PHI LADELPHIA GAY NEWS

est. 1976 HONESTY . INTEGRITY . PROFESSIONALISM

December 6-12, 2019 V ol. 43 N o. 49 pgn

O U R H I S T O R Y, O U R F U T U R E Ending invisibility one almanac at a time PAG E 4

Action Wellness Safe consumption site rally held Univ. of

gives, receives outside federal prosecutor’s office Scranton
awards for seeks
World AIDS dismissal of
Day gay man’s suit
LAURA SMYTHE TIMOTHY CWIEK
laura@epgn.com timothy@epgn.com

Action Wellness, a nonprofit Officials at the University of

that helps those in the Great-
er Philadelphia area living
with chronic diseases, held its
28th-annual Friends for Life
Awards event Wednesday night
to celebrate community mem-
bers who have made a difference
in the lives of people living with
HIV.
The ceremony, which com-
memorated World AIDS Day,
took place at Yards Brewing
Company on 5th and Spring Gar-
den streets. The Friends for Life
Award, Action Wellness’ highest
honor, intends to embody the
organization’s mission that “No
one should face HIV or chronic
illness alone.” This year’s recip-
ients were NBC10’s Vai Sikaeh-
ma; Tom Kehoe, owner of Yards
Brewing Company; and Terry
Burch McNally, who owned the
now-shuttered staple Fairmount
bar London Grill.
“All three of them have been
extremely generous with their
time and with their talent and
their fortune,” said Kevin Burns,
Action Wellness executive di-
rector. “Hopefully highlighting
them will hope to motivate peo-
ple to maybe give back by vol-
unteering.”
Burch McNally has been in-
strumental in sup-
porting Dining Out page 17
LAURA SMYTHE
laura@epgn.com
Supporters of Safehouse, a Phil-
adelphia-based proposed safe con-
sumption site, marched across Inde-
pendence Mall on Tuesday morning
before rallying outside the office of
William McSwain, the U.S. attor-
ney for the Eastern District of Penn-
sylvania who has vowed to shutter
the facility if it opens and arrest
those who use it.
About 30 community members
and representatives from HIV/
AIDS and harm reduction groups
including ACT UP Philadelphia,
AIDS United, Angels in Motion and
Friends of Safehouse attended the
action, which took place in honor of
S A F E H O U S E S U P P O R T E R S R A L LY I N O L D C I T Y. P h o t o : L a u r a S m y t h e
World AIDS Day. Participants filled
the air with chants of “overdose
prevention, not incarceration” and
“saving lives is not a crime.” Some
organizers then entered the 6th and
Market Streets office in an attempt
to give McSwain a funeral wreath,
golden urn and handwritten letters
from people impacted by addiction
describing the need for an overdose
prevention site.
The objects were meant to prompt
McSwain to “reflect on the people
that have died and the people that
will die under his threats, like the
threat of intimidation,” said José de
Marco, ACT UP Philadelphia orga-
nizer. “People are not going to use
the site, they’re going to continue
using in the street, and it’s going to
generate even more overdoses and
even more HIV.”
Federal Judge Gerald McHugh
ruled Oct. 2 that Safehouse, which
would be the first location in the
United States where people can
use illegal opioids under medical
supervision, did not violate federal
drug law. Days later, McSwain, the
top federal prosecutor in the region,
told Safehouse’s attorney in writing
that he would “use all enforcement
tools,” potentially including drug
seizures, arrests and criminal forfei-
ture, to shut down the nonprofit.
About 100 supervised consump-
tion sites operate across the world,
mainly in Australia and Europe.
The first North Amer-
ican site opened in page 17
Scranton have asked a federal judge
to dismiss the lawsuit of a former
student who claims the school failed
to implement reasonable safeguards
that would have prevented him from
experiencing anti-LGBT harass-
ment from another student.
“John Doe,” who currently re-
sides in New Jersey, graduated from
the university in May. He filed suit
against the school on Aug. 27 in the
Middle District of Pennsylvania,
seeking an unspecified amount in
damages. He also requested a jury
trial.
From August 2018 to Decem-
ber 2018, Doe lived in off-campus
housing shared with another student
who allegedly tormented him be-
cause of his sexual orientation. Doe
claims university officials “turned a
blind eye” to the bullying and anti-
gay harassment.
On Nov. 1, 2018, the alleged ha-
rasser texted Doe: “You’re below
me intellectually but you’re proba-
bly used to being in that position.”
Also, in the text, the alleged harasser
made derogatory remarks implying
that Doe was the receptive partner
during anal sex with an ex-boy-
friend, according to the lawsuit.
Doe repeatedly complained to
university officials, to no avail. One
administrator allegedly told Doe,
“Don’t let it get to
you.” Doe “did not page 17

PA G E 6 PA G E 2 PA G E 9

AMA SUPPORTS BAN ON
CONVERSION THERAPY
The AMA has voted to support state and federal efforts
to ban gay conversion therapy, the practice of attempting to
change one’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
PA’S AG FILES BRIEF IN TRANS TRANS WOMAN URGES JUDGE TO
DISCRIMINATION CASE KEEP LAWSUIT INTACT
Pennsylvania’s Attorney General Josh Shapiro and 22 other A trans woman who is suing the UPenn and its hospital for
Attorneys General filed an amicus brief in support of trans- job discrimination recently urged a federal judge to deny the
gender nondiscrimination legislation. defendants’ motion to dismiss major portions of her case.
2 REGIONAL
RESOURCE LISTINGS
LEGAL RESOURCES
PHILADELPHIA COMMISSION ON
HUMAN RELATIONS —
Rue Landau
215-686-4670
PHILADELPHIA POLICE
LIAISON COMMITTEE
215-760-3686
ppd.lgbt@gmail.com
SPARC — STATEWIDE
PENNSYLVANIA RIGHTS COALITION
717-920-9537
ACLU OF PENNSYLVANIA
215-592-1513; aclupa.org
AIDS LAW PROJECT OF PA
215-587-9377; aidslawpa.org
AIDS LAW PROJECT OF
SOUTH JERSEY
856-784-8532; aidslawsnj.org
EQUALITY PA
equalitypa.org; 215-731-1447
OFFICE OF LGBT AFFAIRS —
EVAN THORNBURG
215-686-0330
evan.thornburg@phila.gov
COMMUNITY CENTERS
THE ATTIC YOUTH CENTER
255 S. 16th St.; 215-545-4331
atticyouthcenter.org
For LGBT and questioning youth
and their friends and allies.
LGBT CENTER AT THE UNIVERSITY
OF PENNSYLVANIA
3907 Spruce St.; 215-898-5044
center@dolphin.upenn.edu
RAINBOW ROOM: BUCKS
COUNTY’S LGBTQ AND ALLIES
YOUTH CENTER
Salem UCC Education Building
181 E. Cour t St., Doylestown
215-957-7981 ext. 9065
rainbowroom@ppbucks.org
WILLIAM WAY
LGBT COMMUNITY CENTER
1315 Spruce St.; 215-732-2220
www.waygay.org
H E A LT H A N D H I V T E S T I N G
ACTION WELLNESS
1216 Arch St.; 215-981-0088 ac-
tionwellness.org
AIDS TREATMENT FACT LINE
800-662-6080
AIDS HEALTHCARE FOUNDATION
1211 Chestnut St. #405
215-971-2804; HIVcare.org
AIDS LIBRARY
1233 Locust St, aidslibrar y.org
COLOURS
coloursorganization.org
215-832-0100
BEBASHI-TRANSITION TO HOPE
1235 Spring Garden St
215-769-3561; bebashi.org
CONGRESO DE LATINOS UNIDOS
216 W. Somerset St
215-763-8870
GALAEI
149 W. Susquehanna Ave
267-457-3912, galaei.org
Spanish/English
HEALTH CENTER NO. 2
1720 S. Broad St
215-685-1821
MAZZONI CENTER
1348 Bainbridge St
215-563-0652
mazzonicenter.org
NOVUS ACS
MEDICAL SERVICES
11 DUANE RD, STE A
DOYLESTOWN, PA
267-454-7086
NOVUSACS.COM
PHILADELPHIA FIGHT
1233 Locust St.; 215-985-4448
fight.org
WASHINGTON WEST PROJECT OF
MAZZONI CENTER
1201 Locust St.; 215-985-9206
TRANSGENDER HEALTH ACTION
COALITION
215-732-1207
OTHER
INDEPENDENCE BRANCH LIBRARY
BARBARA GITTINGS GAY AND
LESBIAN COLLECTION
215-685-1633
INDEPENDENCE BUSINESS
ALLIANCE
215-557-0190, independence-
businessalliance.com
LGBT PEER COUNSELING
SERVICES
215-732-TALK
PFLAG: PARENTS, FAMILIES AND
FRIENDS OF LESBIANS AND GAYS
(PHILADELPHIA)
215-572-1833
PHILLY PRIDE PRESENTS
215-875-9288
Philadelphia Gay News . DECEMBER 6-12, 2019
PA’s AG joins amicus brief
in trans discrimination case
JESS BRYANT ing a trans military ban. The Department of
jess@epgn.com Health and Human Services canceled a plan to
explicitly prohibit hospitals from discriminat-
Pennsylvania’s Attorney General Josh Sha- ing against LGBTQ patients as a requirement
piro and 22 other attorneys general filed an of Medicare and Medicaid funds and issued a
amicus brief in support of a former Glouces- brief in the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that
ter High School student in the case of Gavin federal law “does not prohibit discrimination
Grimm vs. Gloucester County School Board. against transgender persons based on their
Grimm, who is trans, sued
the school board in 2015 for
discrimination because he
was banned from using male
restrooms at his high school.
He also wanted the board to
update his educational records
to correspond with his updated
birth certificate that reflects his
gender. Grimm’s suit argues
the bathroom policy is un-
constitutional under the 14th
Amendment and violates Ti-
tle IX of the U.S. Education
Amendments of 1972, which
prohibits sex discrimination in
schools.
“I swore an oath to protect S H A P I R O TA K I N G P A R T I N A T E E N TA L K S E S S I O N
the rights of all Pennsylvanians EARLIER THIS YEAR.
— that includes the nearly
44,000 transgender people who
call our Commonwealth home,” said Shapiro transgender status.”
said. “The school board’s actions in this case “This administration is clearly hostile to
were discriminatory, unlawful, and an abhor- the rights of transgender individuals,” Sha-
rent way to treat a person, especially a young piro said. “When you have the president of
trans student. Transgender individuals have the United States saying that it’s OK to dis-
the right to basic human rights, and it’s my criminate against trans people, and when his
job to protect those rights.” administration actively seeks to foster that dis-
After years of legal battles and denied in- crimination, it’s devastating.”
The coalition of attorneys general who
junctions that asked his case be heard before
his high school graduation, Virginia’s federal signed the amicus brief— led by New York
district court ruled in Grimm’s favor in August Attorney General Letitia James and Washing-
2019. It found the school board violated Title ton Attorney General Bob Ferguson — argue
IX and the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. transgender individuals have the right “to live
Constitution by discriminating against Grimm with dignity, be free from discrimination, and
on the basis of sex. have equal access to education, employment,
After Grimm’s victory, the Gloucester housing, public accommodations, and other
County School Board appealed the decision necessities of life.”
to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, fil- Shapiro said, “Not allowing transgender
ing a Brief of Appellate on Oct. 22. On Nov. people to use the bathroom associated with
18, the ACLU, Grimm’s legal representation, their gender identity singles them out. It forc-
filed a Brief of Plaintiff-Appellee. Since, sev- es them to either forgo using the bathroom
eral nonprofits and advocacy groups have filed entirely (which is a health risk) or to choose
amicus briefs in support of Grimm, including between two detrimental and demeaning op-
The Trevor Project, NAACP and Trans Youth tions: use the restroom corresponding to their
Equality Foundation. sex assigned at birth or use single-use re-
In 2015, the U.S. Transgender Survey strooms.”
found 77 percent of trans students kindergar- He added the first option is a betrayal of
ten through grade 12 were verbally harassed, their identity that puts them at further risk of
prohibited from dressing according to their harassment and violence and violates medical
gender identity, disciplined more harshly than treatment protocols. The second option, he
others, or physically or sexually assaulted be- said, may have stigmatizing effects and could
cause people thought they were transgender. lead to “outing.”
The group’s brief also highlights how gen-
Seventeen percent of respondents faced such
severe mistreatment they left their school. der-inclusive facilities promote safe and in-
Earlier this year, Shapiro took part in Teen- clusive communities, workplaces and schools,
TALK sessions that spearheaded a report that while benefitting people without harming per-
indicated 59 percent of LGBTQ students in sonal privacy or safety interests or incurring
Pennsylvania said they were bullied or ha- substantial costs.
rassed because of their gender expression. The brief notes the school board’s restroom
Under the Trump administration, trans policy preventing transgender page 7
folks have seen a rollback in rights, includ- people from using restrooms
DECEMBER 6-12, 2019 . epgn.com
PGN
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4 NEWS COLUMN
Philadelphia Gay News . DECEMBER 6-12, 2019

