PH I LADELPHIA GAY NEWS

est. 1976 HONESTY . INTEGRITY . PROFESSIONALISM

October 11-17, 2019 V ol. 43 N o. 41 pgn

Philadelphia OutFest Preview PAG E 1 6

PGN EXCLUSIVE

Mayor Pete talks LGBT issues, historic campaign

MARK SEGAL let me know what this campaign
mark@epgn.com means to them, and folks who are
of a different generation, who just
Pete Buttigieg, who has served as never thought that they would see
mayor of South Bend, Indiana since this, sometimes coming up with
2012, came out as a gay man in a tears in their
self-penned essay published by the eyes, really has
South Bend Tribune. This past April made me feel a
he declared his candidacy for pres- different level of
ident of the United States. Mayor awareness and
Buttigieg and I spoke on the phone fulfillment but
about his campaign, his values and also responsibil-
who he looks up to in the LGBTQ ity around that
community. fact about this
campaign.
MS: When you entered the race as
an openly gay man, did you realize MS: What
the historical significance and what people from
the LGBT community expected? our community
PB: You know, it’s one thing to historically do
realize it in theory; it’s another to you admire?
see it play out in practice. See- PB: Wow,
ing teenagers come up to me and well, of course,
anybody who seeks office and is
out owes a lot to Harvey Milk and
the tradition that he now represents.
It’s almost impossible to imagine,
I think now looking back, what
Photo by
that would have meant at the time. the way she has been able not just
And then more recently, in my to break barriers and challenge the
own lifetime, I remember seeing backwards-looking culture warrior
the judiciary hearings, when they that she beat but also to do it in
were trying to impeach President a way that truly focused on her
Clinton, and seeing constituents, and talk about issues
Barney Frank just like traffic and commuting as well
run circles intel- as issues like equality. There’s so
lectually around so many really inspiring figures out
many people. Re- there, Annise Parker, I could go on
alizing that he was and on. And obviously I’m aware
also an out member that I’m standing on the shoulders
of congress I of so many who helped pave the
think changed my way.
awareness of what
was possible. I also MS: It’s sort of amazing that in just
admire people who a few short decades we went from
have come into the zero candidates running for public
public eye recently, office to a man like yourself now
some even later running, openly gay, for presi-
than I have. Danica dent of the United States. Have
Roem in Virginia, you sought advice
Pete for America just extraordinary from some of those page 39

Philly’s City Council Sherrie Cohen reinstated

passes 3 LGBTQ bills
LAURA SMYTHE
laura@epgn.com
Philadelphia City Council passed three bills
Oct. 3 fortifying protections for trans and non-
binary people by strengthening gender-neu-
tral bathroom requirements,
expanding anti-discrimination
policies for those working with
queer youth and updating lan-
guage in the city’s Fair Practices
Ordinance to be more inclusive.
The bills in the “inclusiv-
ity package,” introduced by
Councilmember Helen Gym,
are expected to be signed into
to Nov. 5 ballot
law by Mayor Jim Kenney, who championed
the LGBT Equality Bill that mandates City
employees receive health care covering gen-
der-affirming surgery when he served as a
councilmember.
“City Council just took a big step towards
making this city safe and af-
firming for all people,” Gym
said. “For far too long, trans
and nonbinary people have
lived with the uncertainty that
their jobs and their lives are
not protected. Every Phila-
delphian deserves the right to
live their life
with dignity. page 39
TIMOTHY CWIEK
timothy@epgn.com
Last week The Supreme Court of
Pennsylvania reversed two lower-court
rulings and reinstated Sherrie Cohen to
the Nov. 5 ballot as an Independent can-
didate for Philadelphia City Council.
“I am thrilled that the Pennsylvania
Supreme Court ruled in my favor and
placed me back on the Nov. 5 ballot
as an Independent candidate for City
Council At-Large.” Cohen said, in an
Oct. 3. email. “Though justice has been
delayed, justice prevailed.”
Cohen added: “We have one month
now to win this thing. I am the only
LGBTQ+ candidate in this race, and
when I ran in the past as a Democrat, I
received more votes than the Republi-
cans I am now seeking to defeat. Phila-
delphia has yet to elect our first openly
LGBTQ+ councilperson.”
Of Council’s 17 seats, seven are
at-large, including two reserved for
non-Democrats — which Republicans
have historically held. Cohen hopes to
fill one of those posts as an Independent
in the general election.
In August, Common Pleas Judge
Abbe Fletman disquali-
fied Cohen from running page 27

PA G E 4 PA G E 5 PA G E 8

AUTHORS AND ACTIVISM: A THE RISE OF LGBTQ BALLROOM STONEWALL AND THE GAY
HISTORY OF LGBT BOOKSTORES THROUGH THE AGES LIBERATION FRONT
Until the 1970s, when LGBT publishing first began, the Ballroom is an underground LGBT subculture wherein par- Stonewall was and remains the starting point of a
few queer books available were limited mostly to anti-gay ticipants, who are largely Black or Latinx trans people and gay contemporary LGBT movement for equality. Stonewall is
medical texts. men, compete for titles and trophies in events known as balls. our 1776.
2 LOCAL
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
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
Nonprofits join forces to provide
youth housing
LAURA SMYTHE
AIDS LIBRARY laura@epgn.com
1233 Locust St
aidslibrar y.org
To increase access to housing services for
patients of FIGHT’s Y-HEP Adolescent and
COLOURS
Young Adult Health Center, the HIV-preven-
coloursorganization.org
tion group has teamed up with social services
215-832-0100
organization Valley Youth House.
BEBASHI-TRANSITION TO HOPE The nonprofits kicked off a collaboration
1235 Spring Garden St Sept. 9 that has two Valley Youth House staff
215-769-3561; bebashi.org members visiting the Y-HEP Health Center on
Mondays from 2-5 p.m. to connect patients ex-
CONGRESO DE LATINOS UNIDOS periencing housing insecurity or homelessness
216 W. Somerset St with housing counseling, emergency housing
215-763-8870 referrals and resources including clothing,
personal hygiene products and sleeping bags.
GALAEI The clinic serves patients ages 13-24. Those at
149 W. Susquehanna Ave least 18 years old can also work with staffers to
267-457-3912, galaei.org complete the Office of Homeless Services’ co-
Spanish/English ordinated entry housing assessment, a tool that
matches eligible people with housing within
HEALTH CENTER NO. 2 3-6 months, said Zakia Dodson, FIGHT’s com-
1720 S. Broad St munity health worker.
215-685-1821 The initiative at Y-HEP Health Center, at
1207 Chestnut St., intends to co-locate health
MAZZONI CENTER and wellness services under one roof to de-
1348 Bainbridge St crease barriers to accessing housing support,
215-563-0652 said Cameron McConkey, FIGHT’s Stoneleigh
mazzonicenter.org Emerging Leader Fellow.
“It offers us an opportunity to have a sys-
PHILADELPHIA FIGHT tem of coordinated care for youth and to offer
1233 Locust St.; 215-985- services in parallel, as opposed to doing things
4448 fight.org one at a time, [which] can be really slow and
bureaucratic,” he added.
WASHINGTON WEST PROJECT OF Last year, the Y-HEP Health Center served
MAZZONI CENTER about 800 youth, of which 10 percent received
1201 Locust St.; 215-985- gender-affirming care, McConkey told PGN.
9206 Dodson works fulltime to help with legal name
changes, as well as referrals, transportation
TRANSGENDER HEALTH ACTION and support for gender-affirming surgical ap-
COALITION pointments. The clinic’s registered nurse also
215-732-1207 provides education and teaching around hor-
mones, injections and the process of transition-
OTHER ing.
The on-site collaboration stemmed from a
INDEPENDENCE BRANCH “recognized need” for housing services among
LIBRARY BARBARA GITTINGS many patients, who disclosed their housing sit-
GAY AND LESBIAN COLLECTION uation in response to social-determinant ques-
215-685-1633 tions, or were found casually discussing their
living situations in the waiting room or linger-
INDEPENDENCE ing at the clinic after an appointment, McCon-
BUSINESS ALLIANCE key said. These folks can choose to meet with
215-557-0190, ndependence- the Valley Youth House coordinators privately
BusinessAlliance.com to hear about available options.
According to youth homelessness organiza-
LGBT PEER COUNSELING tion True Colors United, LGBTQ young peo-
SERVICES ple comprise 40 percent of youth experiencing
215-732-TALK homelessness in the United States, despite ac-
counting for only 7 percent of the total youth
PFLAG: PARENTS, population. A 2017 study by Chapin Hall of the
FAMILIES AND FRIENDS University of Chicago found queer youth are
OF LESBIANS AND GAYS 120 percent more likely to experience home-
(PHILADELPHIA) lessness than their heterosexual peers.
215-572-1833 Valley Youth House and Y-HEP Health Cen-
ter staff have a long-standing partnership, but
PHILLY PRIDE PRESENTS having Valley Youth House representatives on-
215-875-9288 site at the clinic allows the nonprofits to take
their services a step further, said Alyssa Wein-
furtner, street outreach and emergency services
Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com
supervisor at Valley Youth House. About 2-5
youth per week have met with the staffers since
the initiative’s launch.
Youth who aren’t patients at the clinic can
also meet with Valley Youth House staff on
Mondays.
The initiative exemplifies a shift in the med-
ical world toward emphasizing “the whole
person” and how stressors like experiencing
homelessness impact someone’s health and
wellbeing, Weinfurtner told PGN. Consolidat-
ing housing and medical services in one space
can also reduce the stigma surrounding housing
insecurity, she added.
“It can be something that brings a lot of
shame and stress from folks that I think tra-
ditionally in a lot of service locations was not
something that was openly talked about,” Wein-
furtner said. “Providing that pathway for youth
is helpful.”
The Y-HEP Health Center initiative is one of
four “mobile sites” Valley Youth House debuted
in Philadelphia this summer. Staff also visit the
Mazzoni Center’s Adolescent Drop-In program
each Wednesday from 5-7 p.m., North Phila-
delphia’s Achieving Independence Center on
Thursdays from 3-5 p.m. and the Community
College of Philadelphia every other Wednesday.
“I believe in a one-stop shop for folks to get
all their needs met instead of running around
to different appointments at different locations
throughout the city, when a lot of folks are still,
in that process, trying to secure housing for that
night,” Weinfurtner said. “We’re trying to make
it more convenient and make it more accessi-
ble.”
The Office of Homeless Services funded the
mobile sites following the March 2018 launch
of Valley Youth House’s “youth access point”
at 1500 Sansom St., Weinfurtner added. Dod-
son accompanies Y-HEP Health Center pa-
tients here if they demonstrate a need for hous-
ing resources when Valley Youth House staff
aren’t at the clinic.
Since January, 450 youth new to Valley Youth
House have received services at the Center City
access point, which provides assessments and
housing referrals for young people experienc-
ing homelessness.
The collaboration with Valley Youth House
is part of a larger programming focus at Y-Hep
Health Center to provide co-located, coordi-
nated services to youth experiencing socio-
economic challenges, McConkey said. Staff
from Pennsylvania CareerLink, a job-search
program by the state Department of Labor &
Industry, visit the clinic twice per month to
educate on employment insecurity and offer
support services. A BenePhilly counselor is
also available fulltime on-site to aid patients in
enrolling for health insurance, food stamps and
other public assistance.
“The message that we ultimately hope to
convey to the community and to youth is that
we’re here to support them in whatever needs
that they may have and to try to work with
them to understand what priorities they have in
regards to their health, their situation and their
experience,” McConkey said. n
OCTOBER 11-17, 2019
PGN
3

