Dave Koz sets the stage for Manilow PAGE 25
Marriage equality wins at National Constitution Center debate PAGE 5
Magazine rebirth
Family Portrait: Klayton Fennell is on top of the world
PAGE 7
PAGE 31
June 5-11, 2015
Since 1976
PGN Philadelphia Gay News HONESTY • INTEGRITY • PROFESSIONALISM
Vol. 39 No. 23
Historic LGBT-rights exhibit opens at NCC Gay man
found brutally murdered
By Ryan Kasley ryan@epgn.com A first-of-its-kind exhibition centered on LGBT rights and the Constitution debuts this week at the National Constitution Center. Just in time for Pride weekend and the 50th-anniversary celebration of the Annual Reminder Days, “Speaking Out for Equality: The Constitution, Gay Rights and the Supreme Court” opened June 5 and will run through Jan. 3. The exhibit includes information on pivotal court cases, artifacts and personal stories, culled from William Way LGBT Community Center’s archives, to chronicle the debate over LGBT rights. “It has been a huge honor to work with everyone at the Constitution Center,” William Way executive director Chris Bartlett said at an exhibit preview Wednesday. “Our goal has been to show the artifacts in our archives to as many people as possible. We thought there was no better way to do it than with the NCC, who has been a full and energetic partner throughout the entire process.” The exhibit will be the centerpiece of a weeklong 50th-anniversary celebration of the first Annual Reminders, public demonstrations held every July PAGE 19
By Jen Colletta jen@epgn.com
HISTORY IN THE MAKING: The curtain was finally lifted Wednesday at the preview of “Speaking Out for Equality” at the National Constitution Center. The exhibit traces the history of the LGBT-rights movement, focusing on Philadelphia’s role in the effort, with materials drawn from William Way LGBT Community Center’s archives. “Speaking Out” was created to coincide with next month’s large-scale celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Annual Reminder Days, one of the nation’s earliest LGBT-rights demonstrations, held outside of Independence Hall. On hand for Wednesday’s unveiling were Reminder Day participants John James (left) and Ada Bello (right), along with Reminder2015 planning committeemembers Chris Bartlett, John Cunningham and Bob Skiba. Photo: Scott A. Drake
Hearing delayed for alleged killer
Senate committee approves trans nominee
By Ryan Kasley ryan@epgn.com Two prosecution witnesses failed to appear this week for the hearing of the alleged killer of a local transgender woman, pushing the proceeding back several weeks. Raheam Felton was scheduled for his first preliminary hearing Wednesday morning in connection with last month’s murder of 21-year-old Londyn Chanel. Assistant District Attorney Guy D’Andreas said his unnamed civilian witnesses knew to be at court but, after they failed to appear, Judge James DeLeon granted a bench warrant for service for both. Felton remained in police custody and did not make an appearance in front of the judge. PAGE 19
Police are still looking for clues after the body of a local gay man was found last week. A passerby found the body of Scott Stephen Bernheisel May 28 inside a suitcase that was left near the Tinicum Township Industrial Park just outside Philadelphia International Airport. The Delaware County Medical Examiner determined the cause of death to be bluntforce trauma; Bernheisel had also been stabbed in the neck. Sgt. James Simpkins of the Tinicum Township Police declined to comment on the investigation. Jose Aguiar, one PAGE 19
OpENING ON A HIGH NOTE: Philadelphia FIGHT paid tribute to Gloria Casarez, Philadelphia’s late director of LGBT affairs, at the opening reception for AIDS Education Month June 2 at Independence Visitor Center. On hand for the tribute were Youth-Health Empowerment Project director Tiffany Thompson (from left), Mayor Michael Nutter and Casarez’s wife, Tricia Dressel. Casarez was a winner of FIGHT’s Kiyoshi Kuromiya Award, which was given Tuesday to Deon Haywood, executive director of Women with a Vision, Inc. AEM events continue through the end of the month, with the inaugural End AIDS 2015 Conference, free and open to the public, taking place June 8 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. For more information, visit www.aidseducationmonth.org. Photo: Scott A. Drake
A committee of the Pennsylvania Senate unanimously confirmed Dr. Rachel Levine’s nomination as the state’s physician general on Wednesday. Levine has been in the role in an acting capacity since Gov. Tom Wolf appointed her in the beginning of the year. She is the highest-ranking openly transgender public official in the state and the first trans person to be nominated to a top government post in Pennsylvania. Levine will need to be approved by the full Senate, a process expected to happen by the end of the month, before she officially assumes the position. Levine, a Middletown resident,
was most recently a professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at the Penn State College of Medicine, vice chair for clinical affairs for the Department of Pediatrics and chief of the Division of Adolescent Medicine and Eating Disorders at the Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital-Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. She graduated from Harvard College in 1979 and went on to Tulane University School of Medicine, where she graduated in 1983. She completed her training in pediatrics at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, where she practiced from 1988-93. n — Jen Colletta