pgn Philadelphia Gay News LGBT NEWS SINCE 1976
Vol. 42 No. 49 Dec. 7-13, 2018
Family Portrait: Emily Pratt in the first position
HONESTY • INTEGRITY • PROFESSIONALISM
DVLF serves up ‘TOY’ on a silver anniversary platter
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“Confessions of a Mormon Boy” can be heard (and seen) in New Hope
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Out candidates run for Common Pleas Court By Timothy Cwiek timothy@epgn.com
AQUA MEN: Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Philadelphia Fins Aquatics Club are past presidents John Culhane (from left), Brian Cahill, Anh Dang, Bob Breitel, Hanxiang Zeng and Tim Laskey. Almost 100 people turned out for the dinner and dancing event held Nov. 30 at William Way LGBT Community Center. For more information on the Fins, go to philadelphiafins.org. Photo: Scott A. Drake
Mazzoni Center board president calls it quits By Adriana Fraser adriana@epgn.com After a series of resignations and terminations, Mazzoni Center announced that the president of its board of directors has resigned. Chris Pope will be stepping down as the center’s board president on Dec. 28, according to a Mazzoni Center statement Nov. 29. Pope, who has filled the position since last November, said he is stepping aside to “turn my focus to my family,” according to a statement released by him. Pope, the work-program manager at Wells Fargo Bank, joined the center’s board in 2013 as secretary. “I have been committed to Mazzoni Center for several years and worked with leadership to guide the organization through a difficult period,” Pope said. “Now with an interim leadership team in place, I decided to step aside. I have complete confidence in Mazzoni Center’s board and the organization’s leadership and look forward to continuing to support both.” Larry Benjamin, communications director at Mazzoni Center, said Pope’s resignation was “a logical follow-up
to the retirement of five legacy board members in October.” Benjamin added that Pope will remain as “a non-voting advisor to the board to ensure a smooth transition of leadership at both the board and the organizational level.” Nu’Rodney Prad, the board’s vice president, will serve as acting president, according to a statement released by the board’s executive committee. Pope “has helped to lead the organization through a very difficult time period and we are extremely grateful for his service to Mazzoni Center,” the statement said. The news follows the resignations of the nonprofit’s CEO Lydia Sciarrino Gonzalez and COO Ron Powers on Nov. 12. They will also remain in their positions until Dec. 28. A three-person group — the Interim Leadership Team — will lead the organization until Mazzoni Center determines a permanent leadership solution. The leadership team, comprised of Chief Financial Officer Racquel Assaye, Chief Medical Officer Nancy Brisbon and interim COO Alecia Manley, will officially assume leadership of the organization Dec. 3. n
Three openly LGBT candidates have announced runs for 10-year judgeships on the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court, which rules on civil, criminal and family matters. Henry Sias, Tiffany Palmer and Wade Albert are running as Democrats in the May 21 primary. A primary win would ensure a follow-up victory in the Nov. 5 general election because the city is overwhelmingly Democratic. The court currently has 93 judges. Currently, there are six vacancies, but others may arise as 11 incumbents whose terms expire in January 2020 decide whether or not to seek another term by running in the May primary. Candidates must file nominating petitions signed by at least 1,000 registered Democratic voters in Philadelphia by March 12 in order to have their name appear on the ballot for the primary. Henry Sias, 42, is a trans man and civil-rights attorney based in South Philadelphia. He was unsuccessful in his 2017 bid for a seat on the court but made a strong showing and is trying again. “If successful, my campaign will make history,” Sias told PGN. “There has never been an out trans man who has won an election to state or federal government in America, to my knowledge — let alone a trans man who became a Philadelphia judge. I’m running to demonstrate that
Philadelphia’s court system is a resource for everyone, including people from historically disenfranchised groups like the transgender community.” Sias is a 2005 graduate of Yale Law School who served as a law clerk for several well-known judges, including Pennsylvania Supreme Court Judge Jane Cutler Greenspan. Between 2007-08, he was employed at the Center City law firm Blank Rome, specializing in white-collar criminal law, general commercial litigation, mass torts and political asylum. Sias and his wife Carey Ann Sias own a home in the Italian Market area. “Carey’s support has been instrumental in my career and I really appreciate her love and patience as I campaign again,” Sias said. In August 2011, Sias cofounded Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity, a nonprofit legalaid organizaSherrie Cohen tion informally makes third known as the council bid Expungement PAGE 7 Project. The project has performed thousands of free criminal expungements for low-income Philadelphians, including within the LGBT community. In April 2017, after an PAGE 6
Local Catholics disappointed in Pope By Victoria A. Brownworth PGN Contributor Pope Francis, once seen as opening the door to gay priests with a 2013 statement to the press, seems to have changed his mind. When asked about gay priests then, Francis said in a groundbreaking statement, “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” A new book, “La Forza della Vocazione” (“The Strength of Vocation”), written by Spanish missionary priest Fernando Prado and based on interviews with Francis, has the pope taking a different tack and tone. In the book, Pope Francis declares that homo-
sexuality in priests is a cause for grave concern within the Church. “The issue of homosexuality is a very serious issue that must be adequately discerned from the beginning with the candidates,” Francis told Prado when discussing potential applicants for the priesthood. “The Strength of Vocation” debuted on Dec. 3, in multiple languages, but it was early excerpts in Italy’s Corriere Della Sera newspaper that made headlines around the world and shocked a number of LGBTQ Catholics on the first Sunday in Advent. In the excerpts, the pope referred to homosexuality in seminaries, convents and monasteries as “a very serious question. In our societies, it PAGE 6