Mazzoni recognizes out EEOC member PAGE 5
Family Portrait: Growing the Flower Show artistry with Gary Radin
Israeli LGBT leader brings storytelling to Philly
On board with Penn’s all-male theater group
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Feb. 28 - Mar. 6, 2014
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Vol. 38 No. 9
Senior center officially open By Jen Colletta jen@epgn.com
Rainbow confetti flew through the air Monday morning, marking the official opening of the John C. Anderson Apartments, an LGBT-friendly senior-living facility and the nation’s largest publicly funded LGBT building project. Hundreds packed into a tent on 13th Street to mark the occasion, which has been several years in the making. JCAA is just the third complex of its kind and the only to be supported solely by public funding, with city, state and federal money, as well as tax credits, fueling the $19.5-million project. The effort was spearheaded by the Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld Fund and Pennrose Properties, and officials from both were on hand to celebrate the opening, which was kicked off by dmhFund president and PGN publisher Mark Segal reading a commendation on the project by President Barack Obama. The building is home to 56 units of affordable housing for those 62 and over. Many of the residents were in the audience at the opening. Also on hand were a host of political dignitaries — U.S. Sen. Bob Casey; Congressmembers Bob Brady, Chaka Fattah and Allyson Schwartz; former Gov. Ed Rendell; state Treasurer Rob McCord; state Sens. Michael Stack and Anthony Williams; state Reps. Mike O’Brien and Dwight Evans; Mayor Michael Nutter; City Councilmembers Darrell Clarke, Jim Kenney, Mark Squilla and David Oh; and former Councilmember Frank DiCicco. Also taking the stage was the Rev. Jesse Anderson, brother of the late gay councilman and namesake of the building. Anderson noted that his brother had a long history of fighting discrimination — from being the first African-American studentbody president at Overbrook High School to battling racial injustice in the Pennsylvania Bar Association, before he entered the political realm and became a driving force behind Philadelphia’s law banning discrimination on sexual orientation. “John’s spirit says all of God’s children ought to be celebrated, no matter their station in life, race, nationality, religion, political affiliation or sexuality. The question being raised is not who or what you are, but what you have to offer PAGE 25
PGN PUBLISHER MARK SEGAL WITH SOUL CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER JOHN ADAMS DURING A RECENT VISIT TO THE PGN OFFICES
Soul launches nation’s first pro-football LGBT event
BROTHERLY LOVE: The Rev. Jesse Anderson spoke on behalf of his brother, the late John C. Anderson, at the Feb. 24 opening of his namesake, the city’s LGBT-friendly By Jen Colletta senior residences. The building, on 13th Street in the heart of the Gayborhood, is only jen@epgn.com the third of its kind in the nation. Elected officials representing city, state and federal governments were on hand for Monday’s opening and, instead of cutting an official ribThe nation’s first pro-football LGBTbon, rang a series of doorbells to welcome residents to their new home. More coverage, awareness event will take place this spring pages 24-25. Photo: Scott A. Drake — hosted by the city’s own Philadelphia
LGBT center opens in Northeast PA By Angela Thomas angela@epgn.com More than 200 people turned out last weekend to celebrate the opening of an LGBT community center in Northeastern Pennsylvania — the first of its kind in the area.
The LGBT Center of NEPA, organized by the Northeastern Pennsylvania Rainbow Alliance, opened its doors Feb. 23 in Wilkes-Barre. The space is a decade in the making. “We ran all of our programs out of people’s homes or rented rooms,” said Rainbow Alliance executive director John Dawe. “It had come to the point where people started asking for the center. We started having programs such as support groups for those just coming out or for the trans community and they were not comfortable coming to a public venue or someone’s house.” Rainbow Alliance stages Pride events in the PAGE 27
Soul. “OUT with the Soul, Champions for Equality” will be staged May 10, during the Soul’s match-up with the New Orleans VooDoo. Philly’s pro-football club was established in 2004 and has won the American Conference Championship in the Arena Football League the last two seasons. Chief operating officer John Adams said the concept was floated by him last summer and coincidentally a few weeks later, Soul co-owner Cosmo DeNicola also proposed hosting an LGBT night. “We sat down with the ownership group and ran it by everybody and it was never a question of whether we should do it or not,” Adams said. “With some teams, that might be a question, but our ownership group was very on board. Our whole conversation was just about how we do it right because we don’t do theme nights just to do them; we want there to really be meaning and significance behind it.” To that end, the club PAGE 26