OUR HISTORY, OUR FUTURE BY JASON VILLEMEZ

pgn
Ending invisibility, one almanac at a time
Publisher Before Wikipedia, some of the best all-
in-one sources of information were local
Mark Segal (ext. 204) and national almanacs. Released annually,
mark@epgn.com
almanacs compile facts ranging from the
winners of elections and championships,
Office Manager/ significant changes in public policy, popula-
Distribution tion growth around the world and a listing
Don Pignolet (ext. 200) of national organizations. Forty years ago,
don@epgn.com these almanacs, like most other media in the
early 1970s, barely included LGBT people.
Editor The staff of PGN took note of this omission
Jess Bryant (ext. 206) and began the push to have the community
editor@epgn.com included.
Former PGN Contributor Richard
Staff Writers Rusinow, author of the Feb. 7, 1976 article
Laura Smythe (ext. 215) “The 1976 almanacs and gay news,” con-
laura@epgn.com tacted the editors of the three largest alma-
Larry Nichols (ext. 213) nacs to inquire why their LGBT inclusion
larry@epgn.com was spotty at best. 1975 saw many notable
Timothy Cwiek (ext. 208)
events for the LGBT community. Pennsyl-
timothy@epgn.com vania, thanks to Governor Milton Shapp,
was the first state to ban sexual orientation
Photographer discrimination by state agencies. Sergeant
Leonard Matlovich’s discharge from the
Kelly Burkhardt
burkhardtkelly@gmail.com U.S. Army was the most high-profile case
of a military officer being removed for their
Art Director sexuality. And the National Gay Task Force
had recently persuaded the federal civil ser-
Sean Dorn (ext. 211)
sean@epgn.com vice commission (now called the Office of
Personnel Management) to lift its ban on
employing gays and lesbians.
Graphic Artist Of the three largest national almanacs,
Ash Cheshire (ext. 210) the “World Almanac and Book of Facts” did
ash@epgn.com include the Matlovich discharge. The oth-
er two, “Information Please Almanac” and
Advertising Sales “CBS News Almanac,” claimed that the dis-
charge occurred too late in the year (Septem-
Joe Bean (ext. 219)
joe@epgn.com ber) for inclusion in its print editions. None
of the three major almanacs included Gover-
Prab Sandhu (ext. 212) nor Shapp’s milestone executive order. And
prab@epgn.com
none of them included the National Gay
Task Force in organization listings despite
National Advertising including groups such as the National Hay
Rivendell Media: Fever Relief Association and the American It is worth noting that Rusinow wrote in the first transgender character in 1977. But
212-242-6863
Power Boat Association. Also, the “CBS his article that he felt no homophobia from the almanacs reached a segment of the pop-
News Almanac” published a most egregious the almanac editors in his contact with them, ulation, particularly rural areas that use local
item by including the term “homosexuality” and he attributed the various omissions to a libraries as community hubs, which might
Phone: 215-625-8501 PGN among a list of psychiatric terms alongside lack of visibility and information. All of the have been otherwise ignored.
Fax: 215-925-6437 505 S. Fourth St. “schizophrenia,” “castration anxiety” and editors agreed to subscribe to Philadelphia Since its debut in 1886, the “World Al-
E-mail: pgn@epgn.com Philadelphia, PA “paranoid state.” The American Psychiatric Gay News and receive an abstract of signifi- manac and Book of Facts” has sold over
Web: www.epgn.com 19147-1506
Association had stated two years earlier, in cant events in the LGBT community, which 82 million copies. In the 2019 edition, one
1973, that homosexuality was not a mental PGN editor Keith Clark agreed to write. can find charts on the number of transgen-
Philadelphia Gay News
is a member of: illness. “The editors of these almanacs,” Clark der people by state, historical events from
The Associated Press
Pennsylvania Newspaper said, “have expressed a sincere desire to the Stonewall Riots to the Pulse massacre,
Association improve their coverage of news relevant to a list of policy rollbacks by the Trump ad-
Suburban Newspapers
of America Gays. I think it is an excellent opportunity ministration and major LGBT decisions of
to work with an important, but until now, ne- the U.S. Supreme Court. In addition, nota-
The views of PGN are expressed only in the unsigned glected media group.” ble LGBT people including Gene Robin-
“Editorial” col­umn. Opinions expressed in bylined col-
umns, stories and letters to the editor are those of the While the almanacs may not have been the son, Edie Windsor, Oscar Wilde and Mat-
writer, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of flashiest media for PGN to focus on gaining thew Shepard are all within its pages. Aside
PGN. The appearance of names or pictorial represen-
tations in PGN does not necessarily indicate the sexual fair coverage, their popularity and wide dis- from a list of famous openly LGBT people,
orientation of that named or pictured person or persons. tribution — including to public libraries and which is something the almanac editors
Copyright © 1976 - 2019 Copyright(s) in all materials the military — made it a worthwhile endeav- should consider next year, our community’s
in these pages are either owned or licensed by Masco
Communications Inc. or its subsidiaries or affiliate compa-
or. In the 1970s, movies, television, litera- inclusion in the almanac is a stark change
nies (Philadelphia Gay News, PGN, and its WWW sites.) ture, theater and news reporting all saw in- from 40 years ago.
All other reproduction, distribution, retransmission, mod- creases in LGBT representation. “All In The From two references in 1975 to 42 men-
ification, public display, and public performance of our
materials is prohibited without the prior written consent Family” showed the first LGBT character on tions in 2019, the work by PGN to make our
of Masco Communications. To obtain such consent, email primetime television in 1971, while another community visible has paid off. We’re in the
pgn@epgn.com. Published by Masco Communications Inc.
© 1976-2019 Masco Communications Inc. ISSN-0742-515 Norman Lear show, “All That Glitters,” had almanac, and we’re there for good. n
DECEMBER 6-12, 2019 . epgn.com
PGN
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6 N AT I O N A L
AMA supports banning
conversion therapy
VICTORIA A. BROWNWORTH
PGN Contributor
The American Medical Association (AMA)
has voted to support state and federal efforts to
ban gay conversion therapy, the scientifically
discredited practice of attempting to change a
person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
According to The Trevor Project, “Conver-
sion therapists use a variety of shaming, emo-
tionally traumatic or physically painful stimu-
li to make their victims associate those stimuli
with their LGBTQ identities.”
In its press statement, the AMA said it had
heard testimony, including first-hand accounts
from people who had been victims of the prac-
tice regarding the range of harmful effects of
conversion therapy, including depression,
post-traumatic stress disorder, and suicidal
thoughts and attempts.
A July 2019 study from the Williams Insti-
tute at UCLA revealed that more than 700,000
LGBTQ people between the ages of 18 and 59
were subjected to conversion therapy — more
than 350,000 as minors. The study projected
an estimated 80,000 LGBTQ youth would be
subjected to the practice in the next few years.
An additional July 2019 study focused sole-
ly on trans persons, found 42 percent of those
who had undergone conversion therapy for
gender identity had attempted suicide after the
treatment.
A 2019 poll by Ipsos and Reuters found
more than 50 percent of Americans said they
would support a law that bans mental health
practitioners from practicing conversion ther-
apy on minors.
No state has outlawed conversion thera-
py for both adults and minors, but 18 states
banned the practice on minors, including New
Jersey, which was the first to ban the practice
in 2013, and Delaware, which banned it in
2018. Also, numerous cities and municipal-
ities prohibit conversion therapy on minors.
Philadelphia banned the practice for minors
in 2017.
The AMA is a professional group that pub-
lishes research to advance public health, and
their mission statement stipulates that the
AMA is a “powerful ally in patient care...
dedicated to driving medicine toward a more
equitable future, removing obstacles that in-
terfere with patient care.”
In a statement, Dr. William E. Kobler, an
AMA board member, said, “It is clear to the
AMA that conversion therapy needs to end in
the United States, given the risk of deliberate
harm to LGBTQ people.”
Kobler asserted, “Conversion therapy has
no foundation as scientifically valid medical
care and lacks credible evidence to support its
efficacy or safety.”
The impact of the AMA vote could be
significant. Medical licensing is done in the
states, so the AMA working in tandem with
state legislators could achieve more statewide
bans on the practice. But under the Trump
administration, support for religious freedom
laws has made it easier for therapists, parents
Philadelphia Gay News . DECEMBER 6-12, 2019
and guardians to claim conversion therapy is a
matter of religious freedom.
Vice President Mike Pence and Educa-
tion Secretary Betsy DeVos are supporters
of conversion therapy. As a congressman
Pence, sought funding for the practice. De-
Vos’s father, Edgar Prince, co-founded an an-
ti-LGBTQ hate group in the U.S., the Family
Research Council, long a supporter of con-
version therapy, which DeVos has supported
financially.
There are concerns over therapists using
religious freedom laws to side-step bans. In
September, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia
hosted and co-sponsored a conference “to
address the challenges of gender and sexu-
al identity problems” featuring an anti-gay
group focused on conversion therapy and
“curing” homosexuality.
The conference, “Gender Matters - Fighting
for the Integrity of Persons,” featured Desert
Stream Ministries (DSM), run by “ex-gay”
leader Andrew Comiskey, who refers to him-
self as a former and healed homosexual in his
books and ministry.
“Historically, medical professionals have
contributed to the stigmatization of LGBTQ
individuals, so the AMA’s active involvement
in LGBTQ health advocacy is incredibly im-
portant,” Dr. Alexis Chavez, medical director
for The Trevor Project, said in a statement.
“The AMA’s support for ending conversion
therapy furthers the work that The Trevor
Project is doing across the country with our 50
Bills 50 States campaign to protect LGBTQ
youth from this dangerous and discredited
practice.”
Lauren Cox, Deputy Communications Di-
rector for the Office of the Mayor in Phila-
delphia, told PGN, “The American Medical
Association’s recent support for a federal ban
on conversion therapy is encouraging. For too
long, this practice has been used against mem-
bers of the LGBTQ+ community — particu-
larly youth — to cause deliberate harm.”
Cox noted, “While we are lucky that Phil-
adelphia outlawed conversion therapy for mi-
nors in 2017, it is still possible for parents and
other caretakers to travel outside of city limits
and subject LGBTQ+ youth to this dangerous
practice.”
In October, Pennsylvania’s two out gay leg-
islators, Malcolm Kenyatta and Brian Sims,
both representing Philadelphia, re-introduced
legislation to ban conversion therapy in Penn-
sylvania.
Cox said, “Members of Philadelphia’s dele-
gation in Harrisburg have been advocating for
a similar ban across the Commonwealth, and
we applaud those efforts as well.”
Kenyatta told reporters in Harrisburg, “We
have to ensure that practices like conversion
therapy are banned in the Commonwealth, so
young people, in particular, don’t have to live
with this pain and this trauma.”
Cox added, “There is no excuse for a
harmful practice, with no foundation in sci-
ence, to be allowed to continue anywhere in
this country.” n
DECEMBER 6-12, 2019 . epgn.com
Kevin Hart to star in doc
about his relationship
with LGBTQ community
LAURA SMYTHE
laura@epgn.com
Actor Kevin Hart will star in a six-part Net-
flix documentary series releasing later this
month that follows the comedian’s life after
homophobic tweets and skits from his past
resurfaced at the end of last year, prompting
him to bow out of hosting the 2019 Academy
Awards.
Interviews with the North Philadelphia
native’s friends and family will be featured
throughout “Don’t F--k This Up,” which
debuts Dec. 27, Hart announced in an Insta-
gram video last week. The series follows Hart
through his daily life and chronicles his ca-
reer, marriage and the fallout surrounding the
Oscars controversy.
“I’m excited about it,” Hart said in the vid-
eo. “It’s a look into my life over the past year
and a half, which has been a hell of a roller-
coaster. Peaks, hills, valleys, ups, downs. It’s
as real, as raw, as transparent as you can be.
It’s something that I think people need to see.”
During a two-day period last December,
Hart announced and withdrew his role as host
for the awards show. The tweets that were
dredged up, spanning 2009-11, contained of-
fensive language pertaining to the LGBTQ
community.
“Yo if my son comes home & try’s 2 play
with my daughters doll house I’m going 2
break it over his head & say n my voice ‘stop
that’s gay,’” read a 2011 tweet, which has
since been deleted.
Another of Hart’s tweets said that actor
Damien Wayans looked like “a gay billboard
for AIDS.”
Following the Oscars debacle, Hart ap-
peared on “The Ellen Show.” Out lesbian El-
len DeGeneres, who has hosted the Academy
Awards twice, came under fire for backing
Hart and seemingly “forgiving” him.
“Now, the slander on my name is all ho-
mophobia,” Hart said on “The Ellen Show.”
“Now I’m a little upset. I know that I don’t
have a homophobic bone in my body. I know
that I’ve addressed it. I know that I apolo-
gized.”
TRANS NONDISCRIMINATION CASE
from page 2
consistent with their gender identity and its
refusal to update Grimm’s school records do
nothing to further legitimate governmental in-
terests and only serve to stigmatize transgen-
der students in violation of the Constitution’s
Equal Protection Clause.
Nearly 1.5 million people in the United
States — including approximately 150,000
teenagers — identify as transgender.
Shapiro joins the Attorneys General of New
York, Washington, California, Colorado, Con-
LOCAL
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But last year wasn’t the end of scruti-
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Shop.” When the Billboard-topping rapper *PGN is an equal opportunity employer
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he was gay. So what?”
Lil Nas X explained he was always taught
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“Hate what?” Hart interrupted for a sec-
ond time, prompting online allegations of
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“Don’t F--k This Up” comes on the heels
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rehab and recovery. In spring, Hart appeared
in “Irresponsible,” another Netflix produc-
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8 LOCAL
Phila. Police Dept. invites
LGBT dialogue over coffee
Mazzoni Center GARY L. DAY
is celebrating PGN Contributor
This week, the Philadelphia Police De-
partment held the latest of its Coffee with a
Mazzoni
Cop community outreach events — this time
clinic in the heart of the gayborhood at Starbucks
at 12th and Walnut Streets. The events in-
tend to solicit feedback from specific com-
Washington
West
munities and to enable area residents to get
Project to know, in an informal setting, some of the
officers serving their neighborhood.
Police, in conjunction with Starbucks,
years of LGBTQ have been conducting these events since last
health and Well-Being
LGBT Health & Well-Being Since 1979
summer in various Philadelphia neigh-
LGBT HEALTH & WELL-BEING
borhoods. This week’s event was
the first to focus on the city’s
LGBTQ community, spe-
cifically.
According to Sgt.
Wellness Nick Tees, the Depart-
ment’s LGBT liaison
officer, the hope is that
the event’s informality
will encourage people to
be more open about their
concerns in a non-con-
frontative setting. “We also
1348 Bainbridge Street want to let people know how
we can help them when they have a
215-563-0652 mazzonicenter.org LGBTQ HEALTH AND WELL BEING problem, who they can talk to.”
Inspector Altovise Love-Craighead feels
that communication between police and the
community serves to forestall the animosity
and distrust of the police, which is prevalent
LET'S TALK
across the nation.
“One of the important purposes of the Cof-
fee with a Cop program is to let people get
to know us as human beings — to let people
know that the folks underneath the uniform
are also members of their community who
ABOUT
understand their concerns,” she said.
Sgt. Tees was heartened by the response
officers received from people who wandered
in for their morning coffee. “We haven’t re-
ally been getting much in the way of con-
cerns or problematic issues. Mostly it’s been
expressions of appreciation for the work we
PrEP, BABY.
do. It’s good to get feedback like that in that
it lets us know that what we’re doing is mak-
ing an impact.”
Deputy Commissioner Joseph Sullivan,
also in attendance, said, “It’s important to
get feedback from the community. Commu-
nities like the LGBT community have a his-
tory of distrust of the police, which is under-
One pill. Once a day. Prevents HIV. standable given their past experiences. But
clearly matters have greatly improved over
the past several years. But we can do more,
which is our goal.”
A 2013 Williams Insitute survey found
PrEPdelco.com that 48 percent of LGBTQ victims of vio-
lence experienced police misconduct, and
the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey found
Chester: 610.872.9101 that 58 percent of trans folks who interacted
with law enforcement who knew they were
Sharon Hill: 610.583.1177 transgender reported harassment, abuse or
other mistreatment by police.
In June, the Philadelphia Police Depart-
Philadelphia Gay News . DECEMBER 6-12, 2019
ment announced a policy overhauling guide-
lines on law enforcement interactions with
transgender and nonbinary people.
Under the new policy, Directive 4.15, of-
ficers are required to include both a person’s
chosen and legal name on paperwork, use
preferred names and pronouns when inter-
acting with and speaking to the media about
trans people, and transport trans people in
custody to the nearest medical facility for
immediate needs, including hormone thera-
py.
Before, police worked under Directive
152, a 2014 policy that included terms like
“cross-dressers” and “transsexual” and
indicated an arrested individual’s
gender was that which ap-
peared on the person’s gov-
ernment-issued ID, except
when an arrestee had un-
dergone gender-affirm-
ing surgery. When an ID
wasn’t available, police
had the authority to as-
sign gender based on gen-
italia.
Along with building
trust, the Coffee with a Cop
program is a recruitment effort,
to make sure that police officers ac-
curately reflect the diverse communities they
serve — which includes the LGBT commu-
nity. For several years now, the Philadelphia
Police Department has had a program of ac-
tively recruiting LGBT officers.
Sgt. Rob Ryan, who spearheads the De-
partment’s LGBT recruitment, admitted that
LGBT recruitment has been a challenge, but
that progress is being made. “For instance,
the membership of GOAL [the Gay Officer’s
Action League], which has a contingent ev-
ery year in the gay pride parade, numbers
well over a hundred. And there are a large
number of out officers beyond that member-
ship.”
The Coffee with a Cop program is an
ongoing affair. Tees asserted that future
LGBT-specific events would be held at
other Starbucks locations throughout the
gayborhood, adding that the coffee chain
approached the police about initiating a pro-
gram like CwC.
That outreach was spearheaded by Sean
Korman, who manages one of Starbucks’
South Philly locations.
When asked what inspired him to reach
out to police, he admitted, “The unfortunate
event last year was a serious wake-up call to
take our community responsibilities serious-
ly.”
The “unfortunate event” Korman refer-
enced was an incident where Black men
were unceremoniously ejected from a Star-
bucks for apparently insufficient reasons.
“We realized that if we wanted to be a part
of the communities we were in, we actually
had to step up and play the part we claimed
we wanted to play in the communities we
serve.” n
DECEMBER 6-12, 2019 . epgn.com
Trans woman urges judge to keep lawsuit intact
TIMOTHY CWIEK
timothy@epgn.com
A trans woman who’s suing the University
of Pennsylvania and its hospital for job dis-
crimination recently urged a federal judge to
deny the defendants’ motion to dismiss ma-
jor portions of her case.
“Jane Doe” alleges she was fired from her
job at the Hospital of the University of Penn-
sylvania after being treated negligently and
recklessly while a patient there. Doe claims
that HUP employees exhibited transphobia
during a routine medical procedure on Feb.
20, 2018.
Doe filed suit in federal court for the East-
ern District of Pennsylvania on July 2, 2019,
seeking an unspecified amount in damages
and a jury trial. But Penn recently asked
U.S. District Judge Mitchell S. Goldberg
to dismiss major portions of Doe’s case,
including her allegations of negligence and
recklessness. Penn maintains those allega-
tions would be more appropriate in a medi-
cal-malpractice suit, which Doe hasn’t filed.
In a 16-page rebuttal brief filed Nov. 29,
Doe reiterated her allegations that HUP em-
ployees acted recklessly and negligently —
particularly in the recovery room, where she
became disoriented due to the anesthesia she
received.
“Ms. Doe’s disorientation [due to the an-
esthesia] was complete and visible to any-
one in the room [but] no one helped,” the
rebuttal brief states. “Ms. Doe was in the
LOCAL
9
recovery room of the preeminent manhandling her while she was a patient.
hospital in Philadelphia, one that These important occupational and social
promotes its sensitivity and com- functions were substantially limited by her
passion to its trans patients and gender dysphoria and defendants’ discrimi-
employees. And no one helped.” nation against her because of it.”
Doe’s filing goes on to assert Additionally, Doe’s filing asserts that Penn
that Doe had a “flashback” stem- defendants never discussed providing reason-
ming from a prior rape incident, able accommodations for her gender dyspho-
while in the recovery room. ria. “Defendants have never discussed nor
“Ms. Doe’s trauma led her to offered reasonable accommodation for Ms.
flashback to a rape incident she Doe’s disability,” the filing states. “HUP and
had suffered years before,” the the other defendants acted with malice and/or
filing states. “She screamed, reckless indifference, including but not limit-
pleading for the men to leave ed to acting with transphobic hatred. After the
the room. No one helped. In- H O S P I TA L O F T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F P E N N S Y LV A N I A [anesthesia] incident, Ms. Doe’s gender dys-
stead, they made things worse. A Photo: Sage Ross phoria flared up and she experienced difficul-
number of police-officer defen- ty in returning to HUP, her workplace — un-
dants ganged up on Ms. Doe and ly, respecting the information she conveyed derstandably, given her treatment at the hands
threw her into a wheelchair, held her down regarding her recovery, treating the difficult of defendants. HUP knew, yet failed to make
and, once they had subdued her with force, recovery completely and [doing] all of that reasonable accommodations for her, then il-
they handcuffed her. Ms. Doe, restrained without further harming her or destroying legally fired her on June 28, 2018. Ms. Doe
and imprisoned by numerous police-officer her employment,” the filing states. could have been reasonably accommodated
defendants, was brought down through the Penn defendants also have asked Gold- but for her employer’s lack of good faith.”
elevators of her place of employment top- berg to dismiss a bias claim Doe filed under As of presstime, Goldberg hadn’t ruled on
less, shoeless, in a wheelchair, and still in the Americans With Disabilities Act, on the Penn’s request to dismiss major portions of
handcuffs, all because defendants had failed basis that Doe hasn’t shown that her gender Doe’s case.
to heed her directions regarding anesthesia dysphoria limits her life activities. Doe’s re- Previously, Penn defendants asked Gold-
— directions, incidentally, that they should buttal filing emphasizes the ways her gender berg to dismiss a bias claim Doe filed under
have been aware of without specific instruc- dysphoria limits her life activities. Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act on the
tions.” “[Doe] has alleged substantial limitation basis that trans employees aren’t protected by
Doe’s filing stresses that Penn defendants of major life activities, including the fact that the Act. But after significant media attention,
breached their duty of care in the recovery she couldn’t go to work because of her gen- Penn defendants withdrew that request of the
room. “Defendants owed a duty and duties to der dysphoria and couldn’t socialize because judge.
Ms. Doe, including but not limited to treat- of gender dysphoria — and defendants’ fail- Neither side had a comment for this
ing her sensitivity to anesthesia competent- ure to recognize it — misgendering her and story. n
10 EDITORIAL
Philadelphia Gay News . DECEMBER 6-12, 2019

