisexual woman dating a man, for example, is assumed to be heterosexual. But there are also persistent myths about PAGE 9 bisexuality that stymie
A campaign official for the Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial candidate is defending one of his consultants, who shared a transphobic meme, saying he will not be fired after Democrats called for his resignation. The candidate, Scott Wagner, came under fire last week for his lack of response to a transphobic image Ray Zaborney, his campaign consultant, sent via group text to several campaign staffers. A Billy Penn reporter published screenshots of the meme after Zaborney mistakenly included the journalist on the group message. Jason High, Wagner’s campaign manager and one of the recipients of the text, denounced the backlash against the Republican candidate by Democratic poli-
ticians in the state and trans activists, and reaffirmed the candidate’s commitment to LGBTQ rights. “To question [Wagner’s] commitment to LGBTQ rights because of one text by a consultant who poorly judged the line between humor and sensitivity is ludicrous,” High wrote in an email to PGN. Wagner “has been a strong advocate for the LGBTQ community as both a business owner and lawmaker. He was vilified throughout the Republican primary for shepherding an anti-discrimination bill through the Senate, and even after millions in negative advertising was spent against him on the issue, he refused to back down one inch from demanding equal rights for LGBTQ individuals.” Wagner has yet to publicly respond to the incident. Henry Sias, co-chair of Liberty City PAGE 9 LGBT Democratic Club
Kavanaugh accuser delays vote By Victoria A. Brownworth PGN Contributor Call it Anita Hill 2.0. Or, if you’re the Wall Street Journal, "The #MeToo Ambush of Kavanaugh," as the editorial board deemed it in a smugly dismissive editorial Sept. 18. Regardless, the accusation by Stanford professor Dr. Christine Blasey Ford that U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh had attempted to rape her when the two were in high school has upended the confirmation process. The allegations made by Ford are shocking. What has happened since? Nearly as shocking. It began in July, when Ford contacted her Congressperson, Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, via letter. In it, she detailed the attempted rape by Kavanaugh at a suburban Maryland party when she was 15 and he was 17. According to Ford’s account, which she gave to the Washington Post, Kavanaugh shoved her into a room at a party and locked
the door. With him, she said, was his friend, Mark Judge, now a conservative writer. She described them both as having been drunk. Ford was pushed down and Kavanaugh got on top of her, she said, grinding his body against hers and clumsily attempting to pull off her one-piece bathing suit and the clothing she wore over it. Kavanaugh put his hand over her mouth when she screamed, Ford said. "He was trying to attack me and remove my clothing," she told the Post. While this was happening, she added, Judge had turned up the music and was egging Kavanaugh on. When Kavanaugh covered her mouth to muffle her screams, Ford said she thought he "might inadvertently kill me." She said she was able to escape when Judge jumped on her as well and they fell to the floor. She ran out and locked herself in a bathroom, then went home. "I think it derailed me substantially for four or five years," Ford recounted. She described the incident as a "rape attempt" during a therapy session in 2012, according to her therapist’s notes obtained by the Post. PAGE 12 Kavanaugh, 53, has