pgn Philadelphia Gay News LGBT NEWS SINCE 1976
Vol. 40 No. 39 Sept. 23-29, 2016
Casey pitches NCAA, hoping to score for Pennsylvania
ICandy staffer goes from the front door to the stage
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HONESTY • INTEGRITY • PROFESSIONALISM
Mombian: New book is transinclusive
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Southern charmers make (air) waves
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Study: Philly LGBT smoking rates lower than other areas of state By Paige Cooperstein paige@epgn.com
SINGING OUT SUMMER: Members of Philadelphia Gay Men’s Chorus ensemble group Brotherly Love provided the tunes for Culture in the Courtyard Sept. 20 at the Philadelphia City Hall Courtyard. Traveling beer-garden program Parks on Tap transformed the courtyard into an outdoor dining and drinking oasis, with craft beer from a mobile beer truck and dishes by Phoebes BBQ food truck. Parks on Tap pops up at Powers Park in Port Richmond through Sept. 25 and Lemon Hill Mansion Sept. 28-Oct. 2. GMC celebrates its annual masquerade gala Oct. 15. Photo: Scott A. Drake
Creating Change host committee seeking volunteers By Paige Cooperstein paige@epgn.com A frequent refrain from the September meeting of the local host committee for Creating Change was, “We need more people to sign up.” About 30 people have regularly attended meetings since March to plan the national conference sponsored annually by the National LGBTQ Task Force. It comes to Philadelphia Jan. 18-22. Host committee co-chair Aneesah Smith, who works on LGBT services at West Chester University, set a goal of 500 volunteers but only 42 have signed up so far. People who volunteer four hours any day of the conference get to attend any workshops that day for free. Young people are needed to help plan the youth hospitality suite, which will provide meals each day of the conference in addition to passive programming. People aged 16-24 are invited to offer input at 7 p.m. Sept. 27 at The Attic Youth Center, 255 S. 16th St. No volunteers have yet signed up for the community-housing committee, which will seek free accommodations for 75 attendees. Those interested can sign up at www.creatingchange.org or by contacting Smith at asmith4@wcupa.edu. On the financial end, two large gifts have been secured in the goal of raising $50,000, said host committee co-chair Samantha Giusti, executive director of DVLF, an LGBT grantmaking organization. Giusti said TD Bank has pledged $20,000 to support the opening reception for Creating Change. Pride Institute, an LGBT organization based in Minnesota, has pledged $3,000 for recovery services. The next host committee meeting is Oct. 18 at William Way. Task Force officials will attend to answer questions. n
Tobacco usage emerged as an unexpected health disparity for LGBT people in Pennsylvania, according to results from a study led by the Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center in Allentown. Executive director Adrian Shanker coordinated the research with LGBT centers across the state for over a year. Sponsored by the Pennsylvania Department of Health, it’s the first statewide data collection on LGBT health. The William Way LGBT Community Center in the Gayborhood administered the sur-
vey to 1,218 people in Philadelphia, Chester, Bucks, Delaware and Montgomery counties. Results were released at the end of August. More than 600 people from the Lehigh Valley and Central Pennsylvania completed surveys last year. All reported smoking at higher rates than the general population, 24 percent of which said they smoked. But the more rural the area LGBT people lived in, the more likely they were to smoke. In the Philadelphia region, 34.3 percent of LGBT people reported smoking. That number is 37 percent in the Lehigh Valley and 43 percent in Central Pennsylvania. Isolating the PAGE 18
LGBT police group prez: Trump ‘represents none of us’ By Paige Cooperstein paige@epgn.com The president of the Greater Philadelphia Gay Officer Action League took to Facebook this week to publish a nearly 800word post disagreeing with the city’s police union for endorsing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. “GOAL is in the unique position of not only representing various law enforcement agencies, but representing lesbians, gay men, trans* identified officers, non-binary officers, people of color and all the various beliefs, life experiences and situations a police officer can live,” wrote Jo Mason, GOAL president. “It is my personal belief that not only does Trump not represent most of us, but rather? He represents none of us.” Mason said they wrote the post
speaking for themselves and not every member of GOAL. “To try to get everyone to agree on one thing politically is nearly impossible,” they said. “We can’t all agree sometimes on where we want to get a beer or go out to eat after work.” But Mason said they talked to GOAL before making a statement and, while members support various political parties, the majority of them agreed with Mason’s post. They also heard from the Guardian Civic League, an organization for black police officers in Philadelphia, and SALEA, an organization for Latino officers in the city, which similarly did not feel supported by Trump. More than 50 percent of the force in Philadelphia comes from a minority background, Mason said. Speaking to CBS News Sept. 19, John McNesby, president of the Philadelphia police union,
said the campaign for Democrat Hillary Clinton refused to participate in the endorsement process. “She just disregarded and blew the police off,” McNesby said. “We put out a questionnaire and she absolutely refused … outright refused, with a nasty campaign rebuttal to why she wouldn’t … We went in and we participated with the candidate that cooperated. He filled it out. We met with him.” Mason’s post said they respected McNesby and the entire board of the local police union, Lodge 5. They told PGN that McNesby was the first to pledge money and support a safe space for the GOAL chapter that started here last year. Mason talked with McNesby about the Trump endorsement. “I don’t fault John for the decision he made,” Mason said. “He fell in line with the national organization. He’s PAGE 21