EDITORIAL BY JESS BRYANT

3 TRIALS OFFER HOPE FOR HIV VACCINE
December is AIDS Awareness
Month, and this year researchers
are offering some good news.
Three trials offer hope that a
vaccine for HIV could be avail-
able in 2021. The vaccines — Im-
bokodo, Mosaico and HVTN 702
— are all in trial stages and giving
scientists reason to believe the ep-
idemic can be stopped.
This is “perhaps one of the most
optimistic moments we have been
in,” Dr. Susan Buchbinder, direc-
tor of the Bridge HIV research
program at the San Francisco De-
partment of Public Health and co-
chair of the Imbokodo and Mosa-
ico trials, told NBC News.
The oldest of the three vaccines
is HVTN 702, which is related to
RV144, a previously tested vac-
cine that lowered the rate of HIV
infections by 30 percent. While
RV144 is the only vaccine that
had any success, it still proved un-
reliable. Those working on HVTN
702 have taken what was success-
ful in RV144 to create a new vac-
cine with more efficacy.
While HVTN 702 is limited
to an HIV strain found primar-
ily in southern Africa, Imbokodo
and Mosaico are both mosaic ap-
proaches, which “induce immune
responses against a wide variety of
global HIV strains,” according to
the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Anthony Fauci of the Na-
tional Institute of Allergy and In-
fectious Diseases, suggested a mo-
saic approach could give broader
coverage than HVTN 702.
All three vaccines continue be-
ing funded, meaning efficacy ad-
vancements are expected.
Fauci said, “If one or more of
these vaccines look good — have
a 50 to 60 percent efficacy — I
think that’s going to be the game
changer for turning the epidemic
around.”
While any of the vaccines
could offer a solution, nothing is
without its challenges.
“None of these vaccines is a
particularly simple regimen,” Bu-
chbinder told NBC. “They require
multiple injections, and so each
one would require a minimum of
four different doses in its current
configuration.”
The Philadelphia Department
of Health reported that around
20,000 people are living with HIV
in Philadelphia.n overwhelm-
ing 66 percent of those folks are
Black. While the number of diag-
noses was down slightly in 2018
compared to 2017 (424 vs. 495),
the City of Brotherly Love still
has a higher rate of transmission
than the national average, ac-
cording to the Center for Disease
Control.
Men who have sex with men
continue to account for the highest
percentage of new transmissions
(48.8), though the category did see
a decrease over the last year, likely
due to PrEP and PEP. Unfortu-
nately, the rate of infection has
increased for “people who inject
drugs,” perhaps indicating why
Safehouse, a safe-injection site,
has become such an important is-
sue in Philadelphia.
If one of these new vaccines
happens to work or offers in-
creased efficacy — if that vaccine
is then offered for free or priced on
a sliding scale and given to com-
munities with the greatest need
first, perhaps the LGBTQ com-
munity and the Black and Latinx
communities in the U.S., along
with several other communities
worldwide, can begin to believe
that our lives are valued by those
in power. n

CREEP OF THE WEEK BY D’ANNE WITKOWSKI

TONY PERKINS
Is America ready for a gay president? No
way say the people who currently support with
blind fealty and reverence a president who is a
corrupt serial adulterer rapist half-wit.
A president can be many things, but not a
homo. That is a bridge too far for the Amer-
ican people!
But some people are starting to freak out
a little bit, because there’s been polling that
shows Sworn Gay Pete Buttigieg leading in
Iowa. Which obviously means he has this
whole thing in the bag and also that this whole
thing is gay now, as is the bag.
Even if Buttigieg does win the Iowa caucus,
that hardly means he’s going to go on to win
the nomination. Bill Clinton, George H.W.
Bush and Ronald Reagan, for example, all lost
Iowa but ended up becoming their party’s Nu-
mero Uno.
A win in Iowa for a candidate like Buttigieg
isn’t insignificant, however. It would bestow
some extra credibility on his candidacy that
has seemed like a long shot to many. It would
also prime the fundraising pump. But it would
also be a historic “holy shit, a gay dude just
won the Iowa caucus” kind of moment.
Buttigieg’s appeal stems in part from his vo-
cal embrace of his Christian faith, something
that has rankled right-wing Christians like
Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council,
an organization dedicated to dismantling any
gains LGBTQ people have made in the U.S.
and preventing any others.
On the Nov. 21 edition of the Family Re-
search Council’s “Washington Watch” pod-
cast, Perkins and David Closson, also of the
FRC, claim that Buttigieg can’t possibly be a
real Christian.
“[Buttigieg is] actually twisting God’s word
to advance a political agenda that is antitheti-
cal to biblical Christianity,” Closson says, pre-
sumably with a straight face.
I mean, come on. As if the religious right
doesn’t conveniently cherry-pick parts of the
Bible to support their ideology. They literal-
ly HAVE TO DO THAT in order to support ly interpreted the Seven Deadly Sins not as a scratch
Trump. cautionary list, but an aspirational one. that. “Full
In a justification for why the right-wing But please, do go on about how Buttigieg’s circle” im-
Christians supported Trump, someone on the happy marriage to his husband Chasten is the plies that
right said something about Trump being an deal-breaker here. there’s
“imperfect messenger.” According to Vox, Being gay, argues Peter LaBarbera of something
evangelicals see Trump as an “unlikely ‘ves- Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, orderly
sel’: someone God has chosen for an import- “is the ultimate blasphemy” and that Buttigieg and logi-
ant historical purpose, despite not looking like “is making a farce out of Christianity.” cal to the
— or having the religious character of — an “The media will pretend that a man like Pe- argument
obvious man of God.” ter Buttigieg kissing his so-called husband is that Trump is a divine gift while Buttigieg is
In other words, we don’t care if this man is just like a man kissing his wife,” LaBarbera the spawn of the devil. Who was it again mak-
trash so long as he can bring about the end to told OneNewsNow. “But the average Joe on ing a farce out of Christianity? n
Roe v. Wade and gay marriage. the street, the average American, will not be-
Perkins zeroes in on an interview Buttigieg lieve that. And I do not believe that an open- D’Anne Witkowski is a poet, writer and co-
did with Rolling Stone magazine in which he ly homosexual, far-left progressive candidate median living in Michigan with her wife and
criticized “people who are avowedly Chris- like Pete Buttigieg — I do not think the Amer- son. She has been writing about LGBT politics
tian” who “get themselves into bed with a ican public is ready for that.” for over a decade. Follow her on Twitter @
president like [Trump.]” And so we’ve come full circle. Actually, MamaDWitkowski.
Perkins resends by asking, “Well, what
about supporting a man who gets in bed with
another man? I think that’s really the issue here
when you talk about biblical Christianity. The
Bible speaks very clearly about the issue of
homosexuality, and ... it’s amazing to me that
he would so use Scripture when he is ... openly
in a lifestyle that is contrary to the teaching of
both the Old and the New Testaments.”
It’s a curious response, notable for the fact
that while Trump gets a pass with it comes to
all of his sins and transgressions, Buttigieg
does not. Because to Perkins being gay is
worse than literally anything else. Buttigieg
cannot be an “unlikely vessel.” He doesn’t get
the benefit of the doubt. Buttigieg professes
his faith while Trump couldn’t even give an
example of a favorite Bible verse when asked,
it is Trump who is considered more Biblical.
Closson says, “The irony of Mayor Pete
Buttigieg lecturing Christians on the ethical
content of Christianity when, like you just
said, this is a man who is married to another
man, again, when Scripture is just super clear.”
Ahem. Scripture is also clear about adultery.
Not to mention the fact that Trump apparent-
DECEMBER 6-12, 2019 . epgn.com
OPINION
11

MARK MY WORDS WITH MARK SEGAL

LGBT representation on TV and a thank-you letter
A few weeks ago, this col-
umn touched on the subject
of why the Hallmark Channel
and Lifetime, both of which
run romantic holiday mov-
ies 24/7 during the holidays,
don’t have a film celebrating
an LGBT couple.
You might think that is triv-
ial, but it’s actually something very important
that connects to my 50-year battle for our vis-
ibility in media.
Because this year marks the 50th anniversary
of the Stonewall uprising, I received much me-
dia attention for my involvement in that first
year of activism that started at Stonewall and
concluded with the first Gay Pride. While many
believe that is my legacy, you might be surprised
to know that I prefer something else — the cam-
TRANSMISSIONS BY GWENDOLYN ANN SMITH
we
wanna
know
paign I created in 1972 to end the invisibility of affection at times, and in the last scene, the two
LGBT people on TV. men kissed. Thank you Lifetime and Off Cam- Who is an LGBTQ
Very simply, I knew that until America met era Productions. community member
us, we would remain the monsters in the closet. I quickly sent a thank you message to Brian you’d like to see PGN
But as people got to know us, we became living, Sills, one of those gay characters. In our ex-
feature?
breathing humans. The more of us that were fea- change, he wrote the following: “Lifetime
tured on TV as figures the public could relate to, seems to be committed to progressive program-
the quicker our path to equality. Will & Grace, ming, and I think we are not too far from seeing (3) Dr. Katheryn
Ellen and now Rachel Maddow, all will get us to Christmas movies from them with gay leads. I Ashley Brandt,
that point. But in 1972, there were zero of us on came out the year of Ellen’s sitcom. ... I remem- who recently com-
TV — yes, zero. ber the massive impact it had on me and how it pleted a fellowship
Each demographic gets to know us through inspired me to come out to my parents. To think in gender-affirm-
LGBT characters featured on various shows on that this movie could potentially have a positive ing surgery and is
also known to the
many different networks. Lifetime and Hallmark impact on young LGBTQ people and their fam- community in the
have not introduced LGBT characters. ilies truly warms my heart.” DJ booth as
So imagine my surprise this weekend when And that explains the need for our visibility DJ Kash
I watched a movie on Lifetime called “Twinkle and why organizations like GLAAD need to @dk.k.ashphilly
All the Way” and saw a gay couple as secondary succeed in their mission to have our community
characters in the story. The couple even showed not only on screen but accurately portrayed. n
Zachary Wilcha
from IBA
Philadelphia

The trans body Philadelphia

Transphobia, like homophobia,
both use the suffice “-phobia,” and
while many people might believe it
means “fear,” it truly means “aver-
sion” in this case. It’s the same
principle found in “hydrophobic
surfaces,” called such because of an
ability to repel water.
That said, I feel there is a dis-
tinct element of transphobia that is
rooted in fear. I feel that many cis-
gender people have a deep-set fear,
far beyond their rational mind, that
if transgender and nonbinary people
are able to shift from one expressed
gender to another during their life-
time, that their own fixed gender is,
inexplicably, under threat.
As both trans and nonbinary
identities have gained visibility, we
have seen the established gender
identities become more entrenched
and more policed. The rise of both
may simply be coincidental, but
they both end up working very
much against each other.
Ironically, while one can hear
millions of different ways one isn’t
man enough in this society, tran-
sitioning away from a masculine
identity seems to be the ultimate
way to find a person continually
told just how much of a man one is,
but I digress.
Before I say much more, I want
to express a point of order: a per-
son doesn’t actually need to opt for
any surgical or hormonal treatment
to identify as any given gender or to
express their gender. Many choose
against surgical options. One’s
genitals simply do not equal their
gender. That is good and valid, and
anyone who opts against surgery is
an ace in my book.
I am, nevertheless, going to be
talking a lot about such things be-
low — Mea culpa.
The human body is a remark-
able thing, and it is capable of dis-
playing all sorts of variation. In the
womb, at around eight weeks into
gestation, the human body begins
to form genitals. Initially, this is
little more than what’s known as
a “genital ridge” forming an iden-
tical set of genitals for nearly any
baby, regardless of chromosomes
or anything else. This formation is
also, apparently, separate from the
formation of gender.
Over the course of the next few
weeks, the baby’s genitals will usu-
ally move away from this single
form, with gonads taking the role
of testes or ovaries, penis or clitoris
and so on.
Nevertheless, the evidence of our
very flesh sharing identical struc-
tures no matter what genital con-
figuration one may have remains
a part of our life. All humans, for
example, have nipples, even though
— in most cases — they remain un-
derutilized for about half the pop-
ulation.
In many cases, all it takes is the
presentation of estrogen or testos-
terone to change the human body
from one distinct shape to another.
The addition of estrogen can help
form breasts, soften facial features
and generally make a body become
more feminine in appearance. Add
testosterone and facial and body
hair can appear, voices can lower,
and bodies can develop a more
masculine appearance.
A number of surgical and other
options can further alter our bodies,
creating vaginal canals, a clitoris
and labia on a body, or a phallus and
scrotal sack on another. Breasts can
be augmented; testicular implants
are possible, and unwanted hair can
be removed via electrolysis.
There are a lot of misconceptions
about trans bodies and how they
work. Some of these notions are am-
plified by non-transgender people
who delight in spreading falsehoods
as a way of tearing down transgen-
der people as a whole. I feel these
people are transphobic, no matter
which way you parse the suffix.
There are many who want to tell
you that a post-surgical trans person
will no longer have any sensitivity to
their genitals or will no longer have
the ability to orgasm. Others may
claim that a neovagina will be an
open wound forever, requiring con-
tact after in order to not simply heal
over. Any number of complications
may be made up about trans bodies
of all stripes.
All of this is, by and large, non-
sense.
While this was less true in the
past, the genitals of a trans person
will, by and large, maintain sensa-
tion. A penis and a clitoris are analo-
gous structures and are used as such
in many surgical procedures. Hor-
mones also do a lot to affect how
these work on a trans body.
Likewise, orgasm is certainly pos-
sible for transgender people who opt
for surgery. To quote Kate Bornstein
Falcons: Our
president or any
in her first book, “Gender Outlaws,” of our board
“The plumbing works and so does members
the electricity.” Likewise, hormones
can change the way an orgasm
works for a trans woman, often in John Butts, who
very positive, affirming ways. does great work
As for stories of trans women’s with Action Well-
vaginas as some sort of open wound, ness and Per-
formRx
this is poppycock. Yes, for the first
few weeks post genital surgery,
there is an aftercare regime that will Thurston Trapp
require regular use of dilators on a
neovagina. After that initial period,
the time spent with dilation tapers Daniel
off. Mclaughlin
At no time is it an open wound, and Sam Mink
and the dilation is more about
stretching the skin as it heals into
place than it is about keeping a body Frank Potopa
from healing shut. It doesn’t work
that way.
Also, once more, no amount of Michel Witkes
surgery or hormones invalidates @witkesandtell
one’s innate understanding of their
gender, and all trans bodies are valid
no matter what. You know who and Drea Richards,
what you are, always. who is transgender
I think, again, misinformation and a positive role
about trans bodies persists because model
there are those who wish to push
transgender people back to the mar-
gins, as well as those who — afraid Aaron Philip
that their own gender identity may
be called into question — opt to be-
lieve that all bodies are fixed into a
one-or-the-other immutable shape.
Our remarkable bodies, trans or
otherwise, know better. n
follow us on instagram
to participate in our
Gwen Smith was actually very social polls and questions:
surprised how much hormones @phillygaynews
alone did. You’ll find her at www.
gwensmith.com
12 REGIONAL
Philadelphia Gay News . DECEMBER 6-12, 2019