Fall 2019

Designs for
Different Futures
Opens Oct 22

Off the Wall:

American Art to Wear
Opens Nov 10
Designs for Different Futures is organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Walker Art Center, and the Art Institute of Chicago.In Philadel-
phia, the exhibition was generously supported by the Annenberg Foundation Fund for Major Exhibitions, the Robert Montgomery Scott Endow-
ment for Exhibitions, the Kathleen C. and John J.F. Sherrerd Fund for Exhibitions, the Lisa Roberts and David W. Seltzer Endowment Fund, the
Women’s Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Laura and William C. Buck Endowment for Exhibitions, the Harriet and Ronald Lassin
Fund for Special Exhibitions, the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Exhibition Fund, and an anonymous donor. Credits as of June 27, 2019
Off the Wall: American Art to Wear has been made possible by Julie Schafler Dale, PNC, The Coby Foundation, the Arlin and Neysa Adams Endow -
ment Fund, Catherine and Laurence Altman, the Center for American Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and other generous donors. Credits
as of July 15, 2019
Top: Everything, designed 2017 -19 by David OReilly (Courtesy of the designer) Image © David OReilly; bottom: Off We Go into the Wild Blue Yon-
der, 1977, by Susanna Lewis (Private collection) Photograph by Otto Stupakoff © Julie Schafler Dale
der
4 H I S T O RY
Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com

