Holiday cheer throughout the PAGE 14 Gayborhood
Family Portrait: Tara Lessard, behind the lens PAGE 29
LGBT parent books for the year Looking back at 2013’s films
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Dec. 27, 2013 - Jan. 2, 2014
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Top Stories 2013
MOVING FORWARD
MARRIAGE MILESTONES SAYING GOODBYE
City adopts groundbreaking LGBT-reform law
SCOTUS makes historic ruling
Sisters shuts down
The U.S. Supreme Court handed down a seminal ruling this summer that drastically changed the marriage-equality movement. In a 5-4 ruling June 26, the nation’s top court found that Section 3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which prevents the federal government from recognizing legal samesex marriages, violates the equal-protection clause in the U.S. Constitution. The decision came in the Photo: Associated Press case of Edie Windsor, a Philadelphia native and New York resident who sued the federal government after being hit with a hefty inheritance tax following the death of her same-sex spouse. Also that day, SCOTUS overturned California’s ban on same-sex marriage. Reaction to the rulings was swift, with impromptu rallies and celebrations across the nation, including one outside of the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia that evening. Social media took on a new role in the movement, as scores of LGBT supporters changed their Facebook profile pictures to a redhued equal sign, and the site was bombarded by more than 4-million posts about the DOMA ruling within hours. The practical implications of the decision were immediately felt by agencies like the immigration department, which recognizes marriages according to their place of celebration. President Obama ordered all federal units to evaluate how they would incorporate the decision into their operations and, within months, agencies such as the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service found they would provide federal marriage benefits to all legally married same-sex couples. The Social Security Administration followed suit earlier this month.
The city’s oldest and longest-running lesbian bar abruptly closed shop in the summer. Sisters management announced through social media the iconic club was closed Aug. 12, effective immediately. The closing was reportedly due to financial difficulties. The closing of Sisters, which operated at 1320 Chancellor St. since 1996, marks the first time in Philadelphia’s history that Photo: Scott A. Drake the city is without a lesbian bar since the 1940s. “Every city has a girls’ bar. Every gay community has one. Sisters was ours,” Philly Pride Presents executive director Franny Price told PGN. Sisters’ 17-year tenure surpassed the duration of any other lesbian bar in the city. The building in which Sisters was housed is owned by Mel Heifetz, who also owned the adjacent and also-defunct Key West. Heifetz sold that property last year to a company PAGE 9 headquartered at Northern Liberties’ Silk
Philadelphia Councilman Jim Kenney pioneered legislation that put Philadelphia at the top of its game for LGBT equality. On March 21, Kenney submitted legislation that, among its stipulations, provides tax credits for companies that
Photo: Scott A. Drake
offer transgender-related health-care coverage and for businesses that provide coverage to same-sex domestic partners, PAGE 8 both of which are thought to be the first
More than half-mil for new HB 300 campaign By Angela Thomas angela@epgn.com The effort to pass an LGBT nondiscrimination law in Pennsylvania recently received new financial support. The State Equality Fund, of which the Gill Foundation is a part, this fall handed down a $500,000 grant — split among Equality Pennsylvania, National Center for Transgender Equality and Keystone Progress — for the launch of an education campaign the trio is spearheading to support the passage of
House and Senate Bills 300. Local LGBT activist and philanthropist Mel Heifetz also issued his own challenge grant for the campaign, which Equality Pennsylvania executive director Ted Martin said is “significant” and will be used to encourage community members to step up and match his donation. Pennsylvania is one of more than two-dozen states that lacks a nondiscrimination law inclusive of sexual orientation and gender identity. HB and SB 300 have more than 100 PAGE 17
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More year-end coverage: Marriage lawsuits Page 5 Stats Page 6 Remembrances Page 7 Next week: PGN’s Person of the Year and Favorite Photos from 2013
Arguments scheduled in HIV-privacy case By Timothy Cwiek timothy@epgn.com Jacob P. Fyda says he’s determined to bring public accountability to the process of distributing millions of HIV/AIDS dollars in the nine-county region. To help accomplish that goal, Fyda, 26, seeks the names of the 12 members who serve on the city’s Resource Allocations Advisory Committee. The committee reviews funding proposals from dozens of agencies each year and makes recommendations to city Health
Commissioner Donald F. Schwarz on the distribution of millions of HIV/AIDS dollars. But half of the committee members must be HIV-positive, and the city refuses to divulge the name of any committee members, citing privacy laws and other measures. Fyda said he doesn’t want to “out” the HIV-positive members on the committee. But he also said the city’s AIDS-allocations process must become more open and transparent if it’s to operate legally. Fyda, PAGE 2