Victory Fund endorses trans

candidate for Del. senate
LAURA SMYTHE at the federal level, it has never been more
laura@epgn.com important for states like Delaware to show
the nation what is possible when we reject
The LGBTQ Victory Fund, a national or- the politics of division and embrace the pol-
ganization dedicated to electing out leaders itics of progress,” Human Rights Campaign
to public office, endorsed trans woman Sarah president Alphonso David said in a release
McBride on Wednesday in her 2020 bid for at the time. “We’re proud to endorse Sarah’s
the Delaware state Senate. historic candidacy, and cannot wait to call
If elected, McBride,
a longtime LGBTQ
rights activist, would
be the first openly
trans state senator in
the United States. She
would also be the first
out person elected to
the Delaware state leg-
islature.
“Sarah continues to
revolutionize what is
possible for a trans per-
son — whether inside
the White House or
from the largest stage
PROUD KIMMEL CENTER
SEASON SPONSOR in Democratic politics
— and she will almost
PRESENTED BY

J A N U A R Y 7- 1 9
K I M M E LC E N T E R . O R G
certainly be making
history again as the
OFFICIAL AIRLINE
nation’s first out trans
state senator,” Annise
Parker, president and
CEO of LGBTQ Vic-
tory Fund, said in a
statement.
A Wilmington na-
tive, McBride is run-
ning on a platform of
reforming the criminal
justice system, making
health care affordable,
expanding paid leave
and supporting public schools. She has spent
most of her life doing public advocacy work
and has worked for former Delaware Gov-
ernor Jack Markell, former Attorney Gener-
al of Delaware Beau Biden and the Obama
White House.
McBride came out in 2012 in American
University’s student newspaper one day after
finishing her term as student body president.
The same year, McBride, a former Victory
Fund intern, graduated from the LGBTQ
Victory Institute’s Candidate & Campaign
Training, a four-day program that teaches
queer leaders how to run for office.
The next year she became the first open-
ly trans intern at the White House when she
served in the Obama administration. She
also fought for gender identity nondiscrimi-
nation protections in Delaware in 2013, then
made history as the first openly trans person
to speak at the Democratic National Con-
vention when it took place in Philadelphia
in 2016.
The Human Rights Campaign also en-
dorsed McBride in the Delaware Senate race
in August.
“At a time when equality is under attack
S A R A H M C B R I D E P h o t o : Tw i t t e r
her Senator McBride.”
Via Twitter on Wednesday afternoon,
McBride chalked the LGBTQ Victory Fund
endorsement up to three qualities: “I’m
a proven advocate for equal rights,” “I’m
deeply invested in my community and have
the ideas to push us forward,” and “I’m here
to win.”
Four out trans people serve in state leg-
islatures across the country: Danica Roem
of the Virginia House of Delegates, Brianna
Titone of the Colorado House of Represen-
tatives, and Gerri Cannon and Lisa Bunker
of the New Hampshire House of Represen-
tatives.
The Victory Fund has endorsed 75 out
candidates in 2020 races so far.
“Former Governor Jack Markell, state
legislators and countless advocates describe
Sarah as the lynchpin in lobbying efforts
to secure statewide gender identity nondis-
crimination protections six years ago,” Park-
er said. “That was with Sarah working from
the outside. The impact of her presence and
voice in the state legislature will be trans-
formative, changing hearts and minds and
leading to more inclusive legislation.” n
DECEMBER 6-12, 2019 . epgn.com
I N T E R N AT I O N A L
Haitian gay activist found LGBT activists in China
dead seek to change marriage civ-
Human rights advocates and others are
il code
mourning the death of a Haitian gay rights
activist who was found dead inside his
home in Port-au-Prince under suspicious
circumstances.
Charlot Jeudy was found dead on Nov.
25 inside his home in the Caradeux neigh-
borhood of Haiti’s capital. Jeudy, 34, was
the leader of the prominent Haitian LGBT
advocacy group Kouraj, or Courage.
Jeudy’s brother, who asked not to be iden-
tified for fear of repercussions, said he and
Jeudy were together around 5 p.m. Nov. 24.
After they parted, Jeudy received a phone
call and went to meet someone near the
Champ de Mars, the brother said. On Nov.
25, a nephew called him and said Jeudy was
still in bed and would not wake up.
“I shook him, turned him around, noth-
ing,” the brother said.
The brother said the family wants the po-
lice to take the death seriously and to carry
out an investigation. They are also seeking
an autopsy. “I always told him to be careful
because Haiti is not like other countries,”
the brother said.
A friend, who asked to be identified only
as Boumba, said while Jeudy was working
on a number of projects to protect LGBT
rights, he did not want to speculate on the
cause of his death. He said friends and fami-
ly members were meeting with lawyers and
human rights activists on Nov. 26 to push
for a “serious investigation” into the cause
of death.
Jeudy first rose to international promi-
nence in 2016 when the Fondation Con-
naissance et Liberte (FOKAL) and Insti-
tut Francais were both forced to cancel a
film screening and discussion as part of an
LGBT film festival put on by Kouraj after
receiving threats of violence and homopho-
bic messages on social media.
Earlier this year, as gay pride flags start-
ed popping up around Haiti’s capital, Jeudy
was proud but concerned for his safety.
During the Port-au-Prince International
Jazz Festival, he and Kouraj were chosen by
British R&B singer Joss Stone, who asked
festival organizers to team her with a local
charity during her visit to Haiti because she
wanted a way to give back.
I N T E R N AT I O N A L
13
LGBT activists in China are seeking to
legalize same-sex marriage through a novel
tactic: submitting opinions on a draft for the
new civil code to the country’s legislature.
It’s one of the few options available as
space for civil society and advocacy has
shrunk. Human rights activists and their law-
yers have been detained, and internet censor-
ship has grown.
Activists acknowledge that marriage
equality is still far off, but say the opinions
will push the government to take the demand
more seriously.
Church of Sweden Displays
Queer-Affirming’ Paradise’
Artwork
The Church of Sweden has accepted and
put on display an image of LGBTQ followers
of God living together in heaven.
The artwork “Paradiset” by Elisabeth Ohl-
son Wallin was unveiled on Dec. 1 by the St
Paul’s church in Malmö, which released a
statement praising the inclusivity displayed.
“We are grateful to Elisabeth’s artistry,
which enables us to build a credible church
that shows that we all, regardless of who we
love and identify as, are accommodated in
Paradise,” reads a translation of the Swedish
statement.
Wallin’s photo illustration includes two
men nearly nude leaning against one an-
other, as well as two women, one with her
arm wrapped around the other and the lovers
locked in gaze. The two same-sex couples
are the most prominent queer-affirming im-
agery in the painting.
Wallin, a queer artist producing work in
Sweden since the late 1980s, has often ex-
plored the role of religion in LGBTQ af-
firmation. In 2012, she produced “Ecce
Homo,” a recreation of Da Vinci’s The Last
Supper with a transgender Jesus Christ, and
the work ultimately needed armed guards
protecting it from vandalism while on dis-
play in Serbia. n
Reporting via Associated Press
14 O B I T U A RY
Celebrating the life of
Mansour Al-Hawasy
STEVEN A. JOHNSTON
Temple University (LAW ‘18)
Mansour Al-Hawasy, J.D. (26) of Phil-
adelphia sashayed from this world on Fri-
day, Nov. 22, 2019. Mansour is survived by
his adorable cat Sinclair as well as a loving
Wishing Well B&B
village of chosen family, friends and loved
ones.
A proud graduate of the University of
Washington’s Jackson School of Interna-
tional Studies, Mansour worked with the
144 Old York Road, New Hope Foundation for International Understand-
ing Through Students (FIUTS) in hopes
of building a more tolerant and accepting
~ Accommodating world. He then went on to Temple University
Beasley School of Law where he truly came
wishes is our into his own. Mansour was dedicated to his
community and used his skills to help others
specialty ~ in any way he could, such as with the Maz-
zoni Center’s LGBTQ Legal Services Office
and Philadelphia VIP. He was an accom-
your hosts, plished public speaker and member of the
Moot Court team. Mansour was continuing
Scott and Micheal his education at Temple Law with an L.L.M.
in Transnational Law.
Those who knew Mansour will always re-
wishingwellbnb.com member his passion for helping others, his
devotion to friends and family, and his abili-
267.736.6743 ty to dress up for all occasions no matter the
event. Above all else, Mansour was humble,
Philadelphia Gay News . DECEMBER 6-12, 2019
sweet and kind. He always put others be-
fore himself. His last words to friends were,
“Please be kind to one another,” a sentiment
many in the legal profession and our society
at large would do well to live by.
The Philadelphia legal, LGBTQ, and im-
migrant communities lost so much with
Mansour’s passing. Mansour represented
the intersections of many groups and fought
fiercely to be recognized and respected for
who he was and everything he accomplished.
Despite all the challenges he faced in his
short life, Mansour still smiled, danced, cel-
ebrated life, threw shade and clacked his fan.
His chosen family and friends promise to do
the same with their memories of Mansour
guiding the way.
A celebration of Mansour’s life will be
held in the William Way LGBTQ Commu-
nity Center’s Ballroom, 1315 Spruce St., on
Thursday, Dec. 12, 2019, from 6 to 7 p.m.
with cosmopolitans, singing and dancing to
follow at Tavern on Camac, 243 S Camac St.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made
in Mansour’s honor to a varying number of
causes that were important to him: Maz-
zoni Center Legal Services Office, Rainbow
Railroad USA or Lawyers Concerned for
Lawyers PA.
Now, let’s go have a cosmo ... MISS
VANJIE! n
DECEMBER 6-12, 2019 . epgn.com
Local entertainer Darryl Broadus
VICTORIA A. BROWNWORTH
PGN Contributor
Darryl Broadus, a local entertainer and
designer, died suddenly after a short illness
on Nov. 13. He was 59.
To those who knew him, Darryl Broadus
was an introspective, but highly talented
man with a diversity of interests. Broadus
was a native Philadelphian and graduate of
Northeast High School.
During his decades in the local gay com-
munity, Broadus was known as a gifted
musician and entertainer. Throughout the
1980s and the zenith of the local piano and
dinner theater trend in Philadelphia, Broadus
performed in many of the local venues. He
was well-known on the circuit for his perfor-
mances at Rembrandt’s, Raffles, Tavern on
Camac and others. Those who frequented his
performances remember him as “an engag-
ing performer” and “a kind soul.”
His longtime friend Jay Johnson, Coordi-
nator of Volunteers for Action Wellness, told
PGN that Broadus, who played piano and
keyboards, was a consummate entertainer
who drew in the crowds. “Back in the day,
he played everywhere,” Johnson said. “And
Darryl played beautifully, just beautifully,”
Johnson remembers fondly.
Tom Salber was Broadus’s friend for the
last few years of his life. They met when
Salber, a nurse, was caring for Broadus’s
mother, Vivian, who was in hospice. “It was
a difficult and painful time for him,” Salber
recalls.
Salber was going on vacation to the shore
with Johnson and suggested they invite
Broadus along for the weekend to help him
deal with his grief. “Darryl ended up staying
the whole week,” Salber said. As they all be-
came friends, Broadus and Johnson discov-
ered they had gone to high school together.
“We reconnected,” Johnson said. “It was a
really great time.”
Salber describes his friend as a quiet man
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Johnson said Broadus was passionate
about his music but also about sewing and
cooking, and at the time of his death, Broa- Family Plumber
dus was a cook at Whole Foods. Johnson
said he “prepared many fine meals that for over 30 years
pleased the palate.”
Over the years, Broadus expanded his rep-
ertoire to include work for the Temple Opera
Company, where he was both a performer
and designer. He also sewed privately, spe-
cializing in individually designed clothes.
For Salber, his friend was a “self-taught
man who had a wide and infectious smile
and a compassion for people.” For Johnson,
the very tall Broadus was “a gentle giant —
there is no better description of Darryl. He
was just a devoted, kind and loving man. A
real gentle giant — he was always right there
for his friends.”
Broadus’ friend Maggie, who posted on
Broadus’ tribute page at Hancock Funeral
Home, said, “In loving memory of one of
the most gentle men I know. I will miss your
music, your wit and your spirit. I hope you
have found the peace you sought. Know that
you are loved, know you will never be for-
gotten.”
Salber has arranged a memorial service
for Broadus, with his sister.
“My intent was to have a musical tribute,
to let people who remembered Darryl’s mu-
sic know about his death, but also to remem-
ber him and his music and celebrate his life
and what he gave to the community,” Salber
said.
A musical celebration and memorial ser-
vice of Darryl Broadus’ life will be held on
Saturday, Dec. 7, 2019 at Prince of Peace
Lutheran Church, 6001 Colgate Street, in
Northeast Philadelphia (Lawncrest) at noon.
Broadus was predeceased by his parents,
Vivian and Louis. He is survived by a sister,
Sandra, and a brother, Anthony. n
16 N AT I O N A L
Philadelphia Gay News . DECEMBER 6-12, 2019

St. Louis County: Missouri Transgender inmate ruling

MEDIA TRAIL
Judge blocks challenge
to Indiana’s religious
objections law
WNDU.com reported conservative reli-
gious groups have failed to convince an In-
diana judge they faced any harm from limits
placed on the state’s contentious religious
objections law signed by then-Gov. Mike
Pence.
The Hamilton County judge agreed with
arguments the state and four cities made
in blocking a lawsuit challenging changes
made to the 2015 law after a national uproar
over whether it could be used to discrimi-
nate against gays and lesbians. The judge’s
ruling filed Nov. 22 doesn’t address the
groups’ claims, including that the changes
could force them to hire same-sex marriage
supporters.
An attorney for the religious groups didn’t
immediately reply to requests for comment.
Their lawsuit also challenged local civil
rights ordinances in Indianapolis, Carmel,
Bloomington and Columbus that include
protections based on sexual orientation and
gender identity.
allows anti-gay discrimina- could change Nevada pris-
tion on policy
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported
lawyers representing St. Louis County
are challenging a $20 million verdict
in a gay officer’s lawsuit, claiming it is
legal to discriminate against gay peo-
ple in Missouri.
Police Sgt. Keith Wildhaber alleged
in his lawsuit that he had been passed
over for a promotion 23 times and was
told to “tone down your gayness.” The
verdict was announced in October.
The county’s new legal team, the
Lewis Rice law firm, is asking a judge
to amend the verdict or order a new
trial. It argues that Wildhaber brought
his suit under the Missouri Human
Rights Act, which offers no protection
against sexual orientation discrimina-
tion.
A spokesman for Page says media-
tion is still planned with the hope of
reaching a settlement.
The Las Vegas Sun reported the Nevada
Attorney General has announced that the
state must comply with a recent federal ap-
peals court ruling mandating the Idaho De-
partment of Corrections pay for a transgen-
der inmate’s gender-affirmation surgery so
long as the ruling is not overturned.
Attorney General Aaron Ford made the
announcement in response to policy ques-
tions for the Nevada Department of Correc-
tions during a Nov. 25 department meeting.
Appellate court officials said the decision
was upheld in August requiring Idaho to pay
for gender-affirmation surgery altering the
sex characteristics of an inmate to match
their gender identity.
Court officials said denying the surgery
would constitute cruel and unusual punish-
ment.
Ford said the Idaho ruling set a precedent
for similar cases in other states, including
Nevada. n