Authors and activism: A history of LGBT bookstores

pgn JASON VILLEMEZ
PGN Contributor
ment and a bulletin board for group and event
listings. On the shelves were titles ranging
from lesbian pulp fiction to poetry to psychi-
“It was unbelievably fun,” Ed Hermance atric texts that disputed the anti-gay establish-
Publisher said about his time operating Giovanni’s ment. Broidy, who co-organized the first gay
Mark Segal (ext. 204) Room, one of the first queer bookstores in the pride march along with Rodwell, remembers
mark@epgn.com world. “You weren’t there for the economics, well the Alma Routsong novel “Patience and
and it would be exhausting if you were in it Sarah,” which generated excitement at the
Office Manager/ for the politics. We were starved.” time “because nobody died at the end.”
Distribution Until the 1970s, when LGBT publishing Within a few years, the shop increased its
Don Pignolet (ext. 200) first began and activists like Barbara Gittings offerings and Rodwell opened a second store
don@epgn.com pushed for representation in libraries, the few on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village,
queer books available were limited mostly to right in the center of the city’s gay beating
Editor anti-gay medical texts. So as the first wave heart and surrounded by the counterculture
Jess Bryant (ext. 206) of bookstores like Giovanni’s Room opened, that infused the activism of the era. Visitors in-
editor@epgn.com getting ahold of quality LGBT titles was a ne- cluded locals and tourists, people from abroad
cessity. According to Hermance, “Every book and writers such as Tennessee Williams and
Staff Writers in the store from 1973 into 1976 the owners Patricia Nell Warren, who gave readings.
Laura Smythe (ext. 215) had bought for cash at a wholesaler in the Another of the Oscar Wilde’s early visitors
laura@epgn.com West Village, where Craig Rodwell helped was Jearld Moldenhauer, a Cornell Univer-
Larry Nichols (ext. 213) them pick out the few dozen titles available sity student who traveled from Ithaca during
larry@epgn.com on gay subjects.” When Hermance and Arleen school breaks to peruse the shelves and walk
Olshan bought Giovanni’s Room in 1976, the the Village streets. Moldenhauer founded E D H E R M A N C E S TA N D I N G I N F R O N T O F
Timothy Cwiek (ext. 208) G I OVA N N I ’ S RO O M I N T H E 1 9 8 0 S .
timothy@epgn.com two continued to make trips to New York and the Cornell University Student Homophile Cour tesy Ed Hermance
received the same guidance. “[Craig] knew League in 1968 and, after moving to Canada
Photographer everything, really.” a year later, the University of Toronto Homo-
Rodwell, who had moved to New York in phile Association. He was disappointed that opened in Washington D.C. in 1974, followed
Kelly Burkhardt
burkhardtkelly@gmail.com 1958, did much more than help booksellers Canadian bookstores failed to stock the new a similar expansion strategy creating a store
like Hermance find stock. A longtime activ- wave of post-Stonewall books, so he ordered in Baltimore and later on in Norfolk and Re-
Art Director ist and organizer, he opened the Oscar Wilde the titles himself and began to sell them out hoboth Beach.
Memorial Bookshop in 1967, the same year of his knapsack at various community meet- The shops, who supported each other by
Sean Dorn (ext. 211)
sean@epgn.com as the Stonewall Inn, about a mile away. The ings. The knapsack period was the first for the sharing news and ideas, became cornerstones
store occupied a space on Mercer Street in the Glad Day Bookshop, which then operated out of the communities they served, hosting polit-
heart of New York University, and for those of Moldenhauer’s apartment along with The ical organizations and providing safe spaces
Graphic Artist students and professors who passed by, every- Body Politic, one of the country’s first gay for people to explore and embrace their sex-
Ash Cheshire (ext. 210) thing could be seen. “Unlike most gay bars,” periodicals. uality. Such inclusiveness — along with the
ash@epgn.com said Ellen Broidy, one of the first to work in “The reality was that I was a full-time gay spirit of the anti-war, anti-establishment revo-
the bookshop, “the Oscar Wilde had a stan- radical,” Moldenhauer said, “one who wore lution that fanned out before and after Stone-
Advertising Sales dard-issue plate glass window, so once you many hats at the same time.” After finding a wall — encouraged others to build upon the
Joe Bean (ext. 219) were in, you were visible from the street. We more permanent space for Glad Day Toronto, idea started by Rodwell and the Oscar Wilde.
joe@epgn.com actually had more than one ‘customer’ say he went on to open a Boston location in 1979, By the mid-1980s, queer bookstores were in
Prab Sandhu (ext. 212) they were there doing a sociology or psychol- the same year that A Different Light in Los more than 20 cities across North America as
prab@epgn.com ogy project.” Angeles was co-founded by his former staff well as venues in Germany, France, Australia,
As the first of its kind, the shop served as member. After early success, iterations of A the Netherlands and the U.K.
National Advertising part-bookstore and part-meeting space, hous- Different Light soon appeared in San Francis- Gay’s The Word, London’s queer book-
ing meetings for the Homophile Youth Move- co and New York. Lambda Rising, which first shop, opened in 1979 on Marchmont Street,
Rivendell Media:
212-242-6863 a few blocks from the British Museum. Like
the Oscar Wilde and all of its brethren, the
shop and staff endured harassment both ver-
bal and physical, so much so that wooden
Phone: 215-625-8501 PGN shutters were put up each night to protect the
Fax: 215-925-6437 505 S. Fourth St.
E-mail: pgn@epgn.com Philadelphia, PA windows. But the extent of the threats did
Web: www.epgn.com 19147-1506 not begin nor end with bricks: Her Majesty’s
Government had a larger, more dangerous le-
Philadelphia Gay News gal threat aimed at the store.
is a member of:
The Associated Press In 1984, customs officers raided Gay’s The
Pennsylvania Newspaper
Association Word on multiple occasions and confiscated
Suburban Newspapers
of America
all imported publications. The shipments,
many of which had come from Giovanni’s
The views of PGN are expressed only in the unsigned Room (who had begun wholesaling to stores
“Editorial” col­umn. Opinions expressed in bylined col- abroad), included 144 titles such as novels by
umns, stories and letters to the editor are those of the
writer, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Gordon Merrick and Armistead Maupin, “The
PGN. The appearance of names or pictorial represen-
tations in PGN does not necessarily indicate the sexual
Joy of Gay Sex” by Charles Silverstein and
orientation of that named or pictured person or persons. Edmund White, a French weekly newspaper,
Copyright © 1976 - 2019 Copyright(s) in all materials
and a 14th-century devotional book authored
in these pages are either owned or licensed by Masco by a nun. The shop’s directors and assistant
Communications Inc. or its subsidiaries or affiliate compa-
nies (Philadelphia Gay News, PGN, and its WWW sites.) manager, whose homes were also raided,
All other reproduction, distribution, retransmission, mod- faced 100 charges, including “conspiracy
ification, public display, and public performance of our
materials is prohibited without the prior written consent to import indecent and obscene material.” It
of Masco Communications. To obtain such consent, email took two years for the case to
pgn@epgn.com. Published by Masco Communications Inc. GAY’S THE WORD, WHICH OPENED IN LONDON IN 1979. page 32
© 1976-2019 Masco Communications Inc. ISSN-0742-515 Photo by Jason Villemez
go through the courts before
OCTOBER 11-17, 2019
The rise of LGBTQ ballroom
through the ages
G R O U P 1 9 9 5 C H R I S T M A S B A L L I N P H I L A D E L P H I A AT T H E Y M C A
LAURA SMYTHE
laura@epgn.com
What is ballroom?
The first time Jacen Bowman attended a
house meeting, he had no idea what LGBTQ
ballroom culture was.
Going into his final year in high school,
Bowman was approached to join a “modeling
company” by a man at the former Gallery mall
in Center City. After some persistence on be-
half of the stranger, Bowman decided to attend
an informational session.
When he arrived, a group of fellow LGBTQ
folks welcomed him to what he learned was
a “house meeting” at the House of Prestige,
founded in 1990 by the stranger who had ap-
proached Bowman in the shopping center: Al-
vernian Davis, known in the scene as Alvernian
Prestige.
The house was one of the first in the City of
Brotherly Love’s ballroom scene — “a space
where your femininity and you being unique
and different was celebrated,” said Bowman,
now 36 and a celebrity makeup artist.
Ballroom is an underground LGBTQ sub-
culture in which participants, who are large-
ly Black or Latinx trans people and gay men,
compete for prizes, trophies, titles — think
“legend” and “icon” — or cash at events known
as balls. Judges evaluate those who “walk” in
a ball in various categories, including voguing,
pretty boy realness, butch queen, face, body,
Wall Street, best dressed, pop fashion and sex
siren. Winners can take home earnings totaling
hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
People in the ballroom scene are also part
of house culture, meaning each participant is
a member of a specific “house,” or ballroom
unit, that has its own leadership and rules. Each
house is governed by a house mother and/or fa-
ther, as well as board members, a treasurer and
various other hierarchical couples that can in-
clude prince and princess or duke and duchess.
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“Just seeing … the joy and excitement of
people when they hit the back of that runway,
their talents come to life. It’s overjoying for
me,” said Davis, the original house mother of
Philadelphia’s House of Prestige who currently
serves as house father.
How ballroom spread across
the nation
The ballroom scene in its form today, à la
the 1990 documentary “Paris is Burning” and
the FX drama series “Pose,” originated in New
York City in the early 1970s, when legendary
drag queen of color Crystal LaBeija founded
the first-ever house: House of LaBeija.
The culture rippled across the east coast
into New Jersey and Philadelphia and caught
on nationally in localities including Chicago,
Atlanta, San Antonio and Los Angeles. To-
day, a ball exists in almost every state, Davis
said, and many international chapters operate
in destinations like Paris, Berlin, London and
Amsterdam.
Some members of the ballroom scene, like
61-year-old New York City ball pioneer Kevin
Omni Burrus, who founded the House of Omni
in his living room in 1979, trace the culture’s
earliest roots back to the French Masquerade
balls of the 18th century. The traditional event
was followed by the Harlem Renaissance Balls
beginning in the 1920s and spanning through
the 1940s, he said, when the gatherings gave
way to the popular drag balls of the 1950s and
1960s before ultimately reaching their pinnacle
in today’s house-structured ball scene.
The House of Omni became the House of
Ultra Omni in 1990.
The ballroom scene caught fire in Los An-
geles in the 1990s, said Sean Milan, 47, who
888-573-2672
started voguing in the City of Angels in 1992.
Milan was the original founding mother of the
House of Rodeo, which opened in 1997 as the © PECO Energy Company, 2019 peco.com
city’s first official house. It was
page 20
soon followed by the House of
6 REGIONAL
Bradbury-Sullivan Center
receives award for LGBTQ
health data collection
LAURA SMYTHE
laura@epgn.com
Allentown-based Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT
Community Center received the 2019 Breast
Cancer Community Partner Award from the
Pennsylvania Commission on Women last Fri-
day for its data collection through the Pennsyl-
vania LGBT Health Needs Assessment.
The Pennsylvania Commission on Wom-
en advises Gov. Tom Wolf on issues affecting
women across the Commonwealth. The group’s
commissioner BJ Leder joined Pennsylvania
Secretary of Health Rachel Levine and Todd
Snovel, the executive director for the Pennsylva-
nia Commission on LGBTQ Affairs, last week
in presenting the award to the Bradbury-Sulli-
van LGBT Community Center’s Executive Di-
rector Adrian Shanker and Claire Ippoliti, breast
