Philadelphia Gay News Vol. 33 No. 2
Honesty Integrity Professionalism
Jan. 9 - 15, 2009
City clarifies transfer-tax exemption
Gays included in domesticviolence law
By Jen Colletta PGN Staff Writer Philadelphia’s revenue department is currently updating materials associated with the city’s real-estate transfer tax to raise awareness about a 2007 ruling that expanded the scope of the tax’s exemptions to include same-sex couples. Rue Landau, executive director of the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations, said the agency has agreed to modify the Real Estate Transfer Tax Certification form to reflect that financially interdependent persons could be exempt from the tax. Landau said she was unsure when the change would go into effect. In November 2007, City Council approved an amendment to the Realty Transfer Tax section of The Philadelphia Code to allow for two people who provide evidence of financial interdependence to be relieved of the 4-percent tax usually incurred when individuals transfer real estate between each other. However, the City Council decision was not widely publicized, which Landau said has led to some uncertainty among both lending companies and citizens. “It’s possible that the mortgage industry doesn’t know about the exemption and that people aren’t aware of it either,” she said. Because of this, Landau said she has received only a few complaints from individuals attempting to utilize the exemption. The current transfer-tax form allows applicants to check off boxes to signify which exemption they’re claiming, such as if the transaction is to an industrial development agency or to the commonwealth, but there is no mention of the FIP exemption. Landau said the form change will reduce confusion and heighten awareness about the 2007 law. “This will actually get the mortgage companies and title companies to look at the form and realize that there is another category where same-sex couples can fit in in order to be exempt from the transfer tax,” she said. Prior to the 2007 City Council ruling, the only couples who could receive See EXEMPTION, Page 14
By Jen Colletta PGN Staff Writer
ON THE READY: After hearing about several protests planned by Westboro Baptist Church members on Monday, counterprotesters staked out the announced sites. LGBT activists and supporters Nick Baker (from left), Kelly Rice, Michelle Kline, J. Mason and Damon Constantinides waited for them at the Israeli Consulate at 1880 JFK Blvd. Only four Westboro Baptist members — a woman and her three children — reportedly showed up at Central High School, where they met a large, student-organized counterprotest. The group failed to show up at the other announced sites: the Basilica of Ss. Peter and Paul for the funeral of a doctor killed in Iraq and the Italian and Israeli consulates. Photo: Scott A. Drake
Philly faces down Westboro By Jen Colletta PGN Staff Writer Members of a virulently antigay organization arrived for a scheduled demonstration at a local high school this week and were met with throngs of LGBT and ally students and community leaders, who provided a united front against the protesters’ vitriol. Four members of the Westboro Baptist Church, the Topeka, Kan.-based organization headed by Fred Phelps, scheduled a day of protests throughout Philadelphia Jan. 5 centered around the funeral of a local doctor killed in Iraq. According to a press release issued by the WBC, the organization decided to make the trip to Philadelphia to protest the funeral of Maj. John Pryor, a University of Pennsylvania surgeon who was killed Christmas Day in Iraq. WBC, which operates the Web site GodHatesFags.com, travels the country demonstrating at the funerals of men and women killed in the war to bring attention to their belief that God is killing soldiers to express his dissatisfaction of the American societal acceptance of homosexuality. Before demonstrating outside Pryor’s funeral at the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Center City, WBC members gathered outside of Central High School, where they were met with a strong resistance from counterprotesters. The organization’s Jan. 1 press release described
that WBC was targeting Central as a stop on its protest tour because the school “continue[s] with the parents’ job of lying to these children” and that the WBC was “going to tell them a little truth because soon they will be grown snakes and will each be personally responsible for their own behavior.” Gloria Casarez, the mayor’s director of LGBT affairs, postured that the WBC may have chosen Central because of the school’s long-standing and active gay-straight alliance. Last weekend, Casarez sent out a series of emails to contacts within the local LGBT community and also got in touch with the Philadelphia School District and Police Department, as well as Central representatives such as principal Dr. Sheldon Pavel, who had already been put on alert. Pavel said that once he saw the WBC press release, he immediately contacted numerous school affiliates to ensure that all parties were adequately prepared. “I notified the people that I report to in the school district and then dealt with our staff members, our home-and-school president and our student leadership and put out the information to all of these constituents,” Pavel said. “And then on Saturday I came in here and sent out an e-mail to the entire staff. The alumni also did its part in notifying its executive board, as did the home-and-school association.” See PROTESTERS, Page 13
A law went into effect this week that requires all employers in Philadelphia to provide unpaid leave for workers or their close family members — samesex partners included — who have been victims of domestic or sexual violence. City Council passed the “Entitlement to Leave Due to Domestic or Sexual Violence,” spearheaded by Councilman-at-Large Bill Greenlee (D), Oct. 23 and Mayor Nutter signed the ordinance Nov. 5; the law went into effect Jan. 5. Under the law, employers with 50 or more staff members must provide up to eight weeks of unpaid leave, and employers with fewer than 50 workers must grant up to four weeks of leave, if the employee or his/her family member experienced domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking. The law requires that employees who take the leave would be able to retain their See JOB PROTECTION Page 14
Gay man tapped for White House By Jen Colletta PGN Staff Writer President-elect Barack Obama made several more staff appointments this week, including the selection of an openly gay member of his transition team for a White House staff position. Bradley J. Kiley, the current director of operations for the Obama-Biden Transition Project, will serve as the director of the Office of Management and Administration. According to the White House Web site, the director oversees the administration of the Executive Office of the President, including “financialSee WHITE HOUSE, Page 13