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DECEMBER 6-12, 2019 . epgn.com
ACTUP SAFEHOUSE RALLY
from page 1
Vancouver, Canada in 2003.
Organizers at Tuesday’s demonstration
said McSwain’s stance is reminiscent of
failed and racist “War on Drugs” policies.
Safehouse could help address the systemic
issue of addiction, which is often believed to
mainly impact white people, de Marco told
PGN.
In 2017, 1,217 known deaths from over-
doses occurred in Philadelphia, according to
city data. The following year, 1,116 instanc-
es took place.
Larry Colon, a 22-year-old person in re-
covery, attended Tuesday’s rally because
he has seen too many teenagers and young
adults develop addiction, he said.
“It goes from using to have fun to using
to not get cold or using to stay warm or stay
alive, because some people go through kill-
ing withdrawals when they get off of this
stuff,” said Colon, who recently left a reha-
bilitation facility. “I just want the world to be
as beautiful as it was when I was younger.”
PGN
J O S É D E M A R C O H O L D S F U N E R A L W R E AT H TO P R E S E N T TO M C S WA I N . P h o t o : L a u r a S my t h e
Heather, who is in active addiction, said
she has tried to be admitted to a facility “to
save [her] life.” She said people with addic-
tion often have overlapping mental health
issues and often are denied insurance cover-
age.
“I’ve lost too many to this disease and a
lot of people don’t see it as a disease, but it
is because we use to numb ourselves. … I
stand here today to fight for everybody who’s
like myself and those who are [recovering],”
Heather added.
For Mike, who is also in active addiction,
a safe consumption site would help Phila-
17
delphians who use drugs access the health
services they need. While Mike has health
insurance, he said his partner, who has a
physical disability, does not. After being
poked by a used needle, she was denied the
same services at a detox facility that Mike
received at the same location in a similar sit-
uation, he said.
“You mean to tell me over a couple thou-
sand dollars … you couldn’t get this woman
medication to prevent her from getting HIV?
That’s terrible,” Mike told the crowd.
Safehouse supporters argue the facility
will save Philadelphia millions in tax dollars
each year by reducing ambulance calls and
infection diseases, prevent the spread of in-
fectious diseases and increase the number of
people who use drug detoxification and treat-
ment services.
De Marco said he hopes McSwain received
the message that his stance forces people to
use drugs in an unsafe way and environment.
“We don’t want him arresting people.
That’s the point of this,” he added. “We want
to save lives. We don’t want [him] road-
blocking us saving lives.” n

SCRANTON LAWSUIT indifference to his federally protected right

from page 1
feel his complaints were being taken serious-
ly” by school administrators, according to the
lawsuit.
On Dec. 15, 2018, the alleged harasser
physically assaulted Doe. During the attack,
the alleged harasser said, “I’m gonna murder
you in your sleep” and referred to Doe as a
“faggot,” according to the lawsuit.
Doe’s mother spoke to a dean at the school
about the alleged harassment and was told,
“Pennsylvania doesn’t recognize this as a
hate crime.” The dean failed to take remedial
action against the alleged harasser, according
to the lawsuit.
School administrators didn’t order the al-
leged harasser to leave the house and live
somewhere else. Instead, they suggested that
Doe leave the house. For safety reasons, Doe
moved into on-campus housing for his final
semester at the university, which was more
expensive, according to the lawsuit.
On Nov. 25, in a 44-page filing, university
officials urged U.S. District Judge James M.
Munley to dismiss Doe’s case as meritless.
The defense filing states that university
officials weren’t “deliberately indifferent”
to Doe’s claims of antigay harassment. The
filing notes that after the Dec. 15 altercation,
university officials offered Doe the option
of moving back onto campus. “Doe elected
to move back on-campus and subsequently
made the move out of his off-campus housing
unit and into the University’s campus hous-
ing,” the filing states.
Additionally, the defense filing asserts that
the university didn’t exercise “substantial
control” over Doe’s former housemate and
that the alleged harassment wasn’t “perva-
sive.”
“[Doe] has not adequately pled that he
P h o t o : Fa c e b o o k
suffered harassment that was ‘so severe,
pervasive, and objectively offensive’ that it
deprived him access to the University’s edu-
cational opportunities or benefits provided by
the University,” the filing states. Those ele-
ments would be necessary for Doe’s case to
move forward, according to the filing.
Doe’s claims for punitive damages against
the university are similarly meritless because
Doe failed to allege that the University of
Scranton engaged in “conduct motivated by
evil motive or intent or reckless or callous
[to fair housing],” according to the defense
filing.
In his lawsuit, Doe asked Munley to order
the university to implement a policy that an-
ti-LGBT harassment will be addressed ap-
propriately by university officials and that a
harasser will be required to move to different
housing. However, the defense filing urges
Munley to dismiss Doe’s request as “moot,”
since Doe has already graduated from the
university and couldn’t benefit from such an
order.
As of presstime, Munley hadn’t ruled on
the university’s request to dismiss Doe’s case.
Justin F. Robinette, an attorney for Doe,
blasted the defense filing. “University offi-
cials are taking an entirely dismissive ap-
proach to my client’s lawsuit, which is sim-
ilar to the way they treated him as a student,”
Robinette told PGN. “Officials were deliber-
ately indifferent to Mr. Doe’s plight until he
was physically attacked by his housemate.
And then they made matters worse by en-
couraging my client — not the harasser —
to move out. If you were an LGBT student,
would you attend that school? And if you
were a parent of an LGBT student, would you
send your child there?”
A spokesperson for the university had no
comment for this update. n

ACTION AIDS AWARDS ation of Action IPA, a out the three Friends for Life Awards, Ac-
from page 1 hoppy brew from which tion Wellness will receive its own honor
a dollar is donated to the Dec. 6 from the University of Pennsylva-
for Life, Action Wellness’ signature an- nonprofit for every pint nia’s Community Advisory Board of the
nual event in which some Philly restau- sold during April, Burns Center for AIDS Research. The Pioneer
rants donate one-third of food sales on a told PGN. He added that Award, part of the Red Ribbon Awards
designated day in April to fighting HIV/ Sikaehma is a “fixture Ceremony held annually in commemo-
AIDS, Burns said. The London Grill was in the community” who ration of World AIDS Day, recognizes
one of the longest-participating food in- “goes above and be- Action Wellness for its HIV activism and
stitutions in the fundraiser, which began yond to” motivate others education work.
in the early ’90s. to give back to folks in Burns, who has worked with Action
Yards has similarly supported Action need. Wellness — which changed
Wellness over the years through the cre- In addition to doling its operating name from page 18
ESS DIRECTORY
18
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ACTION AIDS AWARDS
from page 17
ActionAIDS in 2016 — for
30 years, said the award is a
tribute to the nonprofit’s past.
He views it as a way to re-
member community members
who have died from AIDS, in-
cluding former volunteers and
board of directors members.
“When we as an organiza-
tion are at a crossroads I think
to myself, ‘What would they
think about this particular de-
cision and what would they
say and what would they do?’”
he added. “Getting this award
feels good because it feels like
we are very much in touch with
our history as an organization
and really try to listen to those
voices of people who were tak-
en from us too soon in terms of
the decisions that we make as
an organization.”
Over the last year, Action
Wellness has buckled down on
addressing racism and white
privilege, providing relevant
staff training, Burns told PGN.
The Pioneer Award feels like
an acknowledgment of these
efforts as the nonprofit aims to
create a safe space for people
regardless of race, sexual ori-
entation, sex or gender identi-
ty, he added.
As the organization’s team
enters 2020 with 114 fulltime
staff members — the most
it has ever had — some new
projects are on the horizon.
Action Wellness recently
received a three-year Centers
for Disease Control and Pre-
vention grant from the City
of Philadelphia to fund an ini-
tiative to help people with ad-
• 3 Meals Per Day diction who have been incar-
• Maintenance-free Living cerated in the city’s jails with
• Beautiful Gardens and
reentry following release.
The nonprofit finished hiring
Courtyards
staff for the project last week.
• Private Parking The new team will work with
formerly incarcerated folks
8301 Roosevelt Blvd, with addiction as they transi-
tion back into their communi-
Philadelphia, PA 19152
ties, help them access medical-
ly-assisted addiction treatment
and health care services, and
connect them with other social
rev. dr. Nadine Rosechild Sullivan, ph.d.
services.
“The clients we’ll be work-
ing with may or may not be
Spiritual Counseling also HIV-positive, which is …
a good match with the expan-
drsullivan@rosechild.org
pgn
sion that we’ve done to work
215.704.4264 with people with other chron-
www.rosechild.org ic illnesses and conditions,”
Burns said. “We’re really ex-
Spirituality • Sexuality • Relationships • Self-Esteem cited about it.”
Action Wellness plans to
have the program fully-opera-
tional in January. n
 Arts & Culture
Q PUZZLE : PA G E 2 9 FILM : PA G E 2 4
F A M I LY P O R T R A I T P a u l M . F a r b e r : Wr i t i n g a n e w, m o r e i n c l u s i v e h i s t o r y
MICHELE ZIPKIN
PGN Contributor
The third local installment of the Feminist
Flea Market and Craft Fair returns to
Philadelphia on Dec. 7 from 10 a.m. to 5
p.m. Since its last iteration at Underground
Arts with over 1,650 attendees, the market
has since expanded and will take place
this year in South Philly’s Bok Building.
Rebecca Aronow of the event production
company House Cat created this flea market
specifically for womxn, trans, nonbinary and
gender-nonconforming people.
“The Feminist Flea is inherently a space
for LGBTQ+ people largely because so
many vendors and attendees are a part of
this community,” Aranow said. “So much
of what is sold is in support of queer people
and queer spaces.”
A $5 cover charge provides access to
more than 100 local vendors selling art,
clothing, jewelry and more. The entrance
proceeds will benefit the local organization
Women Organized Against Rape. Women
in Transition, creators of the Philadelphia
Domestic Violence Hotline Collaboration,
which now offers empowerment counseling
for women, will lead introductory courses in
self-defense once an hour.
FEMINIST FLEA MARKET : DEC. 7 FROM 10 A.M. TO 5 P.M., BOK BUILDING
HOROSCOPES : PA G E 2 3
Photos cour tesy of House Cat
Within this woman and LGBTQ-centered
craft space, vendors and attendees have
made meaningful connections with each
other, both from selling their products
together and by meeting patrons, many of
whom they first connected with via selling
their items online.
“I primarily sell at flea markets, which are
just white men, pretty much, over their 30s,”
said Keiko El, who sells vintage clothing
via Knooks N’ Krannies. “It can be really
off-putting, especially being a woman of
color and being queer. Having a flea mar-
ket in a space like this where you can meet
like-minded individuals who you feel safe
around is important.”
Aranow started the flea market on the
heels of having hosted similar events when
she was in college at Penn State; there,
she also donated proceeds to local wom-
en’s organizations. When she worked at
Underground Arts in Philly, she felt com-
pelled to diversify the venue’s offerings by
suggesting events that would attract more
women and the queer demographic.
“I’ve always been really passionate about
designing different art forms in support of
feminism,” Aronow said, adding that a clear
message is essential. “The vendors who
are applying to vend, the people who are
BRINGING BACK PERSONA: PAGE 29
EVENTS : PA G E 2 0 SCENE IN PHILLY :
Women and
LGBTQ-
focused flea
market
expands to
Bok
Building
deciding to come, all share the same senti-
ment and feelings and find the same things
important.”
Vanessa Dunn sells her jewelry at
Feminist Flea through her business Xenia
Studio.
“Because I hand make everything at my
house, by myself, the markets are the best
way to go out, engage with the community,
meet new customers and have these face-to-
face interactions,” Dunn said. “I do a lot of
online sales, and you really don’t get any of
that.”
Following Aronow’s example, Dunn plans
to contribute some of what she makes to
organizations like WOAR.
“It is incredible and actually inspires
me,” she said. “Next year, I want to work
on donating a percentage of my profits to
a similar organization or maybe one that
Feminist Flea has worked with.”
Aronow chose to donate proceeds to
WOAR in part because she previously vol-
unteered for their hotline, which provided
her with first-hand knowledge of what was
needed to keep the organization operating
successfully.
Quinn Pellerito, WOAR’s LGBTQ edu-
cation coordinator, said the flea market is
“explicitly” for artists who are not cis men,
PA G E 2 1 pgn
PAG E 2 5
which makes WOAR an excellent choice for
the market.
“Basically, the people who are most
affected by sexual violence are the people
represented making the art, and [funds]
directly will go to WOAR, which is serving
a feminist cause,” he said.
WOAR allocates much of its donated
funds to ensuring those in need of WOAR’s
services can reach its offices.
“One of the barriers to getting to Center
City to receive care and receive treatment
is transportation,” said WOAR Executive
Director Monique Howard. “Although we
are in the center of the city, and we’re above
Regional Rail, it doesn’t mean people have
the means to get here.”
Since its first installment, Feminist Flea
has brought in upwards of $8,700 for local
organizations dedicated to helping women.
Both El and Dunn emphasized that
Feminist Flea is the only local flea market
that they know of that centers women, non-
binary and gender-nonconforming folks, and
LGBTQ people.
“I feel good about selling my pieces to
people who are like me, and becoming
more of a community with those people
in Philadelphia that I may not have met at
another flea market,” El said. n
20
T H E AT E R & A R T S
BALLETX FALL SERIES 2019
The acclaimed dance company performs
two world premieres by choreographers
Matthew Neenan and Jo Strømgren,
through Dec. 15 at Wilma Theater, 265
S. Broad St.; 215-546-7824.
DESIGNS FOR DIFFERENT FUTURES
Philadelphia Museum of Art presents an
exhibition exploring visionary and some-
times controversial designs that promise
to transform how we live, eat, heal, trav-
el and even love, in any number of possi-
ble futures, through March 8, 26th Street
and the Parkway; 215-763-8100.
DRAG DIVA BRUNCH
Mimi Imfurst and special guests light up
your weekend, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Dec. 7 at
Punch Line Philly, 33 E. Laurel St.; 215-
606-6555.
ELF: THE MUSICAL
Media Theatre Company presents the
stage adaptation of the holiday comedy
film, through Jan. 12, 104 E. State St.,
Media; 610-891-0100.
HERBERT FERBER: FORM INTO SPACE
Philadelphia Museum of Art presents an
exhibition featuring sculptures and relat-
ed drawings that Herbert Ferber (1906-
91) created during the 1950s — the art-
ist’s most creative period, through Jan.
5, 26th Street and the Parkway; 215-763-
8100.
KOGEI: ART CRAFT JAPAN
Philadelphia Museum of Art presents an
exhibition celebrating Japanese kogei —
one-of-a-kind, handcrafted objects made
with traditional techniques and natural
materials, through summer 2020, 26th
Street and the Parkway; 215-763-8100.
MADE BY HAND: CONTEMPORARY KO-
REAN CRAFT
Philadelphia Museum of Art presents an
exhibition where artists find inspiration
in Korea’s acclaimed tradition of hand-
made objects and add their own visual
language to the rich mix of techniques,
materials and form, through Jan. 12, 26th
Street and the Parkway; 215-763-8100.
NUTCRACKER 1776
The Rock School for Dance Education
brings a family-friendly, holiday classic
to life, Dec. 6-7 at Zellerbach Theatre,
3680 Walnut St.; 215-898-3900.
OFF THE WALL: AMERICAN ART TO
WEAR
Philadelphia Museum of Art presents
an exhibition of works by mixed-media
artists exploring nontraditional materi-
als and methods to create adventurous,
deeply imaginative works, through May
17, 2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway;
215-763-8100.
NOTICES: Send notices at least one week in advance to: Out & About Listings, PGN, 505 S. Fourth St., Philadelphia, PA 19147 fax: 215-925-6437 or e-mail: listings@epgn.com. Notices cannot be taken over the phone.
E N T E R TA I N M E N T
THE MOST REVOLUTIONARY: LGBTQ POLI-
TICS AND THE RADICAL LEFT, 1969-1999
William Way Community Center presents an
exhibit telling the hidden history of LGBTQ
politics and the radical left in the three de-
cades following Stonewall, through Dec. 27,
1315 Spruce St.; 215-732-2220.
SHREK: THE MUSICAL
Walnut Street Theatre presents the stage ad-
aptation of the hit animated film about an
ogre on a quest to rescue a princess, through
Jan. 5, 825 Walnut St.; 215-574-3550.
SINBAD
The comedian performs 8 p.m. Dec. 12 at
Xcite Center, 2999 Street Road, Bensalem;
888-588-7279.
THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL
The musical based on the popular kids’
show takes the audience to Bikini Bottom,
through Dec. 15 at Kimmel’s Forrest The-
atre, 1114 Walnut St. St.; 215- 923-1515.
THIS IS THE WEEK THAT IS
1812 Productions presents the annual politi-
cal satire stage show, through Jan. 5 at Plays
& Players Theatre, 1714 Delancey Place;
215-592-9560.
WEEDING OUT THE STONED
Comedians perform while “medicated,” 8
p.m. Dec. 13 at Good Good Comedy The-
ater, 215 N. 11th St.; https://goodgoodcom-
edy.com.
XMAS PHILES
PHILADANCO performs a holiday-themed
show, Dec. 12-14 at Zellerbach Theatre,
3680 Walnut St.; 215-898-3900.
MUSIC
p.m. Dec. 7 at Hard Rock Live, 1000
CHER
The iconic singer and actress performs 8
p.m. Dec. 6 at Wells Fargo Center, 3601 S.
Broad St.; 215-389-9543.
A PHILLY POPS CHRISTMAS: SPECTACU-
LAR SOUNDS OF THE SEASON
The Philly POP performs a holiday concert,
Dec. 6-21 at Kimmel’s Verizon Hall, 300 S.
Broad St.; 215-731-3333.
PGMC: STARRY NIGHT
Philadelphia Gay Men’s Chorus performs a
holiday concert, through Dec. 7 at Suzanne
Roberts Theatre, 480 S. Broad St.; 215-985-
0420.
BEATLES VS. STONES
Tribute bands, Abbey Road and Satisfac-
tion, perform a battle of the classic bands,
8 p.m. Dec. 6 at Keswick Theatre, 291 N.
Keswick Ave., Glenside; 215-572-7650.
JAGGED EDGE & SILK
The R&B groups performs 8 p.m. Dec. 7
at Keswick Theatre, 291 N. Keswick Ave.,
Glenside; 215-572-7650.
MERRY
‘X’-MAS:
Pop icon, Madonna, brings her
intimate Madame X World Tour,
featuring most songs from her
new album and a handful of
her hits, to Philly for a string
of shows, Dec. 7, 8 and 11 at
The Met, 858 N. Broad St. For
more information or tickets,
e-mail info@TheMetPhilly.com
Pop and R&B diva Mariah Carey
brings the holiday cheer to Atlantic
City for a concert of holiday songs
intermingled with fan favorites, 8
Boardwalk. For more information or
tickets, call 609-449-1000.
A MERRY ‘CAREY’ CHRISTMAS
Philadelphia Gay News . DECEMBER 6-12, 2019
events
Q102’S JINGLE BALL
Lizzo, 5SOS, Monsta X and more perform,
7:30 p.m. Dec. 11 at Wells Fargo Center,
3601 S. Broad St.; 215-336-3600.
CHRIS PUREKA
The out singer-songwriter performs 8 p.m.
Dec. 12 a Sellersville Theater, 24 W. Temple
Ave.; 215-257-5808
DARLENE LOVE
The jazz/pop singer performs 8 p.m. Dec. 13
at Keswick Theatre, 291 N. Keswick Ave.,
Glenside; 215-572-7650.
NIGHTLIFE
THANK YULE FOR BEING A FRIEND! A
GOLDEN GIRLS HOLIDAY MUSICAL PAR-
ODY
Golden Gays NYC performs, 7 p.m. Dec. 6
at Franky Bradley’s, 1320 Chancellor St.;
215-735-0735.
BENDELACREME & JINKX MONSOON: ALL
I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS ATTENTION
The two drag stars team up for the holidays,
8 p.m. Dec. 6 at Union Transfer, 1026 Spring
Garden St.; 215-232-2100.
THE BREAKFAST CLUB: PHILLY’S ALL BOY-
LESQUE BRUNCH
Josh Schonewolf, Thurston Trapp, Mar-
tine and Gray Grammercy perform 1:30
p.m. Dec. 8 at The Thirsty Soul, 1551 W.
Passyunk Ave.; 215-515-3276.
SLEIGH
Brittany Lynn and special guests Dorinda
Medley and Sonja Morgan get festive, 9
p.m. Dec. 12 at Valanni, 1229 Spruce St.;
215-790-9494.
O U T TA T O W N
MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL
The classic comedy film is screened Nov.
29-30 at The Colonial Theatre, 227 Bridge
St., Phoenixville; 610-917-1228.
LEANNE RIMES
The country star performs a holiday con-
cert, 8 p.m. Dec. 6 at Hard Rock Live, 1000
Boardwalk, Atlantic City, NJ; 609-449-
1000.
GREMLINS
The holiday comedy horror film is screened
9:45 p.m. Dec. 6 at The Colonial Theatre,
227 Bridge St., Phoenixville; 610-917-1228.
BIG BAD VOODOO DADDY HOLIDAY PARTY
The retro swing band celebrates the holidays,
8 p.m. Dec. 13 at The Colonial Theatre, 227
Bridge St., Phoenixville; 610-917-1228.
RICK SPRINGFIELD & RICHARD MARX
The pop-rockers perform 9 p.m. Dec. 13
at the Borgata Hotel, Casino & Spa Event
Center, 1 Borgata Way, Atlantic City, N.J.;
609-317-1000.
DECEMBER 6-12, 2019 . epgn.com
S C E N E I N P H I L LY
21