cancer survivor and board treasurer for the Le-
high Valley organization, at the Pennsylva-
nia Governor’s Residence in Harrisburg.
Bradbury-Sullivan Center was the lone
LGBTQ organization among the 10 hon-
orees, which also included Philadelphia
nonprofit Health Promotion Council, PA
Breast Cancer Coalition, Danville-based
Geisinger Medical Center and Northeast
Regional Cancer Institute in Scranton.
“It’s nice to be recognized, but it’s more
important that the work that we’re doing is
making a difference,” Shanker told PGN,
adding that the data the Bradbury-Sullivan
Center collects “is crucial to being able
to promote a high quality of health for all
people, including breast cancer screenings
for LGBT people with breast tissue.”
Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Cen-
ter administers the Pennsylvania LGBT Health
Needs Assessment every two years in collabo-
ration with the state Department of Health with
the intent of collecting comprehensive data on
LGBT health disparities, including those in
breast cancer screenings, Shanker said. The tool
was first used regionally at the end of 2015 and
start of 2016, and then across the Common-
wealth in 2018.
Last year’s responses came from 4,679
LGBT-identified Pennsylvanians from more
than 800 zip codes across 64 of the Keystone
State’s 67 counties, Shanker said. Philadel-
phians accounted for 10 percent of participants.
The 2018 assessment revealed that among
participants over age 40 and assigned female
at birth, 13 percent had never had a mammo-
gram, a breast X-ray that detects early signs of
cancer. The results skyrocketed for trans and
gender-nonconforming people in the same age
range who self-identified as eligible for a mam-
mogram, showing that 46 percent had never had
the exam.
“LGBT community members need to get
screened for breast cancer because early de-
tection can save lives. It’s not just a slogan to
those of us who are survivors — it’s real,” Ip-
politi said. “And we need information, like the
Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com
data Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community
Center collects through the needs assessment, to
demonstrate that here in Pennsylvania, we have
an issue with LGBT people not receiving these
screenings.”
Bradbury-Sullivan Center’s needs assessment
finds that one of the main reasons LGBTQ folks
don’t receive mammograms is fear of accessing
health care, Shanker said.
One-fourth of responders said they aren’t out
to any of their health care providers, and more
than 56 percent indicated they “sometimes, of-
ten or always” are afraid of negative reactions
from medical professionals, Shanker told PGN.
This rate jumps to 75 percent among the trans
community.
Spaces that provide gender-related cancer
care, such as mammograms and cervical can-
cer screenings, can sometimes be exclusionary,
Shanker said.
RACHEL LEVINE, ADRIAN SHANKER AND
C L A I R E I P P O L I T I AT L A S T F R I D A Y ’ S A W A R D S
CEREMONY IN HARRISBURG.
Cour tesy Adrian Shanker
“They can sometimes be places where LGBT
people don’t feel safe or comfortable access-
ing care,” he added. “So for lesbian, bisexual
women or transgender men, not every health
care provider is providing culturally appropri-
ate care to them. We know that these barriers to
care sometimes prevent people from accessing
the care that they need, especially when it comes
to cancer screenings.”
The Human Rights Campaign released a re-
port last month stating that LGBTQ Americans
“remain largely invisible to the local, state, and
federal officials charged with ensuring their
health, safety, and wellbeing” due to a lack of
government data collection efforts focused on
the queer community.
Such findings underscore the “critical” need
for data collection efforts like the Pennsylvania
LGBT Health Needs Assessment, Shanker said.
He added Bradbury-Sullivan Center’s goal is
for the findings to be used by health care pro-
viders, public health agencies, LGBTQ orga-
nizations and insurance companies to inform
more-inclusive health care practices.
“When we understand the disparities, then
we can work to address them,” Shanker said.
“It’s very hard to work to address the disparities
without the data.”
The next Pennsylvania LGBT Health Needs
Assessment will take place in 2020. n
OCTOBER 11-17, 2019
PGN
7
8 H I S T O RY
Stonewall and the Gay Liberation Front: case closed!
MARK SEGAL
mark@epgn.com
Something very strange happened during
last June’s celebration marking the 50th an-
niversary of the Stonewall riots. The LGBT
community, especially those of us from Gay
Liberation Front New York, realized how the
history we created from 1969-71 was being
distorted by those who recorded it. Even
LGBT organizations like GLAAD — with
a mission to provide resources and in-
formation to mainstream media —
fell short and had to be correct-
ed by the mainstream media it
was supposed to assist.
On an anniversary of this
scope, communities begin
to look back at their histo-
ry and think critically about
where they are presently.
Right now, our communi-
ty is struggling with issues of
privilege and identity, specifically
white-male privilege and class-based
identity. It’s often been said that history
is written by the powerful, and sometimes
those in power embellish or minimize his-
torical facts, or even distort history on pur-
pose.
Stonewall was and remains the starting
point of a contemporary LGBT movement
for equality. Stonewall is our 1776. There
were other demonstrations and disturbances
before Stonewall, like the Compton’s Cafe-
teria riot in San Francisco in 1965, the sit-in
at Dewey’s restaurant in Philadelphia and
even organized demonstrations, but none of
them created a sustainable, inclusive move-
ment; they all failed to gain momentum. The
most famous of them were the marches ev-
ery July 4 at Independence Hall in Philadel-
phia from 1965-69, which some historians
mistakenly connect to Stonewall and the
first Gay Pride March in 1970.
Stonewall and the year that followed
leading up to the first Gay Pride,
then called Christopher Street
Gay Liberation Day, changed
everything and everyone
in the LGBT community.
It was not simply a revolt
against mainstream so-
ciety, but also against an
LGBT leadership that was
tone-deaf to the countercul-
tural and political atmosphere
of the 1960s. The marches in
Philadelphia were a prime example of
that deafness. Those of us from Stonewall
and Gay Liberation Front were rebelling not
only against mainstream society but also
those people who marched in Philadelphia
because we felt they had all lost touch with
our community. A similar occurrence hap-
pened in the Black Community in the late
’60s as well. More radical organizations
wanted a new approach to the civil rights
movement. They thought of Martin Luther
King Jr. as a throwback, and as detailed in
“Death of a King” by Tavis Smiley, it made
his last year on earth a sad one.
Historians who do not make the point that
Stonewall was a rebellion against the prim
and proper LGBT movement of that point
in time are committing a serious distortion
of our history. In doing so, they skip what
was likely the most pivotal year of change
in our community. They minimize what
was the Mount Vesuvius of
change in LGBT History: the
radicalization of the LGBT
movement.
Stonewall did not happen
in isolation. The country was
ripe with change, especially
among LGBT youth, who
found themselves completely
left out due to a lack of lead-
ership among the existing
organizations — the same
organizations that created
those Philadelphia march-
es which looked more like
1950s black-and-white television America
than antiwar, radical 1969 America. Stone-
wall gave LGBT youth a voice. Gay Libera-
tion Front, born from the ashes of Stonewall,
gave the movement organization in the form
of radicalism.
While the old leadership wanted to por-
tray the community as women in dresses
Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com
and men in suits and ties, those at Stonewall
and the founders of Gay Liberation Front
dressed in jeans and T-shirts, and, at times,
even in drag or what soon would be consid-
ered “gender f--k.” While the old leadership
disdained any public association with trans
people, Gay Liberation Front welcomed
them, as it did youth and people of color.
While those at the Philadelphia marches
wanted to fit in with middle-class Ameri-
ca, those in Gay Liberation Front wanted to
work alongside other mar-
ginalized groups fighting for
social justice. While those
at the Philadelphia marches
were polite, those in Gay
Liberation Front were out,
loud and in-your-face. The
two groups could not have
been more different.
The first Gay Pride was
literally and figuratively a
break from those Philadel-
phia marches. It was a cele-
bration of what we had cre-
ated from the riots one year
before. To be very clear, historians have at-
tempted to group those Philadelphia march-
es with Stonewall and the first Gay Pride,
and that is an absolute misrepresentation
of history. That first Gay Pride, created by
Craig Rodwell and Ellen Broidy, was about
what we of Gay Liberation
Front created from the ashes
page 25
OCTOBER 11-17, 2019
33rd AIDS Walk Philly promotes
PrEP and U=U
F R O M S E P T . 2 0 A I D S W A L K K I C K O F F E V E N T . P h o t o b y C a r i F e i l e r B e n d e r, A I D S F u n d
SUZANNAH CAVANAUGH
PGN Contributor
AIDS Walk Philly knows the battle with
HIV/AIDS is not over.
After 33 years of raising awareness and
funds, AIDS Fund, the organizer behind
AIDS Walk, considers public perception of
HIV 2019’s biggest challenge.
“With the advances in treatment and care,
we’ve lost a sense of urgency around this
epidemic. And yet, we still know there are
many people who don’t have access [to care
and information],” said Robb Reichard, ex-
ecutive director of AIDS Fund.
No longer “acute and fatal,” the disease
has been effectively downgraded to a “man-
ageable, chronic condition.” Since 2012,
the number of new HIV diagnoses has sta-
bilized, and a person diagnosed with HIV
at 20 can expect to live to 70, according to
a report by the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention.
But success hasn’t affected all demo-
graphics equally. In 2017, the CDC projected
that half of Black gay men and a quarter of
Latino gay men will be diagnosed with HIV
in their lifetimes, if current HIV diagnoses
rates persist. Impoverished urban areas have
disproportionately higher infection rates.
As the largest public awareness event
around HIV/AIDS in Philadelphia, AIDS
Walk’s goal is to give all Philadelphians the
information necessary to protect against and
prevent HIV.
This year, the walk focuses on the benefits
of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), sold as
Truvada, an HIV medicine that can prevent
someone who is HIV-negative from contract-
ing the disease, and Undetectable = Untrans-
mittable, or U=U, the message promoted by
UNAIDS that folks living with HIV who
have achieved an undetectable viral load are
not at risk of sexually transmitting the virus
to an HIV-negative partner.
LOCAL
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“We want to be sure that everyone has the
most current information about what’s hap-
pening with the epidemic, so we can get to
the point where we’re at zero new infections,
zero deaths and zero stigma,” said Reichard.
AIDS Fund also aims to raise enough
funds to match or exceed last year’s *PGN is an equal opportunity employer
$300,000.
The AIDS Fund grant program distributes
the donations to HIV-positive folks in med-
ical need. People living below the federal
poverty line receive 75 percent of donations.
Through organizations like the Mazzoni
Center, case managers apply for funds on a
client’s behalf. Once approved, the money
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This year’s walk is a two-hour loop around
the Ben Franklin Parkway. The donation
booth opens at 7 a.m., along with the display
of the 25-block-long AIDS Memorial Quilt.
Ceremonies begin with a reading of the
names of Philadelphians who lost their lives
to HIV. Then, at 8:30 a.m. the walk begins.
“I just encourage everyone to come out
and be a lifeline for someone with HIV,”
said Reichard. n 1 BORGATA WAY, ATLANTIC CITY, NJ 08401
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10 EDITORIAL
Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com

