PGN 10/26/12-11/1/12 edition

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Classic Halloween of “Rocky” and rock

30-year milestone for the Penn LGBT Center

Family Portrait: Chaz Bono

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Oct. 26 - Nov. 1, 2012

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Vol. 36 No. 43

Appeals court strikes down DOMA in favor of Philly native By Jen Colletta jen@epgn.com

SURVEYS FOR SERVICES: Public Health Management Corporation presented results from its recent study on LGBT older-adult health issues at a town hall meeting Oct. 20. Heshie Zinman (standing), co-chair of LGBT Elder Initiative, spoke to a crowd of about 50 at the meeting, which was held at The Church of St. Luke and The Epiphany. The study included participation by more than 250 local LGBTs, 55 and over, and the findings included recommendations for improving access to health care and services for LGBT older adults. Photo: Patrick Hagerty

Upper Merion unanimously bans discrimination By Angela Thomas angela@epgn.com Although it is still legal in most of Pennsylvania for an LGBT person to be fired for his or her orientation, one local town last week took a decisive step against discrimination. U p p e r M e r i o n Tow n s h i p became the 29th municipality in the state to pass an LGBT nondiscrimination law Oct. 18. The measure bans discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in housing, employment and public accommodations. The vote by the township board of supervisors was unanimous.

The Montgomery County township is located about 16 miles from Philadelphia and is home to such municipalities as King of Prussia. About 28,000 people live in Upper Merion. Equality Pennsylvania executive director Ted Martin said that, as far as he knew, there was no controversy surrounding the measure. “No one spoke against it, which is great,” he said. “I know the board of supervisors had many conversations behind the scenes, but that is a very good thing.” Township Supervisor Gregory Waks said the progress to pass the law was slow. W a k s PAGE 9

A federal appeals court in New York last week became the second in the nation to declare a portion of the federal ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional — and the first to call for anti-LGBT discrimination to warrant a higher level of judicial review. A panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals last Thursday found, in a 2-1 ruling, that the Defense of Marriage Act violates the equal-protection guarantee in the Constitution. It also asserted that laws that classify people based on sexual orientation should be considered using heightened scrutiny, a stricter type of judicial review

that has previously been applied to cases involved discrimination based on sex, race and religion. The ruling was made in the case of Edith Windsor, a Philadelphia native and New York resident who was forced to pay more than $350,000 in federal estate taxes following the death of her longtime partner, Thea Spyer. “This law violated the fundamental American principle of fairness that we all cherish,” Windsor said in a statement last week. “I know Thea would have been so proud to see how far we have come in our fight to be treated with dignity.” DOMA, passed in 1996, prohibits the federal government from recognizing legal same-sex marriages, and thus prevents same-

sex couples from enjoying the federal inheritance tax exemption that married heterosexual couples are given. “The federal courts keep coming to the same conclusion: Treating married same-sex couples differently than married different-sex couples is just plain unconstitutional,” said Susan Sommer, director of constitutional litigation at Lambda Legal. Windsor, 83, who attended Temple University and later moved to New York, married Spyer in Canada in 2007, and Spyer died two years later — after New York began to recognize same-sex marriages legally performed in foreign jurisdictions, but before the state itself sanctioned marriage equality. PAGE 16

Local publication to name top LGBT companies By Angela Thomas angela@epgn.com

ON THE FRONT LINES: The Oct. 20 Philly AIDS Walk/Run kicked off Oct. 20 with 337 runners setting off in the run, which was up 10 percent from last year’s event. The first run took place in 2001 and was a 12K run until it became a 5K in 2009. AIDS FUND gave awards to the top female and male runners and also included awards within various age groups. Overall first-place winner of the race went to Kimon Ioannides, second place to Musa Al-Saulaimani and third place to Lucas DeForest. See more photo coverage on page 19. Photo: Scott A. Drake

Gay Gay History History Month Month Special Special Coverage Coverage

San Francisco’s GLBT History Museum

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Local LGBT-owned businesses will be in the spotlight early next year. The Philadelphia Business Journal, with the support of LGBT chamber of commerce Independence Business Alliance, is gearing up to produce its first-ever list of the city’s 25 best LGBT-owned businesses. The list, which will be published in the Jan. 4 issue of PBJ, will mark only the second one of its kind created by a city business publication; the first was produced in Minneapolis. According to IBA president Evan Urbania, the idea has been in discussion for years. “We’ve done some PAGE 19

Baron von Steuben redux PAGE 7


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