THE ATTIC YOUTH CENTER’S

HARVEST DINNER PHOTOS BY KELLY BURKHARDT

A t t i c Yo u t h C e n t e r S t a f f :
L u i s , S h aw n e s e , M s . I n g r i d , S h a n a , A s h l i e , M a l c o l m , R o b e r t o Te a m D o w ’s G L A D E R G

Ro Ella and Malcolm

K h a l i q a n d I m a j ay Ke n i ya a n d M s . I n g r i d
22
Drag stars’ holiday tour unwraps in Philly
LARRY NICHOLS
larry@epgn.com
Seattle drag stars and “RuPaul’s Drag
Race” alums BenDeLaCreme and Jinkx
Monsoon are teaming up for a holiday tour,
“All I Want For Christmas is Attention,”
which lands in Philadelphia Dec. 6 at Union
Transfer.
BenDeLaCreme — the alter ego of
Benjamin Putnam — is best known as Miss
Congeniality from Season 6 of “RuPaul’s
Drag Race,” and “Drag Race All Stars 3.”
Jinkx Monsoon won Season 5 of “RuPaul’s
Drag Race” and tours the world performing
her original cabaret shows.
“All I Want For Christmas is Attention,”
is the duo’s second outing together after last
December’s successful national tour, “To Je-
sus, Thanks for Everything, Jinkx and DeLa!”
This year’s trek is DeLaCreme’s first inter-
national tour under her production company
BenDeLaCreme Presents.
We talked with BenDeLaCreme about her
production company and what makes her
and her drag sister, Jinkx Monsoon, such a
dynamic pairing, bringing a wicked sense of
cheer to the holidays.
Is this holiday tour different from shows
you’ve done in the past? This is the second
T H E AT E R
tour of this show with Jinkx and me together.
In terms of the shows that I do under Ben-
DeLaCreme Presents, I have my solo stuff,
and then I have larger cast stuff that, so far,
is rooted in the Seattle area. The two-queen
extravaganza is a version of that idea. All of
those things that I create or produce, you can
count on having a lot of content and political
commentary, but through humor and wit and
song and spectacle and glamorous costumes.
We do what the perfect thing is to do in
this bawdy, too-cool scene. It definitely
falls into the cannon of everything I do, but
it’s distinctly its own brand and the perfect
melding of Jinkx’s and my personality.
What is your holiday show bringing to
the table that people can’t find any-
where else? Obviously, there is quality
content everywhere. I think that we, specifi-
cally, are a couple of drag queens. We come
from the queer world and the queer expe-
rience. The holidays, particularly for the
LGBTQ community, is a time where we’re
inundated with the idea of “being with the
family” and “come home for the holidays,”
which can be much more complicated for a
lot of people. So I think that while we want
to celebrate the holidays, we acknowledge
that the holidays are also a difficult time.
A lot of things can really be hard about the
Philadelphia Gay News . DECEMBER 6-12, 2019
Photo Cour tesy of BenDeLaCreme Presents
holidays. Our job as entertainers is to delve Why did you create your production com-
into things that are complicated in our indi- pany and organize your tours, instead of
vidual lives and the landscape of what today staying under the “Drag Race” umbrel-
is politically, and also be like, “but it’s OK, la? I already had an idea of what I wanted to
we can still celebrate.” We can acknowl- be before I was on “Drag Race,” and it was a
edge everything is hard, and we can do it nice boost and a chance to pursue it further.
together, because we’re all in this together. There is certainly something to be said about
We can make something fun and campy and queens who are creating and producing their
over the top. own work. I think that any time you have that
sort of control over something, you are going
What is it about you and Jinkx that to make a truly unique product that you are
makes the two of you an ideal team? going to be able to bring to the people and
We have a lot of overlap. We are both very stand out. I can’t predict the future of where
rooted in a cabaret mentality. My character these other roads will lead, but I think that
is upbeat and trying to make everything there is longevity in presenting work that is
perfect and, sort of, blissfully unaware and fully unique to you as an artist. What hap-
wants to have a great time. Jinkx is more pened with other tours is they are so swad-
the cynical, pessimistic one who approach- dled in the branding of the TV show that we
es the holidays with a drink in hand and a suddenly can’t see everything those queens
sense of bitterness. That tension through our have to offer beyond the packaging of the
characters is a lot of the fun we get to play TV show. All these queens who are out there
with. My specialty comes with the script- really putting out a unique product — people
ing and the spectacle and the songs and the will continue to be drawn to things that don’t
costumes. Jinkx is part of the tradition of the look like anything else. n
bawdy cabaret singer who is really conver-
sational with the audience. When we make BenDeLaCreme and Jinkx Monsoon’s “All I
this work together, we have this great hybrid Want For Christmas Is Attention!” comes to
of something that is this big, bold specta- town 8 p.m. Dec. 6 at Union Transfer, 1026
cle and this fun and casual conversation Spring Garden St. For more information, call
between two queens and whoever is in the 215-232-2100 or visit bendelacreme.com/ or
audience that night. https://jinkxmonsoon.com/.
DECEMBER 6-12, 2019 . epgn.com
BY INEZ CARVALHO
ARIES
(Mar. 21 - Apr. 20)
There is someone in your life
you’ve been wanting to know
more about; this is your chance
to level up on your listening skills
and pass the mic. You should
also practice being OK with brief
pauses in conversations — they are a natural occurrence,
so stop filling up a nice silence with nervous small talk.
Ask questions and see what unfolds. The sixth and sev-
enth of this month have the moon in your sign making
for an active imagination. Mercury will also be transit-
ing your sign this week, so you should be finding it easy
to connect, especially in emotional and philosophical
ways that feel rewarding and mutually beneficial.
TA U R U S
(Apr. 21 - May 21)
Someone far away is remem-
bering you fondly. You have
made lasting impressions on so
many people and so many deep
emotional connections through-
out the years. But remember to
leave some things the way they are. Just because an old
situation or an old relationship brings back good mem-
ories doesn’t mean you have to do the same thing all
over again. Make a playlist about it, and share it with
friends — that’s a healthy way to have your feelings
heard without saying much of anything.
GEMINI
(May 22 - Jun. 21)
Your spirit is eternally youthful,
and that’s an amazing power
you have. Your energy is both
innocent and mischievous. This
attracts people to you. Some of
those people are genuine and
likeminded, but others may seek to take advantage of
you and wrongly assume that you are naive. Choose
wisely and keep a skeptical eye out. The full moon
reaches your sign Dec. 11-12, and the picture becomes
clear.
CANCER
(Jun. 22 - Jul. 22)
Share the love this week! As a
Cancerian, your symbol is the
crab, which has a tough out-
er shell, but on the inside, you
are one of the most sentimental
creatures in the galaxy. It is best
to be transparent about your emotions right now, es-
pecially with those close to you. Mercury and Venus
are forming positive aspects with your sign this week,
and they will be your support team. Think about what
honesty means to you.
ASTROLOGY
LEO
(Jul. 23 - Aug. 22)
Things may feel a bit rocky this
week thanks to some stressful
planetary conduct with your sign.
Avoid making any reactive or im-
pulsive decisions, especially with
things involving words and mon-
ey. Now can be a stressful time of year in general, so be
sure to set up some consistent quality alone time with an
uplifting movie or book (nothing too dramatic or scary
please). By the time the full moon in Gemini occurs on
Dec. 12, you should be feeling back to your old self and
ready for whatever comes your way.
VIRGO
(Aug. 23 - Sep. 23)
Do not over commit. I repeat, do
not over commit! This can be a
real challenge for you, Virgo. You
have a habit of wanting to say
yes to everything. While it comes
from a good place of wanting to
help and feel useful, trust me you are fine just the way
you are. If you say yes to so many things, you certainly
will not have the energy to complete all of them as thor-
oughly as you would like. Focus your energy on a hand-
ful of projects or endeavors that you know in your heart
really matter to you. If people truly are your friends, then
they will be able to take no for an answer. Don’t judge
yourself harshly.
LIBRA
(Sep. 24 - Oct. 23)
Think about what you want and
not what you would do simply to
make a positive impression on those
around you. You are slowly awak-
ening from an emotional and spir-
itual hibernation of sorts, and that
may involve some deep reflection and reconciliation. Fret
not, for it is not as severe as it sounds; it’s been a gradual
and organic process. Friday, Saturday and Sunday will be
supercharged good luck days for you and a great opportu-
nity to make any important moves you have had in mind.
As the scales of the zodiac, you often try to make balance a
permanent state, but it’s really something you find in move-
ment, from moment to moment. Stay present, my friend.
SCORPIO
(Oct. 24 - Nov. 22)
You seek security, you seek to live
in accordance with your values. You
have been feeling the gravity of this
quest. What you may not realize is
how much you treat these desires like
a shameful secret. You can better vi-
sualize your life if you share your hopes and dreams with oth-
ers. It will take a bit of vulnerability on your part, but luckily
all week mercury will be on your side, compelling you to open
up. New ideas or missing puzzle pieces may be coming to you
from an unlikely source. By the time the full moon occurs on
Dec. 12, you will be feeling more tender-hearted than you have
in quite a while. Indulge in the sentimentality for once.
23
S A G I T TA R I U S
(Nov. 23 - Dec. 21)
Have patience, many blessings
will be heading your way in
due time. You may have been
experiencing some struggles
with finances and self-image
recently, but you are about to
experience a breakthrough. It’s been hard to admit
that perhaps someone or something has been holding
you back. Now is the time to put the emphasis on
you, your vision and your self-expression. Connect
with people who validate your ideas and feelings, and
trust your intuition. Mercury continues to transit your
12th house until the eighth. Use this energy to think
big.
CAPRICORN
(Dec. 22 - Jan. 20)
Take time for some rest and
regeneration. Next month,
both the sun and Jupiter will
be in your sign, and that will
really be the time to make any
big moves and watch the tide
of good fortune roll in. In other news, Venus will be
highlighting your romantic and artistic sector this
weekend. Activities like dancing, drawing, writing or
listening to music will feel particularly relevant and
healing to you at this time. Try to keep things light-
hearted and low-impact for now. Go easy on yourself.
AQUARIUS
(Jan. 21 - Feb. 19)
The fog of gloom and anxieties
that has been lingering around
you is slowly being lifted as
we speak, dear water bearer.
Mars is at the top of your chart
currently, and it will give you
a boost in motivation. Mid-week, your ego may urge
you to be competitive either at work or at home, but it
is best to let it all go in this instance. Work on stream-
lining your communication with others; let them get
a word in every once in a while. There will be fruitful
results when you ask the right questions.
PISCES
(Feb. 20 - Mar. 20)
This month, it’s time to consider
expanding your social circle. Ac-
quaint yourself with new people
who are on the same ideological
path as you. Recently, you’ve
outgrown some old people, plac-
es or habits, and that’s OK. By the time the full moon
occurs on Dec. 12, you may feel compelled to focus
your energy on achieving better balance in your home
life, which is something you’ve been thinking about for
a while. Mars and Neptune are in harmony with your
sun sign, and, with a bit of effort, the cosmos will lead
you to a greater understanding of yourself and others.
24 FILM
Philadelphia Gay News . DECEMBER 6-12, 2019