EDITORIAL BY JESS BRYANT

case centered on trans woman
PHILLY’S 9TH-ANNUAL TRANS MARCH COMES WHEN IT’S NEEDED MOST Aimee Stephens’ firing from a
funeral home because she came
This weekend’s 9th annual This year, as the march “re- official concern” as well as “po- issued a brief opposing transpar- out as transgender.
Philly Trans March will take to members community members lice brutality.” PGN has followed ency in the case. The Trump administration’s
West Philly’s streets in the name who have transitioned to ances- the case of Nizah Morris, a trans Health care policies, misgen- opinion was made clear in an am-
of justice, equity and liberation. tor,” one name will be on every- woman of color whose 2002 mur- dering, housing and financial in- icus brief it filed that argued Title
On Oct. 12 from 1-4 p.m. at Mal- one’s mind: Tameka “Michelle” der, which occurred minutes after security, workplace discrimination VII does not prohibit discrimina-
colm X Park, on 52nd and Pine Washington, a Black trans woman receiving a police escort, has not and an overall lack of resources tion based on sexual orientation
streets, community members from who was violently killed May been solved. In April 2018, trans and access for trans, nonbinary or transgender status. The brief
Greater Philadelphia and beyond 19. This year has already bore attorney Julie Chovanes filed a and gender-nonconforming people also misgendered Aimee Stephens
will gather to mourn, celebrate witness to the violent killings of Right-To-Know request asking will also be in focus. every step of the way, indicating
and demonstrate. 19 trans folks across the country. for transparency in the Morris Philly Trans March takes place Philly Trans March’s concentra-
While folks of all gender iden- Of those, 18 were trans women case. four days after the Supreme tion on workplace discrimination
tities, expressions and experiences of color. After talks broke down this Court heard three LGBTQ cases and misgendering is beyond
are welcome, the march is meant Philly Trans March said in a year, she filed a brief on Aug. 5 regarding Title VII, a federal law relevant.
to remember, honor and stand in statement the event will focus on asking District Attorney Larry that prohibits employers from This weekend, PGN will be at
solidarity with trans, nonbinary issues of “hate violence, specif- Krasner to release Morris’ re- discriminating against employees Outfest and Philly Trans March.
and gender-nonconforming indi- ically against Black and Brown cords. On Sept. 5, two days after on the basis of sex, race, color, Read next week’s issue for de-
viduals. Trans Women, and the lack of the filing deadline, the DA’s office national origin and religion. One tailed coverage. n

