Honesty Integrity Professionalism
Oct. 1 - 7, 2010
NJ student believed dead after gay sex video A freshman at Rutgers University is believed to have committed suicide after his roommate allegedly set up a live-stream video feed of him having sex with a man. Eighteen-year-old Tyler Clementi’s body had not been found as of Wednesday afternoon, but police had identified an abandoned car, parked on the George Washington Bridge, as his. Clementi’s roommate, Dharun Ravi, and Ravi’s friend Molly Wei, both 18, were arrested this week and charged with two counts of invasion of privacy for allegedly setting up a hidden video camera to film Clementi’s sexual encounter last week in the boys’ dorm room on the New Brunswick campus. Ravi was charged with an additional two counts of invasion of privacy for attempting to transmit another live feed Sept. 21. On Sept. 19, Ravi created a Twitter post describing that Clementi had asked to be alone in the room until midnight, and Ravi turned on his web cam and viewed Clementi “making out with a dude” from Wei’s room. He allegedly directed followers to his iChat account, where he streamed the sexual encounter live. Ravi allegedly unsuccessfully attempted to air another broadcast two days later. Ravi turned himself in on Sept. 28 and was released on $25,000 bail, and Wei surrendered the day before and was released without having to post bail. ■ — Jen Colletta
By Jen Colletta PGN Staff Writer
CHANGE-MAKERS: About 200 people packed the Franklin Institute Sept. 28 to pay tribute to local community activists selected by Bread & Roses Community Fund for their contributions to social change. This year’s Tribute to Change Awards featured such honorees as Paul Robeson Lifetime Achievement winner Carmen Febo-San Miguel, as well as Phil Straus, Dorothy Johnson-Speight, Blanca Pacheco and Scribe Video Center. Legacy Awards were presented in memoriam to Jonathan Schmidt and LGBT activists Walter Lear and Larry Frankel. Photo: Scott A. Drake
By Jen Colletta PGN Staff Writer
See EQPA, Page 16
Vol. 34 No. 40
CDC: Philly men unaware of HIV status
Equality PA, HRC team up Local LGBT advocacy group Equality Pennsylvania has formed a unique partnership with the nation’s largest LGBT organization to fuel both statewide and national education and action on issues. EQPA announced last week that it is joining forces with the Human Rights Campaign with the hiring of a staffer who will work on behalf of both organiza-
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Philadelphia Gay News
HONORING OUR HEROES: LGBT grantmaking agency Delaware Valley Legacy Fund hosted its annual Heroes event Sept. 24, honoring local individuals and organizations that have gone above and beyond to contribute to the LGBT community: Chris Bartlett, Mazzoni Center and Whole Foods. Fundraising totals are not tallied yet, but the event drew about 60 guests, including DVLF board vice president Mark Mitchell (from left), Whole Foods store team leader Dale Stirzel and community liaison Carolyn Reinhardt, DVLF executive director Michael Kendrick, Mazzoni Center executive director Nurit Shein and the Hon. Ann Butchart, accepting on behalf of Bartlett. Photo: Scott A. Drake
A new report by the Centers for Disease Control found that about one in five men who have sex with men (MSM) in large U.S. cities has HIV. While HIV prevalence in Philadelphia was slightly lower than in other locales, the city’s percentage of men who were unaware of their HIV status was markedly higher. The study, published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on Sept. 24, looked at data from 21 metropolitan statistical areas, including Philadelphia that participated in the CDC’s National HIV Behavioral Surveillance system in 2008. In the cities, researchers interviewed and tested 8,153 MSM and found that approximately 19 percent of the men were HIVpositive. The report also examined the number of men who were previously unaware that they were infected with HIV — about 44 percent of the total 1,562 infected men across the 21 cities. In Philadelphia, 440 men were included in the study, with 48, about 11 percent, eventually testing positive for the disease. Of those participants, 34 — or 71 percent — had not known their status. While the city was in the lower bracket for HIV prevalence, only Baltimore and San Juan, P.R., reported higher percentages of men who had been unaware of their HIV status. Brian Green, executive director of The Safeguards Project, noted that the CDC study looked at prevalence — the number of HIV infections per a population — as opposed to incidence — the overall rate of new HIV infections. While the city reported 11 percent of men included in the study were HIV-positive, Green noted that Philadelphia’s HIV incidence is alarming, recently found to be twice that of New York See CDC, Page 19