(L-R) AURORA REAL DE ASUA AS APRIL MARTINEZ, IREON ROACH AS CHARLOTTE KURTICH, AND HALEY BOLITHON AS AFRA SIDDIQUI
Photos cour tesy of IFC Midnight

Experimental film features queer

characters and queer behavior
GARY M. KRAMER (Emma Ladji), swapping various objects — is most effective in that regard. The high bean salad, she is speaking in code about
PGN Contributor including a miniature porcelain cat, a teapot school characters exchange thoughts about selling her mother’s used underwear to him.
and even a Statue of Liberty replica — over homecoming in ways that run counterintui- Joanna also creates a sonnet for her teacher
In the queer-tinged “Knives and Skin,” the wall of their adjoining bathroom stalls tive to most movies about adolescents. Like- Aaron’s (Alex Moss) English class using an
the disappearance of 15-year-old Carolyn as a metaphor for their intimacy (especially wise, an episode featuring Jesse (Robert T. inappropriate text he sent her.
Harper (Raven Whitley) sends shockwaves given where they hide these objects in their Cunningham) on the school’s roof punctures But even if these scenes — or a
throughout the community. Moreover, bodies). teen suicide and small-town escape motifs. revenge Charlotte (Ireon Roach) gets
although Carolyn’s body is seen periodical- Objects are certainly of importance to the But Reeder’s highly stylized and detached on Andy — are satisfying examples of
ly throughout writer and director Jennifer characters. Joanna (Grace Smith) talks to a perspective is likely to distance viewers, strong women, much of Reeder’s film is
Reeder’s mystifying film, the emphasis is doll, and one doll is said to have real teeth. however impressive individual parts are. The perplexing. But that is not necessarily a
less about what happened to Carolyn, and A tiger T-shirt worn by Joanna’s mother, film is a triumph of production design from bad thing. There are some unforgettable
more the strange behavior of Carolyn’s Lynn (Audrey Francis), talks to her in one the costumes to décor, and the synth music visuals, such as Lynn’s making meatloaf
friends, family members and her friends’ critical scene, and then there are Carolyn’s and dreamy visuals are flawless. Reeder during an intense close-up, and then
family members. new glasses that glow, suggesting magical features slow pans, fades and other visual throwing it at her husband’s car, or the
Opening Dec. 6 at the PFS Roxy Theater, powers. What any of this means is left for gimmicks that lull audiences into a state of image of a melting ice-cream cake Lisa
“Knives and Skin” takes an experimental viewers to puzzle out. But these moments near hypnosis, which masks the film’s lack hoped to give to her daughter. The sad-
approach to its drama. Carolyn is last seen are compelling, as is most of “Knives and of dramatic tension. When the community ness, madness and despair of these two
being left behind by her blue-balled boy- Skin.” gathers to hunt for Carolyn, they are told, mothers is palpable.
friend, Andy (Ty Olwin). Before he aban- One of Reeder’s most interesting con- “If you find Carolyn, [and] she’s OK, yell ‘I Reeder gets strong performances from
doned her, Carolyn scratched Andy’s fore- tributions is having the characters sing a need the knife!’ as loudly as you can. her ensemble cast, with Grace Smith,
head, marking him — from then on, he is cappella ’80s songs, such as “Our Lips Are If she’s not OK, yell, ‘Give me some Kate Arlington and Marika Engelhardt
always bleeding in various ways. Viewers are Sealed” and “Promises, Promises,” to indi- skin’ as loudly as you can.” It may explain the standouts.
invited to ascribe meaning to this as well as cate their emotions. In contrast, much of the the title, but this scene doesn’t generate any “Knives and Skin” keeps the dots be-
other provocative, enigmatic scenes. When film’s dialogue is delivered in a flat, deliber- real suspense. Instead, Laurel’s pregnant tween the events and characters perhaps
Carolyn’s distraught mother, Lisa (Marika ately wooden style. The film is set and shot mother, Renee (Kate Arrington), provides an too far apart. The opening scene hints at
Engelhardt) literally sniffs around Andy’s car in Illinois. When Dan (Tim Hopper) advises awkward laugh when she begs her daughter tensions between Carolyn and her moth-
and wears his T-shirt, along with one of her his injured son, Andy, “Hey, you can talk to to stay with her because she is not wearing er, Lisa, and such ambiguity percolates
daughter’s outfits, symbolized is her longing me about anything,” it comes across as more the right shoes. through the entire film. While some of
for and loss of her daughter. One can also deadpan than caring. “Knives and Skin” is, at times, darkly the obscurity may be frustrating, Reeder
read the curious sequences of two teenage Reeder is looking to satirize teen and funny. When Joanna talks with Principal rewards viewers who make an effort to
lesbians, Laurel (Kayla Carter) and Colleen coming-of-age tropes here, and her film Markum (Tony Fitzpatrick) about a three- tease out the possible connections. n
DECEMBER 6-12, 2019 . epgn.com
FAMILY PORTRAIT WITH SUZI NASH
Paul M. Farber: Writing a new, more inclusive history
“A certain silencing is created by who and
who doesn’t get to be honored.”
— Gary Nash
Philadelphia is the city of history. It is
also a city of arts and culture, which is why
it’s a shame that of all the publicly funded
monuments built to honor our history, only
two women and one person of color are
represented as full statues. Monument Lab is
a program that was designed to help change
that narrative and generate new ways of
thinking about monuments and public art. In
2017, along with Mural Arts Philadelphia,
Monument Lab produced and organized
a groundbreaking, city-wide exhibition of
temporary, site-specific works culled from
ideas proposed by artists and everyday
citizens answering the question, “What is
an appropriate monument for the current
city of Philadelphia?” The answers to that
question and many more have been com-
piled into a thought-provoking, moving and
inspiring book, “Monument Lab: Creative
Speculations for Philadelphia.” We spoke to
co-founder of Monument Lab and the book’s
author Paul M. Farber.
You have quite an impressive bio: cura-
tor, historian, author, research scholar,
editor and educator. You’ve been invited
to lecture and lead workshops at the
Library of Congress, New York Public
Library and the Philadelphia Museum
of Art. You’ve been included on Dell’s
inaugural #Inspire 100 list, a group of
“world changers” who use technology to
empower social change. So my question
to you, Paul M. Farber, is what does the
“M” stand for? Michael. I use it because
there are several Paul Farber’s in the city, and
a few of them are also writers and professors.
One Michael Farber even tied for third place
with me in Video Library Oscars in 1992!
Where are you from? I’m a lifelong Phila-
delphian with a detour to Ann Arbor, South-
ern California, Washington D.C., and Berlin.
I now live around the corner from where
I grew up in Mt. Airy with my husband,
Aaron, and our puppy Ziggy.
Full circle. What did the folks do? One
was a professor, and the other was a physi-
cian and a poet.
You seem like a combo of both the aca-
demic and the creative side. Yes! I try to
channel both their energies.
Which did you lean toward as a kid? I
was always interested in the ways that people
connect and come together, especially around
issues of justice. But in school, I was an
athlete and often had to be convinced to sit
down to finish my studies. It still comes as a
surprise to me that I’m now a professor and
scholar!
PROFILE
What sports did you play? Some basket-
ball and soccer but mainly track and field.
I was a sprinter. Being involved in sports
taught me dedication and discipline and how
to be around and work with other people.
When did you come out? I started to
come out at the end of high school, but col-
lege is where I started figuring out how to
be an athlete and gay because, at first, those
two things were hard to put together. It just
didn’t compute at the time. I knew more
about being an athlete than being LGBT.
Sports had always been the place where
I felt the most like myself, and yet in the
process of coming out, it was also a place
where I felt alienated. But since then, of
course, I’ve met many other queer athletes
and coaches, and it was really helpful to see
“WE ALL KNOW THAT
HISTORY DOES NOT HAPPEN BE-
CAUSE AN OLD, STRAIGHT, WHITE
GUY ON A HORSE LOOKS OFF INTO
THE DISTANCE, WE KNOW THAT IT
TAKES COLLECTIVES OF PEOPLE’S
STRUGGLE AND THE SHOULDERS
OF THOSE WHO CAME BEFORE.”
that I was part of a bigger community. In my
sophomore year, I was the co-founder of a
group called PATH (Penn Athletes and Al-
lies Tackling Homophobia), which was the
first queer and allied campus sports group in
the country.
What did you study? I studied German,
and I worked for the college newspaper. I
was a journalist, really; I knew I wanted to
write and teach. At the same time, I was also
a founding member of a group called The
Race Dialogue Project. We worked on ways
to break the status quo.
Did you go to grad school? Eventually,
but I first worked as a journalist part-time.
I also worked as a research assistant for a
scholar, Michael Eric Tyson, and his wife.
He is an award-winning author, radio host
and professor. He’d be on NPR one week
and quoted in the New York Times the next.
He taught me a lot and introduced me to a
lot of scholars who were also activists like
him. I later went back and got my Ph.D.,
but I wanted to get some real experience to
understand not only where we are now, but
how we got here in terms of social justice
and equality.
Tell me a little about that journey. So
I went to school in Michigan and studied
American culture as an intersection of Amer-
ican art, literature and history. It was import-
ant to learn how history lives in the present.
It’s not frozen or isolated from us; it’s an
active force that we shape. I wanted to think
about identity, gender, race, class, national
belonging, and I found a topic, American
artists and the Berlin wall that allowed me to
study that. There were stories about Amer-
ican artists and activists like Audre Lorde,
Angela Davis, Keith Haring, Langston
Hughes, all of whom found a home in Ber-
lin. I wrote my dissertation on that, in fact,
I have a book about it coming out in March,
but I kept finding stories about pieces of the
wall that ended up in the U.S. as monuments
in odd public places. From presidential li-
braries to casinos and food courts. I think be-
ing from Philadelphia, we realize that history
exists outside of museums. It lives in bronze
and marble and in public art and poetry, and
in our communities.
Why are monuments so important to us?
Monuments operate as statements of power
and presence in public space. They draw
our attention, and the way they’re typically
built, they’re designed so you literally
are looking up to a person on a
pedestal. And that person
is usually a white
male. They
have
25
a perception of permanence, but they’re just
a sliver of a city’s history. It’s the unspoken
that surrounds them that draws me in. As a
queer person, there are very few figures that
are representative of us, so we’ve preserved
our history for future generations in books,
art, poetry and in our activism. I think monu-
ments are important, but it’s essential that we
start finding ways to have a more inclusive
history through monuments. I want monu-
ments to be a place where we rally, a place
where we question, a place where we gather
as part of the long arc of history, and a place
where more of our true history is recognized.
Which leads to your project ... Yes, the
Monument Lab. It started as a classroom
project with my co-founder Ken Lum. Our
goal has been to critically engage the mon-
uments we’ve inherited and to unearth the
next generation of monuments — to imag-
ine public spaces through stories of social
justice and equity. We want to acknowledge
the contributions and the work of people
who don’t always get recognized. To me,
it comes down to the selection process and
outcomes. If we use the same old processes
to decide who and what to memorialize, we
will end up with a city full of Ben Franklin
statues. There are multitudes of stories that
aren’t reflected in our public spaces. Part of
the process is listening to people who have
been marginalized for too long and under-
standing that the city’s history is one to be
proud of. But we also have to address the
traumas of the past, especially around issues
of racism, sexism and homophobia. We aim
to inform and influence the processes of
public art, as well as the permanent collec-
tions of cities, museums, libraries and open
data repositories. I think the president’s
house, right behind the Liberty Bell, is a
good example of that. Freedom and
repression aren’t two separate
stories; they’re one and
the same.
page 30
26 MUSIC
Philadelphia Gay News . DECEMBER 6-12, 2019

Local drag performer sings originals, bats her lashes

GARY M. KRAMER
PGN Contributor
Martha Graham Cracker (Dito van Rei-
gersberg) is having a CD-release party in
conjunction with her show, “Lashed But Not
Leashed,” premiering one night only at the
Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Center on
Dec. 12, at 8 p.m.
The performance, which features 11 origi-
nal songs, began as a songwriting residency.
The production might have been suitable
for van Reigersberg himself to sing, but as
the performer indicated in a recent email
exchange, “As we wrote, the idea that Martha
could sing all these songs — and that the
songs could be placed into a kind of drama-
turgical structure about her dream of becom-
ing a librarian — emerged.”
So, will “Lashed But Not Leashed” be
Miss Martha Graham Cracker’s final public
performance after 14 years of entertaining?
PGN chatted with van Reigersberg to find
out.
You perform original songs in “Lashed
But Not Leashed,” which is riskier than
performing covers as Martha usual-
ly does. Can you talk about making
that leap? It feels more vulnerable to sing
originals, for sure. A lot of the songs I cover
normally as Martha are songs that are already
popular, so I can count on the fact that the
audience already knows and loves them.
Introducing the audience to a song you’ve
written is like letting them read your diary.
But then they really do get to know you more.
And the line between Martha and Dito, which
is already blurry, becomes even more so. The
character becomes even more of a vehicle to
express the things that I myself care about.
You always perform different musical
genres. Your cabaret shows are described
as “mash-ups.” How do you approach
performing a song? That is one of my
favorite things about what I do — to put a
new spin on songs you know, or thought you
knew. I often gravitate toward songs that have
great lyrics. Sometimes the trick is to change
the tempo or make them feel more extreme. I
like to sing “Will You Still Love Me Tomor-
row” as this kind of tango lament, which
makes the familiar lyrics new again and
makes the mood of the song more predatory
and desperate.
The Perelman Theater is a new venue
for you. What can you say about playing
in a larger space versus the intimacy of a
nightclub? I do aim to keep things intimate
as I “graduate” to the new and grand space
of the Perelman. There are many ways to
penetrate the fourth wall and to make the
audience feel involved, and I won’t give
up until I’ve tried them all! I think we have
cooked up a plan for me to make my way
into the audience several times, so no one
should lean back and think they’re safe. It’s
funny, the Perelman is a big tall space but it’s
very well-designed, even the back row of the
second balcony feels close to the action.
Can you talk about how you keep things
fresh as Martha? I don’t ever feel bored by
Martha, because it’s always me performing
on my edge. And I can really tailor the show
to what my mind is chewing on at any given
moment — politics, the trials
of love, existential angst, a
recent trip to the vet — and it
asks a lot of me improvisation-
ally, mentally, vocally, athleti-
cally, and in terms of audience
interaction. If I haven’t hit a
high note in the pigeon yoga
pose while seducing a man by
explicating my favorite poem
by William Blake, it’s not a
Martha show.
Drag has become more
mainstream these days.
What observations do you
have about the way drag has
changed and grown over
the years? I think Martha was
always a little different because
she is hairy and because she
sings with a band. Both of
those things are unusual for
drag queens. Now I have
nothing but total admiration
for drag queens who lipsynch, D I TO VA N R E I G E R S B E R G A S
that is a total art when done MARTHA GRAHAM CRACKER
well. But singing is different,
more organic maybe or more
exposed. I was telling someone the other day I’ll be wearing! But I can tell you that my
that one thing about singing as opposed to usual comrade-in-glamour, Max Brown, will
lipsynching is that it’s less of a fantasy, and be styling and dressing me, so I know that I
it’s more vulnerable, I think; using your voice will be glammed to the nines.
reveals your humanity, no matter how much
of a fantasy the glamorous trappings of drag Fess up, is Martha Graham Cracker re-
allow you to indulge. ally going off to become a librarian? Are
you hanging up the dress? Oh well, that’s
What can folks expect from your cos- a secret. But if you come see the show, all
tumes and makeup? I can’t tell you what will be revealed to you. n