CREEP OF THE WEEK BY D’ANNE WITKOWSKI

DONALD TRUMP
If you’ve been following the news at
all, you may have noticed that there are
massive protests against the political
failure to address climate change across
the globe led by young people. You may
have also noticed that impeachment
proceedings have begun against Donald
Trump, prompting him to retweet threats
about Civil War, showing once again
that comparing Trump to a child is an
unfair smear of children.
Robert Jeffress, a Baptist minister and
Fox News contributor, said, “The only
impeachable offense President Trump
has committed was beating Hillary
Clinton in 2016. That’s the unpardon-
able sin for which the Democrats will
never forgive him. And I do want to
make this prediction this morning: If the
Democrats are successful in removing
the president from office, I’m afraid it
will cause a Civil War-like fracture in
this nation from which this country will
never heal.”
And Trump, who literally does noth-
ing but watch TV all day, couldn’t tweet
these words out fast enough.
Now, I’m no history major, but I seem
to remember the Civil War being a BFD
in this country. Maybe, just maybe, it’s
not a threat the godd--n president should
be gleefully repeating.
But repeat it he did, and folks who
were spared having to know who Jef-
fress is or hear his name are spared no
more. And guess what? He has a long
history of being super anti-LGBTQ.
In 2013 he said that God “thought
[sex] up for our enjoyment” and “gave
us the equipment to enjoy it with.”
To show why gay sex was wrong, he
used an analogy about plugging in a TV.
“In the instruction manual it said,
‘Now plug this into a 120 outlet.’ Sup-
pose I said, ‘Oh, I’m not going to follow
those instructions, those are antiquated it up with his hubris and incompetence, recently with a
instructions. I’m going to plug it into he’s flailing, looking for somebody to bumper sticker
a 220 outlet. It’s my TV and I can do blame. Because it couldn’t possibly be that read,
whatever I want to with it.’ Well, it is my him that’s the problem. It must be liter- “Trump 2020:
TV to do what I want to with it, but I’m ally everyone else. Make Liberals
going to blow that TV into smithereens if There’s no telling what will be hap- Cry Again.”
I put it in a 220 outlet.” pening by the time you read this column I suspect he
Just in case you aren’t following, in as the news cycle is more like a news placed that
this analogy, the TV plug is a penis, a cyclone tearing through the U.S. and sticker before the impeachment story
120 outlet is a vagina, and a 220 out- leaving everything in its wake in sham- broke. And I suspect that nothing will
let is a butt. Also, in case you weren’t bles. And still, Republicans call both the happen to make him remove that sticker.
aware, anal sex does not typically result news and climate change fake. There are bad people in this world. The
in a penis being blown to smithereens. I I don’t even know what to say any- president is one of them. Things are go-
think that’s probably oral sex, but I’m a more. This is not normal. And, honestly, ing to get worse before they get better. n
lesbian, not a Baptist preacher, so what I don’t know if anything will ever be
do I know? normal again. We have an entire polit- D’Anne Witkowski is a poet, writer and
He’s also said that gays and lesbi- ical party aiding and abetting the most comedian living in Michigan with her wife
ans are “abnormal,” live “a miserable corrupt and incompetent president this and son. She has been writing about LGBT
lifestyle,” and that they “brainwash ... nation has ever seen. politics for over a decade. Follow her on
the public to feel guilty of their bigotry I was driving behind a pickup truck Twitter @MamaDWitkowski.
toward homosexuals” through shows
such as “Will & Grace.” He called sex
between same-sex partners “a filthy prac-
tice,” and in 2011, he said, “It’s a fact
that [AIDS] is a gay disease” and used
this “fact” to support keeping gays out of
the military.
Jeffress has also said really hateful and
ignorant things about Jews and Muslims.
Surprise, surprise.
And this is who the president is turning
to during this time of crisis. This hateful
man’s words are the words the president
amplifies as the impeachment inquiry
begins. This man who believes that Jews
are going to hell, that Islam is a religion
of pedophilia, that Mormons are cult
members but thanks God for Trump.
While there are observers who seem
surprised that Trump is wildly spinning
out of control, I am not one of them.
Trump is a man who has never been held
accountable for anything in his life. Then
millions of idiots handed this guy an
entire nation. And now that he’s messed
OCTOBER 11-17, 2019
MARK MY WORDS BY MARK SEGAL
Two At-Large seats, one LGBT candidate
Spilled blood over the
May Democratic primary
between LGBT rivals seems
to have cast a shadow over
this November's election
for LGBT voters, as Sherri
Cohen runs as the only
OUT LGBT person for City
Council after a lengthy legal
battle to get on the ballot as
an Independent.
Having an LGBT person on Council has been
an issue in our community for years. So where are
we now and how did we get here with no repre-
sentation on Council? Most importantly, does Co-
hen have a shot at winning in November? Bluntly,
we got here by not having a united community
standing firmly with one candidate.
The process: In Philadelphia, the overwhelming
amount of voters registered are Democrats. If you
are one of the five Democrats nominated in the
May primary, usually that means you will win in
November. But there is this little law that gives
two other seats in Council to the minority party
candidates who, in the November election, finish
sixth and seventh, filling out the seven At-Large
OP-ED
seats on Council. Those two seats have always
been taken by Republicans. Cohen wishes to
upset that tradition by getting more votes as an
Independent than any of the Republicans running.
In Philadelphia, especially this year, Republicans
are not popular, and the public might just pull that
Independent ballot, especially if Cohen runs a
professional and well-financed campaign. But in
Philadelphia politics, there's always a twist.
Another group not allied with the Democratic
or Republican parties, known as Working Families
has also seen this opening and have put up a
campaign to try for those two minority seats. But
neither of their candidates are from the LGBT
community.
Here's how we got here: To run as an Indepen-
dent, you must not have filed to run in the May
primary, Cohen did, but withdrew. That was the
reason she was challenged and eventually won
in court. The Republicans brought the lawsuit,
but there was also a second person challenging
Cohen, another candidate who ran for Council in
the May primary, Deja Alvarez, who was the first
trans candidate. Alvarez, who many of us strongly
supported, was harassed on the campaign trail
by Cohen's campaign manager at the time. And
11
we
wanna
know
it was ugly. Afterward, her campaign manager
promptly resigned and Cohen dropped out of the National Coming Out
race. But now she is running as an Independent Day is Oct. 11. When and
and wants community support since it is possibly how did you come ‘out’?
a way to get an LGBT person on Council.
Cohen has been an instrumental part of this
community for decades. And the reality is that her
plan could work, but that's not a sure thing. The
Republicans will have some form of a working
political party in the field; The Working Families
group has shown exceptional organizing abilities, I didn’t
and then there is Cohen, now running as the only
LGBT person in the race. All of them are vying
for two minority seats.
The question is whether the community
embraces her or still has anger at the transphobia
of her campaign manager and her slowness in
reacting to it.
Alvarez, who was the target of that transphobia
and birtherism, has a right to her anger. When I was
This is something we will have to resolve 17, by
among ourselves through respectful dialogue. showing my
With only four weeks to go before the general mother the
election, it brings me to that first question, does film “Big
Sherri Cohen have a professional and well-fi- Eden.
nanced campaign? n

TRANSMISSIONS BY GWENDOLYN ANN SMITH

She/Her/Hers Fourteen,
“Do I contradict myself? pronouns upfront, we all have a lev- be a source of pain. most non-trans men and women and I just
Very well then I contradict myself, el playing field from the get-go, and In this way, the ideas behind might be offended by such a ques- told my
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)” we’re all included in the process. asking one’s pronouns can have the tion. They likely react negatively, mother who
— Walt Whitman “Song of Myself.” That’s good, right? exact opposite effect of what many as if you should be able to tell by told my
Well, maybe. hope to achieve with the upfront their appearance, their name and father.
I find myself grappling with an I lived a lie for many years, question. Rather than a tool of affir- their actions precisely what their
