pgn Philadelphia Gay News LGBT NEWS SINCE 1976
Vol. 42 No. 2
Conversion therapy banned in Doylestown
Jan. 12-18, 2018
Family Portrait: Heather Raquel Phillips
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HONESTY • INTEGRITY • PROFESSIONALISM
Fed review of Pulse tragedy draws criticism
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Bebashi holds inaugural Awareness Ball
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N.J. governor signs LGBT-inclusive bills By Brittany M. Wehner brittany@epgn.com
FAREWELL FINALE: Henry Brinton (left) and Jeffrey Shaw remember friend and Venture Inn coworker Danny Ricard in front of a photo of him at U Bar Jan. 6. The final salute to the bartender drew about 50 friends and former patrons on a below-zero wind-chill day. The date was chosen to celebrate his birthday, something he loathed to do when he was alive. The event included storytelling, a lot of Dolly Parton songs and orange-vanilla-almond cake, something Ricard would make for patrons on their own birthdays. Photo: Scott A. Drake
Outgoing New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) signed three LGBT-inclusive bills Monday. Two trans-inclusive resolutions, introduced in February 2017, honor Transgender Awareness Week and Transgender Day of Remembrance. An additional bill, introduced in May 2016, “requires public institutions of higher education to allow students, faculty and other staff to identify sexual orientation and gender identity on any forms used to collect certain demographic data.” Christie issued the following statement on the latter bill: “Although the provisions of this bill will allow public institutions of higher education to better assess the percentage of the LGBT population on campus, which may assist schools [in] provid[ing] more comprehensive outreach and support, I have concerns about the protection of student privacy rights.” Christie said he expects all public institutions of higher education to respect students’ privacy rights and comply with state and federal laws when maintaining records containing private student information. To honor Transgender Day of Remembrance, the governor is requested to annually issue a proclamation observing the national event on Nov. 20. Democrat Phil
Murphy will take on the governor post Jan. 16. Each year, members of the transgender community and allies will honor those who have been victims of anti-transgender violence. Transgender advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith founded Transgender Day of Remembrance in memory of Rita Hester, who was murdered at age 34, the state resolution reads. In 1998, Hester was stabbed in the chest 20 times while in her Boston, Mass., apartment. The transgender woman ultimately died from cardiac arrest when she arrived at the hospital. Her murder was never solved. “With so many seeking to erase transgender people — sometimes in the most brutal ways possible — it is vitally important that those we lose are remembered, and that we continue to fight for justice,” Smith said in a statement. Christie also signed a resolution designating Nov. 14-20 as Transgender Awareness Week in an effort to increase awareness and understanding of prejudice, discrimination and violence faced by transgender individuals. Garden State Equality Executive Director Christian Fuscarino applauded the resolutions. “It’s important to recognize a larger community that is often overlooked and left out of the conversation,” he told PGN. “Transgender people are the backbone of the LGBT community and they deserve to be recognized and celebrated.” n
Prosecutor in gay-bashing case among those ousted 12th Street Gym beset by legal woes from D.A.’s Office By Timothy Cwiek timothy@epgn.com
By Jen Colletta PGN Contributor
The 12th Street Gym, an LGBT-oriented business facing potential closure under new ownership of the building, is a defendant in a federal lawsuit that the gym’s insurance company refuses to cover. An Arizona woman filed the suit, claiming the gym hired Jerome P. McNeill as a masseur without conducting a proper background check. She claims McNeill sexually assaulted her in 2014 while giving her a massage at Loews Hotel in Center City. The woman contends the gym had a business relationship in 2014 with Loews to operate a gym and spa at the hotel, where her alleged sexual assault took place. Philadelphia Indemnity Insurance Company refuses to cover the gym in the woman’s case, noting that it already paid $1 million to settle a similar case filed by a Texas woman, according to court papers. Attorneys for the insurance company couldn’t be reached for comment. A discovery hearing was scheduled for Jan. 9 before Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Patricia A. McInerney. The Arizona woman’s case is headed for a jury trial in March before U.S. District Judge Gene E.K. Pratter, unless the judge grants a pending motion for reconsideration by the gym. McNeill, 29, recently was convicted of indecent assault in a criminal case pursued by the Texas woman. She claims McNeill PAGE 15
Three days after he was sworn in as the city’s top law-enforcement officer, District Attorney Larry Krasner ousted several-dozen employees, including the attorney who prosecuted a high-profile gay-bashing attack. Three staffers and 28 assistant district attorneys were forced to resign Jan. 5 in what Krasner’s office referred to as a “broad reorganization of the structure of the DAO” intended to bring “culture change.” Veteran prosecutor Mike Barry was among those forced out. Barry spent nearly 19 years with the D.A.’s Office, and most recently was known among the local LGBT community as lead counsel on the D.A.’s case against Kathryn
Knott, Phillip Williams and Kevin Harrigan. The trio was prosecuted for the September 2014 attack on gay couple MIKE BARRY Zachary Hesse Andrew PGN file photo and H a u g h t . Barry joined the office in March 1999, spent six years in the Homicide Unit and was named chief of the Central Bureau in 2010. Among his most notable cases, Barry prosecuted former police officer Frank Tepper for a 2009 murder and Mustafa Ali for the 2008 double murder of two retired cops. Barry said he received a call last Friday to report to the office,
despite that it was closed due to snow. Police assigned to the office met Barry in the lobby and escorted him to the human-resources department. The HR director then told him Krasner wanted his letter of resignation by Jan. 8, or else he would be terminated. “I was informed of when my last paycheck would be issued and when my benefits would end,” Barry said, adding that no severance package was offered to any of the ousted employees. “I was then escorted by police to my office where they waited while I was allowed to pack my personal belongings in my office. I was escorted to my office lobby and told I could not go back up.” A number of news cameras outside the office Friday afternoon PAGE 15 filmed the