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DECEMBER 6-12, 2019 . epgn.com
Out actor stars in wily sci-fi drama
GARY M. KRAMER
PGN Contributor
Out gay actor Ben Whishaw co-stars
in the canny sci-fi drama “Little Joe,”
opening Dec. 6 at the Landmark Ritz at the
Bourse. Set in the biotechnology world,
the film follows Alice (Emily Beecham)
and her colleague Chris (Whishaw), who
have genetically engineered a special breed
of plant. Nicknamed “Little Joe,” the plant
promotes happiness if it receives love.
Alice and Chris are optimistic that their
project will make people’s lives better.
While Alice enjoys her work, her life
outside the lab is messy. She lives with
her teenage son, Joe (Kit Connor), and
often neglects him because of her job. She
thinks Joe should spend more time with his
father, Ivan (Sebastian Hülk). Joe thinks
Alice should date Chris. The mother-son
relationship changes after Alice violates
her lab’s regulations and brings home one
of her plants.
It quickly becomes apparent that there
is a complication with Little Joe. Although
the plant is sterile — which other mem-
bers of the lab indicate is unnatural — it
gives off a pollen to survive. That pollen
“changes” those who are exposed to it,
turning them into what they are not. The
FILM
first victim is Alice’s colleague Bella’s
(Kerry Fox) dog, an emotional support
animal, who now barks at and bites its
owner. Chris is also exposed to the pol-
len, but he does not admit this to anyone.
When he and Alice go out for a drink, he
impetuously kisses her. Did exposure to
the plant impact his behavior?
How the characters interact with each
other and the plant forms much of the
drama of “Little Joe.” The film becomes
interesting as Bella insists that the plant
is nefarious, influencing the feelings,
behavior and personality of anyone
infected by its pollen. (Insert epidemi-
ology or “Stepford Wives” metaphors
here.) Moreover, those who are exposed
become defensive of Little Joe, insisting
on the plant’s survival at any cost. Is
this a side effect of exposure? Is Bella’s
assumption correct? Is Alice buying into
all of this? These questions are at the
heart of this intriguing film.
“Little Joe” is directed and co-written
by Jessica Hausner, who exerts deliber-
ate control over the film’s coolly sinister
atmosphere.
She keeps things aloof to keep Alice —
and viewers — off-balance. The visuals
are sterile and artfully composed. The
soundtrack consists of frequent and dis-
Photos cour tesy of Magnolia Pictures
cordant beating drums and flutes. There
are barking dogs to promote an ominous
tone. It all may be too much and could
read as telling viewers how to feel.
The film is best when it is ambiguous.
Have Chris, Joe and Bella all “changed,”
or is Alice imagining it? She experiences
fear, guilt and other emotions that are
quite the opposite of the happiness Little
Joe provides. The underlying theme here
is to “be your authentic self” or not to
“deny who you are.” (Hausner indicates
this, repeatedly, in expository dialogue.)
But at the crux of that idea is the thorny
moral issue of risking infection. Viewers
can chew over this while siding with Al-
ice or thinking she is overreacting, acting
inappropriately or being selfish.
Sometimes a little too much happens
on screen, allowing viewers’ minds to
wander. “Little Joe” stretches its drama
thin as it slowly builds to its denoue-
ment. A scene where Alice goes to pick
Joe up from school, and he ignores her
— only to later claim he didn’t see her
— lacks impact. Small moments like this
one should build on the film’s idea of
truth and trust, but they do not generate
any profound feeling. Better are scenes
depicting Alice growing frustrated by
Joe’s budding independence. He keeps
27
B E N W H I S H AW I N “ L I T T L E J O E ”
secrets from her, sneaks into her lab
and gets a girlfriend, Selma (Jessie Mae
Alonzo), but is he just behaving more
like a typical teenager?
Alice also becomes wary of Bella and
her negative pronouncements, until she
begins to believe them, much to Chris’
chagrin. And Alice becomes more aware
of Chris’ prejudices and odd behavior, as
when he meets with Joe behind her back.
“Little Joe” works if viewers ac-
cept Alice’s paranoia. And to that end,
Emily Beecham is impressive as Alice,
modulating her reactions and emotions
carefully. She won Best Actress at this
year’s Cannes Film Festival for the role.
Beecham resists expressing much of
anything, but her internal performance
conveys anxiety, disappointment and
conflict very well.
As Chris, Ben Whishaw provides fine
support, especially in his passionate
declaration of love to Alice. Also excel-
lent are Kerry Fox, who makes Bella a
brusque, enigmatic woman, and Kit Con-
nor in the pivotal role of the teenage Joe.
“Little Joe” is all about perception and
manipulation. While some viewers may
feel underwhelmed, those who engage
with this cunning film will appreciate its
lofty ambitions. n
28 A RT S
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Philly activist is a model citizen
LARRY NICHOLS
laryy@epgn.com
The worlds of fashion and ac-
tivism sometimes meet when cir-
cumstances allow, and if Philadel-
phia-based activist Julian Domanico
had his way, those two worlds would
intertwine more often.
Domanico recently signed with
Reinhard, one of Philadelphia’s
leading fashion, advertising and act-
ing agencies, and BMG Models in
NYC.
He said while he had some expe-
rience in the past, modeling wasn’t
something he expected to be doing
now.
“I just fell into it,” Domanico
said of his rather abrupt entry into
the business. “I had done a fashion
show in college when I was 22. Now
being 29, I was just focusing on my
advocacy and working in the city. I
was at a party over the summer in
early June, and I met a booker. She
told me to come into the office, and
Reinhard picked me up on the spot.”
Modeling is an interesting ad-
dition to the day-to-day life of
Domanico, who already seems to
overflow with community service
and activism. Seriously, the number
of organizations and causes he sup-
ports makes most of us seem lazy by
comparison.
Philadelphia Gay News . DECEMBER 6-12, 2019
Domanico is the Democratic
Committee Person for the gaybor-
hood (Ward 5, Division 11), works
with the mayor’s office as a policy
advisor on millennial issues and is
on the board of directors for Dela-
ware Valley Legacy Fund (DVLF).
He is also on the board of EarthEd,
an urban education nonprofit run by
youth under the age of 21, and he
worked with Action Wellness for “a
little over five years.”
In addition, “I kind of emotional-
ly support an individual who is 55
now, and he’s half-paralyzed from
a stroke … I just give him positive
outings, listen to him and write
monthly reports back to his social
worker and case managers to show
him that he is cared for and support-
ed, and, despite the challenges he’s
experienced, that he is still valued.
I also have a job. I manage eight
after-school programs for at-risk
youths. That’s a 20-29 hour a week
job that I manage the community
outreach for,” said Domanico
While he’s still relatively new
to the modeling world, Domanico
expressed that he is always on the
lookout for opportunities to height-
en the potential of his activism with
his newfound visibility. After only
four months of modeling profes-
sionally, Domanico hopes to show
that inclusivity is “in” regardless of
PHOTO BY HELENA RAJU
the profession.
“Being an LGBTQ person
and a person of color and being
an individual who is a little bit
older than you would typically
think would enter into the mod-
eling profession — those are all
strengths rather than detriments.
I’m trying to find a way to speak
about things I care about in my
work and my modeling endeav-
ors because it humanizes me and
make me seem more relatable or
someone that cares about some-
thing other than taking a pretty
picture.”
Overall, he has received pos-
itive feedback from people who
“most of the time” don’t know
anything about his advocacy
work.
“It’s given me other opportuni-
ties to photograph with some new
people who care about social jus-
tice,” he said. “It’s been reward-
ing, so I’m just going to continue
to use that as a platform rather
than solely a vanity project.” n
For more information on Ju-
lian Domanico, visit http://re-
inhardagency.com/divisions/
models-fashion-men/portfolios/
julian-domanico or https://in-
stagram.com/julian_domani-
co/?hl=en.
DECEMBER 6-12, 2019 . epgn.com
Q PUZZLE
29

PERSONA

OSCAR WILDE
(1854-1900)
Irish playwright beloved
then shunned by many.
Wrote beautiful works from
prison ballads to being
earnest. Found love again
after death. His headstone is
Q Puzzle self-description 12 “My Life in High lege dotted with kisses.
46 Frida’s wrap Heels” writer An- 42 One with a holey
48 Menu option derson bottom
ATYPICAL ACTRESS 49 Request to Sajak 13 And others, for 44 It made the Ti-
50 Michelangelo’s Nero tanic go down
Across output 21 Novelist Shaw 45 “Some En-
1 Put it in your 52 Circuit parties, 22 Jessica of “I Now chanted ___”
mouth, enjoy for example Pronounce You 47 Give money to
5 What kissers do 54 Character played Chuck & Larry” UPS
with spit by Brigette Lun- 23 Phallic shaped 51 Jaguar’s prey
9 Ancient erection dy-Paine on the Net- creatures 53 Flynn with dash-
14 “___ lay me ...” flix series “Atypical” 24 Diamond bird ing roles
15 Comedic actor 60 Hayes of “South 25 Potation loca- 54 “See ya!”
James Park” tion? 55 The A in GLARP
16 “Ready ___, here 61 Roz portrayer on 29 K-12 (abbr.)
I come!” “Frasier” 30 Vidal’s sto- 56 Satisfy and then
17 Foster role 62 Woolf wrote rylines, e.g. some
18 Nicky portrayer, about one of her 32 Small corn serv- 57 Make money
in “Funny Girl” own ing for Gomer? 58 Maria’s “Do-___”
19 Former hotelier 66 Houston ball- 33 Lane of “Mod- 59 “Mrs. Doubtfire”
Helmsley player ern Family” attire
20 Start of a 67 Bowie married 34 Set straight 63 Rene Auber-
self-description her 35 Gay mag and jonois role
by recently out 68 Vegas line others? 64 Takes too much,
nonbinary actress 69 Erect 37 Lollobrigida of for short
Brigette Lun- 70 Diana of “The film 65 Papers of D.H.
dy-Paine Avengers” 38 New York col- Lawrence, e.g.
23 Noel of “Blithe 71 Red-ink figure
Spirit”
26 Homophobia or Down
gay-bashing 1 Anderson Coo-
27 Miner concern per’s network
28 Make an emo- 2 Gardener’s long
tional discharge tool
31 Seasonal serving 3 Night stalker
36 More of the 4 Novelist Cather
self-description 5 Albert to Ar-
39 One way to have mand, in “The Bird-
one’s meat cage”
40 Williams of “The 6 Prebirth berth
Birdcage” 7 Anti-oxidant
41 “Yoo-__!” berry
42 Use your butt to 8 Stops for pirates
demonstrate 9 Vague chat room
43 “Six Feet Under” boast?
creator Ball 10 Deuce taker
44 End of the 11 Carbon com-
pound B Y J A S O N V I L L M E Z / I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y A S H C H E S H I R E
30 PGN
Philadelphia Gay News . DECEMBER 6-12, 2019

FAMILY PORTRAIT speakers in it. I love that idea. I also loved

from page 25
I know that exhibit, I was surprised to
Roosevelt see that in a publicly funded national
park exhibit, they exposed what a ter-
Memorial Park rible and deceitful human Washington
was when it came to freeing his slaves.
Yes, and right near that exhibit is the his-
It’s Never Too Early to Pre-arrange torical marker commemorating the LGBT
“Annual Reminders.” We all know that his-
Reasons to Pre-arrange tory does not happen because an old, straight,
• Reduce the Burden on Loved Ones white guy on a horse looks off into the
• Affordable Financing for Every Budget distance, we know that it takes collectives of
• Freeze Cost from Inflation people’s struggle and the shoulders of those
who came before. I want to see monuments
that reflect that. I hope that people who see
the work or read the book will see that people
are starting to do the work to change the way
we see history in public spaces.
Give me the nuts and bolts of the project.
We started out in 2015 in the courtyard of
city hall. We communicated with a variety
Mention this Ad for a Free Personal Planning Guide of people who walked through, from artists
Roosevelt Cemetery Welcomes Interfaith Couples to bus drivers, children to seniors citizens,
people of all types. We had conversations
Contact - Jenn Coughlin about public art and what it could and should
215-673-7500 or 267-474-8300 be. The primary question we asked was,
Roosevelt Memorial Park “What is an appropriate monument for the
215-673-7500 current city of Philadelphia?” From there,
it grew legs and went from being academic
AS A DIGNITY MEMORIAL PROVIDER, to real-world when we teamed up with the
WE ARE ABLE TO ACCOMMODATE ALL FAITHS & LIFESTYLES Mural Arts program. In the end, we worked
with over 20 artists and over 10 sites for new
monuments. We worked with students and
artists and spoke to over 250,000 people, face
to face. That’s the equivalent of one in seven
Philadelphians, and those engagements are
represented in the book. We’re now expand-
Historical Victorian House for Sale ing what we’ve done to other cities.
That’s great. What were some of the
projects that were enacted? One of the
first was a sculpture by Terry Adkins; it’s an
$2
one that we got from a guy who was 72 years
old. It’s called “Rizzo’s Statue Arrow,” and
he suggests in part that we “move the statue
to Fairmount park where the [soldiers of
color] monument was hidden for 60 years.
It would be appropriate for Rizzo to be there
for 60 years, when another public debate
could take place. The [soldiers of color]
statue is now prominently located on Ben-
jamin Franklin Parkway. But maybe a time
will come when we can stop glorifying all
wars, and they’ll all be moved to place less
visible.” I loved it because it shows how so
many Philadelphians are in the here-and-now
in so many ways. I love the idea that monu-
ments should have term limits. Overall, the
proposals showed a real seriousness and fo-
cus on profound issues combined with more
playful answers that had a bit of that Philly
attitude. But in everything, there was a love
of the process, even when it was couched in,
“What? You don’t know about ———? Well,
let me tell you something …”
What are the project’s goals? I don’t
know that it’s necessary that LGBT and other
histories be immortalized only in bronze
or marble, but we need to figure out how
our history moves forward. Thankfully we
have institutions like William Way and the
archives there to help preserve our history,
but I want to make sure that we value our sto-
rytellers and our pioneers that have kept the
histories that nourish us alive and make sure
that our public spaces give us access to that
narrative as well.
When you’re not doing this work, what
do you do? Appreciating art is a passion, so I
enjoy going to museums. I still love to run, it’s
a good way to just think and reset. I’ve lived
here for most of my life, but I love exploring
the city and always find something new to

inspire me. And basketball is my, um…

$2

empty classroom in the courtyard of city hall.

65
6
5,

He felt it was appropriate because Philadel- It’s your jam! [Laughing] Yes, the way I
,0
0

00

phia is known for its great educational insti- reset from the day is to watch a 76ers game.
00

Merchantville, NJ
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known for school closures and budget cuts.
I read quite a few of the proposals from
folks ranging from emotional to really
silly but still thoughtful. Yes, we got
about 5,000 proposals. Many of them were
feasible, but a lot of them were more about
values and visions. I wish we could make
them all happen.
What was your favorite proposal? I spent
a lot of time transcribing them for the book
and read some of the most beautiful, haunt-
ing, sometimes tragic, sometimes hilarious
stories. People wrote about their lives or their
neighborhoods and what was important to
them. It’s like a book of history written by
thousands of Philadelphians — something to
get us a little deeper than just Ben Frank-
lin, the Liberty Bell and soft pretzels. So for
me, the favorites were the ones about heroes
that we don’t usually hear about, like Sister
Rosetta Tharpe. She was a singer, songwriter
and guitarist who basically invented rock and
roll. She was also Black and queer. Someone
proposed a monument to her that would have
I love basketball; some people have the sym-
phony for a sense of calm and well being, I
have basketball. I feel most at peace watch-
ing a game. I’m a diehard Philadelphia sports
fan as well.
OK. Random questions. What three
people would you want to see as mon-
uments? I think three people important to
our cities history are: Nina Simone, Essex
Hemphill and Gloria Casarez.
Three things on your bucket list? Travel-
ing; I want to go to the Grand Canyon, Tokyo
and Johannesburg.
If you were on a reality TV show, which
would it be? I’d be the art curator and BFF
for the new “Queer Eye” gang.
Favorite Motown song? “Ain’t no moun-
tain high, ain’t no valley low.”
Great song! Where can people find the
book? They can go to the Monument Lab
website, monumentlab.com, and it’s also
available on Amazon. n
DECEMBER 6-12, 2019 . epgn.com
PGN
31

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