unusual contradiction — one I find having to present in a gender that mation designed to prevent me from pronouns are.
that, for me, has somewhat unique did not fit me. During those years, a feeling “othered,” it singles me out In short, they — like me — might
challenges that make finding a satis- completely different set of pronouns with laser-like precision, revealing find themselves responding to any
fying answer difficult. were applied to me, and those pro- any self-perceived shortcoming. inquiry about their pronouns with
Over the last few years, a move- nouns stood for everything wrong It becomes fuel for any lingering frustration. They might exclaim
ment has been afoot. Initially started with how I was seen in the world. dysphoria I may yet hold onto. just as vehemently as me that their Parent
by trans and nonbinary activists, I transitioned some time ago. That’s bad, right? gender should be obvious. weekend at
non-trans allies have now also took I feel largely accepted by those It’s hard to say. In short, this becomes all so very college in
up the mantle with a push to include within my gender, and all the years This notion of asking for pro- complicated — but that’s OK. 1991. It still
pronouns in introductions, online of sweat and toil — not to mention nouns, while catching on, is still If the goal is to normalize the feels like
biographies and elsewhere. medical bills — have paid off. For new. It is not yet a normalized process, then I, too, need to be part
yesterday.
Some events provide stickers and the most part, everyone can finally practice. of that normalization process. I am
buttons where one can easily declare see the person I always knew I was, One worry I have is that this is all not giving up any hard-won right
that their pronouns are “she/her,” without having to second guess. a trend in some circles, like a trans- to my gender by declaring my pro-
“they/them,” “zie/hir,” “he/him” and That, to me, is a big deal. Today gender-flag colored”ribbon mag- nouns, no more than any non-trans-
so on. — most of the time — everyone is net,” where one can show they are gender person is giving up anything
The goal of all this is simple: By on the same page as to who I am. a good ally without doing anything of their own by maintaining the follow us on instagram
to participate in our
normalizing the practice of asking So, it feels awkward and uncom- of substance to help nonbinary and same. We are merely giving voice to social polls and questions:
and/or declaring pronouns for ev- fortable when I find myself in a po- transgender people. I worry it may what is, to ourselves, obvious. @phillygaynews
eryone, transgender and nonbinary sition where, after all these years, I be yet another example of people Do I know if declaring pronouns
people will not feel othered when still have to clarify my pronouns for doing the literal least they can to try is ever going to be routinely accept-
they need to provide (or are asked people. I want to say scream, “Isn’t to bring true acceptance of trans and ed? Of course not. It may not even I don’t know. It might be both. It
about) their pronouns. it obvious?” when asked, as I was nonbinary people to the world. be something I’ll see in my lifetime, could even be neither. I simply do
Normalizing asking for pronouns for decades, what my pronouns are. I am sure, too, that it’s even given that people still fight over not have an answer I am entirely
seem like a good idea to me. I’ve I have to remind myself that those less a part of culture outside of gender-neutral terms like “flight happy with.
been in plenty of awkward situ- asking mean well and don’t mean to the relatively progressive circles I attendant” and gender-specific dress All I can say is this: it all seems
ations, as a trans woman, where cause pain. They may not know the tend to run in. It may be a lot less codes. These are fights I’ve seen worthwhile to explore. We can only
someone asks about my pronouns, years when such a question had a common in parts of the country and since the 1970s, and I’m sure date learn by trying. n
or where I have had to assert my sharpened edge, was wielded against world that still feel that men are back, in one form or another, much,
pronouns of choice — she/her/hers, me in challenge. The “wrong” an- from Mars and women from Venus, much further. Gwen Smith has grown accustomed
for those who might be wondering. swer back then would leave me open or whatnot. Is asking pronouns good? Is it to her pronouns. You’ll find her at
By having everyone declare their to mockery and derision, and could In those places, I suspect that bad? www.gwensmith.com
12
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will need to check your health regularly for several months.
ABOUT BIKTARVY
BIKTARVY is a complete, 1-pill, once-a-day prescription
medicine used to treat HIV-1 in adults. It can either be used in
people who have never taken HIV-1 medicines before, or people
who are replacing their current HIV-1 medicines and whose
healthcare provider determines they meet certain requirements.
BIKTARVY does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS. HIV-1 is the virus
that causes AIDS.
Do NOT take BIKTARVY if you also take a medicine
that contains:
} dofetilide
} rifampin
} any other medicines to treat HIV-1
BEFORE TAKING BIKTARVY
Tell your healthcare provider if you:
} Have or have had any kidney or liver problems, including
hepatitis infection.
} Have any other health problems.
} Are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if
BIKTARVY can harm your unborn baby. Tell your healthcare
provider if you become pregnant while taking BIKTARVY.
} Are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed. Do not
breastfeed. HIV-1 can be passed to the baby in breast milk.
Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines
you take:
} Keep a list that includes all prescription and over-the-counter
medicines, antacids, laxatives, vitamins, and herbal
supplements, and show it to your healthcare provider
and pharmacist.
} BIKTARVY and other medicines may affect each other. Ask
your healthcare provider and pharmacist about medicines
that interact with BIKTARVY, and ask if it is safe to take
BIKTARVY with all your other medicines.
Get HIV support by downloading a free app at
MyDailyCharge.com
BVYC0103_BIKTARVY_B_9-875x10-5_PhiladelphiaGayNews_KeepPushing1_r2v2jl.indd All Pages
PGN
Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com
(bik-TAR-vee)
POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS OF BIKTARVY
BIKTARVY may cause serious side effects, including:
} Those in the “Most Important Information About
BIKTARVY” section.
} Changes in your immune system. Your immune system
may get stronger and begin to fight infections. Tell your
healthcare provider if you have any new symptoms after
you start taking BIKTARVY.
} Kidney problems, including kidney failure. Your healthcare
provider should do blood and urine tests to check your
kidneys. If you develop new or worse kidney problems,
they may tell you to stop taking BIKTARVY.
} Too much lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), which
is a serious but rare medical emergency that can lead to
death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these
symptoms: weakness or being more tired than usual, unusual
muscle pain, being short of breath or fast breathing, stomach
pain with nausea and vomiting, cold or blue hands and feet,
feel dizzy or lightheaded, or a fast or abnormal heartbeat.
} Severe liver problems, which in rare cases can lead to death.
Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these
symptoms: skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow,
dark “tea-colored” urine, light-colored stools, loss of appetite
for several days or longer, nausea, or stomach-area pain.
} The most common side effects of BIKTARVY in clinical studies
were diarrhea (6%), nausea (6%), and headache (5%).
These are not all the possible side effects of BIKTARVY.
Tell your healthcare provider right away if you have any
new symptoms while taking BIKTARVY.
You are encouraged to report negative side effects of
prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.FDA.gov/medwatch,
or call 1-800-FDA-1088.
Your healthcare provider will need to do tests to monitor your
health before and during treatment with BIKTARVY.
HOW TO TAKE BIKTARVY
Take BIKTARVY 1 time each day with or without food.
GET MORE INFORMATION
} This is only a brief summary of important information about
BIKTARVY. Talk to your healthcare provider or pharmacist
to learn more.
} Go to BIKTARVY.com or call 1-800-GILEAD-5.
} If you need help paying for your medicine, visit BIKTARVY.com
for program information.
BIKTARVY, the BIKTARVY Logo, DAILY CHARGE, the DAILY CHARGE Logo, KEEP PUSHING, LOVE WHAT’S
INSIDE, GILEAD, and the GILEAD Logo are trademarks of Gilead Sciences, Inc., or its related companies.
Version date: December 2018 © 2019 Gilead Sciences, Inc. All rights reserved. BVYC0103 02/19
OCTOBER 11-17, 2019
PGN
13

KEEP
PUSHING.
Because HIV doesn’t change who you are.
BIKTARVY® is a complete, 1-pill, once-a-day prescription medicine used to treat
HIV-1 in certain adults. BIKTARVY does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS.
Ask your healthcare provider if BIKTARVY is right for you. To learn more,
visit BIKTARVY.com.

Please see Important Facts about BIKTARVY, including important

warnings, on the previous page and visit BIKTARVY.com.

10/7/19 11:38 AM
14 N AT I O N A L
Lesbians and bisexual women
Need help finding your
at higher risk for cancer and
Forever Home? substandard care
we offer: VICTORIA A. BROWNWORTH
PGN Contributor
Center City is awash in pink, from the lit
tops of the Rouse buildings to the fountains
at Logan Circle, highlighting that October is
Breast Cancer Awareness Month. But wom-
en who identify as lesbian and bisexual are
both at higher risk from breast cancer and
have a lower likelihood of getting the same
standard of care as their heterosexual peers.
Gated community Single Family Two stories Two years ago, Dani Simmons was di-
agnosed with stage two breast cancer. “No
one thinks of ‘luck’ when it comes to can-
cer,” Simmons explained. “But I was lucky.”
Simmons had been shopping for sports bras
with a friend, and the saleswoman discov-
ered a small lump at the side of Simmons’
breast while fitting her. “It was devastating,”
she said. “The saleswoman
“Couple” sized Ranch “Tiny Homes” for the was so apologetic. I told
style dwellings carbon footprint folks her: ‘Hey, you probably
just saved my life.’”
Simmons said she never
did breast self-exams. “I
just never really thought
about it,” she admitted.
Simmons also rarely saw a
doctor because she felt un-
comfortable with sharing
her sexual orientation with
each new provider. “The
Subterranean 1&2 High Rise Condo’s questions on the forms all
level temperature with Granite entry presume you are straight —
controlled units Foyer they always lead with birth
Over 135 lush manicured acres, control and could you be
pregnant. I just don’t feel like I should have
Welcoming to the LGBTQ community, to educate people in healthcare that lesbians
0% Financing available, No monthly mainte- exist, too.”
Yet lesbians like Simmons are at greater
nance fees, No taxes, No utility bills! risk for breast cancer than their heterosex-
ual counterparts, according to the American
Cancer Society. The ACS cites fear of dis-
crimination, low rates of health insurance
and negative experiences with healthcare
providers among the risk factors for lesbian
and bisexual women. Also cited are fewer
early pregnancies, higher levels of substance
abuse and fewer annual check-ups and can-
cer screenings.
A new study published in the Journal of
Clinical Oncology details the results of a
survey of oncologists at the National Cancer
Institute and their attitudes about LGBTQ
Arlington Cemetery patients with cancer. Fewer than 40 per-
cent of the 450 oncologists surveyed said
they were adequately equipped or informed
(610) 259 - 5800 to treat a cancer patient who identifies as
www.arlingtoncemetery.us LGBTQ. While two-thirds thought knowing
2900 State Road a patient’s gender identity was important,
Drexel Hill, PA fewer than a third thought knowing their sex-
ual orientation was.
CONTACT JOE LUCCI FOR A SHOWING! Dr. Penelope Damaskos, director of social
work at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer
jlucci@arlingtoncemetery.us Center, said there isn’t adequate explanation
of how “such a diverse group of people as
Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com
lesbians” is at higher cancer risk, but that,
“a real problem is how we outreach to the
LGBT population about cancer risk, espe-
cially images displayed at walks, awareness
activities and so forth. It is a very heteronor-
mative type of imagery.”
Damaskos said, “Many lesbians don’t see
themselves reflected in those images and, in
turn, might not see themselves at risk. If they
do not perceive themselves at risk, and it is
not being reflected back to them, they may
opt out of these services. “
A study by Ulrike Boehmer, a Boston Uni-
versity School of Public Health researcher
who studies health disparities in LGBT peo-
ple, revealed that women who identify as les-
bian, gay, or bisexual also have less access to
care after cancer treatment compared to het-
erosexual women. Published in the medical
journal Cancer, Boehmer’s
study explains that care pa-
tients receive post-cancer
is critical to prevent recur-
rences, detect early warning
signs and screen for long-
term effects of cancer treat-
ments. As a consequence,
the study found LGB wom-
en have a reduced physical
and mental quality of life
post-cancer.
“LGB women were the
most disadvantaged,” Boeh-
mer said. She also said the
lack of enough data about
LGBTQ people with cancer
means “There might be an
epidemic going on that we’re not aware of.”
Data collection and LGBTQ health as-
sessments are essential to understanding the
breadth of cancer in the LGBTQ community.
On Oct. 7, Pennsylvania’s Bradbury-Sullivan
LGBT Community Center received the 2019
Breast Cancer Community Partner Award
from the Pennsylvania Commission on Wom-
en for its work assessing cancer needs in the
LGBTQ community. Pennsylvania Secretary
of Health Rachel Levine recognized the Cen-
ter, a hopeful sign for Pennsylvania’s LGBT
community in this battle for competent can-
cer care.
Renowned breast cancer expert and lesbi-
an healthcare advocate Dr. Susan Love, has
been working toward locating the causes of
breast cancer for many years through the Dr.
Susan Love Research Foundation. For Love,
the message is simple: “Breast cancer should
be a concern of everyone.”
Love said the disease cuts across the com-
munity and that “Breast cancer is not only
common in lesbians who have not been preg-
nant, but also in trans people on hormones. It
is time to figure out the cause and prevent it
once and for all.” n
ACS Cancer helpline: 1-800-227-2345
OCTOBER 11-17, 2019
PGN
15
16
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*Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Because life is
more than just gay
news.
LOCAL
Philadelphia’s beloved Outfest is here
• Partnership & business disputes
• Non-competes
• Executive compensation
• Employment discrimination
• Real Estate Litigation
• Wills, Living Wills, Trusts and Powers of Attorney
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MICHELE ZIPKIN
(215) 467-3335 PGN Contributor
Pa. HIC #026545 The largest National Coming Out Day
event will be held in the streets of Phila-
Phila. Lic. #17895 delphia for the 29th year. On Oct.13 from
“Our” noon to 7 p.m, spanning 12 square blocks
of the Gayborhood, the beloved block party
Family Plumber known as Outfest features drag shows, DJs,
contests, food and drinks.
for over 30 years The bulk of the attractions can be found
on 12th and 13th Streets between Walnut
and Spruce, with over 170 participating
vendors, organizations and bars, like Tabu
and Toasted Walnut. Some 30 local health
organizations will also set up shop, and free
STD and HIV testing will be available, in-
cluding from the AIDS Healthcare Founda-
tion. A family zone will be available with
activities for kids, including a moon bounce
and face-painting, as well as an adopt-a-pet
zone for animal-lovers.
“Outfest is everybody’s favorite,” said
Franny Price, Executive Director of Philly
Pride Presents, organizers of Outfest and
the Philadelphia Pride Parade. “We try to
make sure that we fill the needs of all the
members of our community.”
Outfest’s annual OutProud Awards con-
sist of several honors; some of the award
recipients include Bob Skiba, curator of the
Wilcox Archives at the William Way LGBT
Community Center, among other things;
Law Professor Lee Carpenter and local ju-
dicial candidate Tiffany Palmer and family;
19-year-old self-published poet and author
Shawn Hazzard, and others. Michael Byrne
will grace the crowd with the classic: “It’s a
Beautiful Day in the Gayborhood.”
Soul singer and Broadway vet Frenchie
Davis will headline the main stage enter-
tainment at 13th and Locust Streets, and
Philly’s own Henri David will act as mas-
ter of ceremonies. Performers include Mr.
Philly Gay Pride Hannibal Lickher, Miss
Philly Gay Pride Karen Vonsay, and in-
ARTS & CULTURE house performers from Woody’s, Tabu,
Ubar and Tavern on Camac, Toasted Wal-
nut, Boxers and Bob & Barbara’s, as well
Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com
as Northeast Royals, Mikal Woods and the
Royals Band Dance Line, a jazz and urban
movement dance group.
Those with a competitive edge can partic-
ipate in the famous penis-shaped bagel-eat-
ing contest, high heel race or the hula-hoop
contest led by the talented Jennifer Alvarez.
“She grabs people out of the audience, and
they come up on stage,” Price said. “People
look forward to it.”
Dozens of local LGBT nonprofits such as
GALAEI, ACLU of PA, Philadelphia Voic-
es of Pride and the LGBT Equality Alliance
will have tables set up with giveaways, pro-
gram information and trivia games — in
some cases.
“It’s always a good time,” said Cele-
na Morrison, director of programs at the
William Way LGBT Community Center.
“Folks are scantily dressed; some folks are
dressed up in their wildest costumes. It’s a
day where folks feel free to kind of let their
hair down and embrace their identity and
who they are.”
William Way will have a table with
snacks, condoms, lubricants and informa-
tion about the center’s programming.
DJs will have booths outside of partici-
pating Gayborhood bars, and Tabu will set
up a TV screen outside so sports fans can
catch the football game.
The ACLU of Pennsylvania will have a
table with Know Your Rights civil liberties
information and trivia focusing on constitu-
tional rights.
“Part of the games is to gauge where
LGBT competency is, specifically around
their rights,” said Trans Justice Coordina-
tor at the ACLU of PA Naiymah Sanchez.
“This year, what happens in the Supreme
Court will really gauge what levels we take
this Know Your Rights information to.”
Sanchez said she wants the table to be
engaging and fit the atmosphere of Out-
fest. “We know that when you’re going to
Outfest, you want to party,” she said. So,
when planning for the table, page
she asked herself, “How can I
37
OCTOBER 11-17, 2019
PGN
17
18
SCOTUS hears arguments in LGBT discrimination cases
VICTORIA A. BROWNWORTH
PGN Contributor
Hundreds of LGBTQ people gathered
in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on Oct.
8, the morning before the hearings of three
employment discrimination cases consid-
ering whether firing gay and transgender
people for their sexual orientation or gender
identity goes against Title VII.
Blue and yellow HRC flags, rainbow flags
and a blue and pink trans flag and signs sent
messages like “We Will Not Go Back” and
“Protect LGBT Workers Now.”
The nine justices heard the cases of Bos-
tock v. Clayton County, Altitude Express v.
Zarda and Harris Funeral Homes v. EEOC.
Each case hinges on Title VII of the 1964
Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employ-
ers from discriminating against employees
based on sex. Since the retirement of Jus-
tice Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the rul-
ings in the three most significant wins for
lesbian and gay people in 1993, 2013 and
2015, these are the first major LGBT cas-
es to come before the U.S. Supreme Court
(SCOTUS).
In the opening cases, Gerald Bostock, a
Georgia child-welfare-services coordinator
and Donald Zarda, an instructor for a sky-
diving company, contend that they were
fired because they are gay. Zarda died in a
skydiving accident in 2014, but his estate
60+ Shops, Restaurants, Inn, & Indoor Fun Center
N AT I O N A L
has continued his case. Stanford law pro-
fessor Pamela Karlan represented both par-
ties. Attorney Jeffrey Harris represented the
employers.
The third case addressed gender identi-
ty. Aimee Stephens, former funeral director
for Harris Funeral Homes, was fired in 2013
when she told her employer she was begin-
ning the process of transitioning, planned
on having gender-affirmation surgery and
would be wearing the company’s female
attire going forward. The EEOC previous-
ly won her case. Defending the case was
David Cole of the ACLU. Arguing for the
funeral home was John Bursch.
A third party — the Trump administra-
tion — provided yet another argument. U.S.
Solicitor General Noel Francisco appeared
as a “friend of the court” to argue for the
employers in all three cases against the gay
and trans plaintiffs.
Francisco’s presence exemplifies the
concerted efforts by the Trump administra-
tion to thwart LGBTQ civil rights. It was
the federal government — the Equal Em-
ployment Opportunity Commission — that
argued for and won Stephens’ initial case
against the funeral home. Francisco was
effectively representing the federal gov-
ernment while arguing against the federal
government.
The arguments were long and at times,
contentious. Critical voices for the conser-
vatives were Chief Justice John Roberts
and Justices Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Ali-
to. The most vociferous among the liberal
justices were Elena Kagan and Stephen
Breyer, both of whom pushed back against
Harris and Francisco repeatedly.
Karlan faced questions from all sides
as to how Title VII could be interpreted to
cover sexual orientation. Justice Ruth Bad-
er Ginsburg noted that in 1964, when the
Civil Rights Act passed, homosexuality
was still considered a mental illness. Kar-
lan countered that Title VII has repeatedly
been interpreted to include changing social
mores and also now includes sexual harass-
ment, which did not exist as a term or legal
argument in 1964.
Karlan’s most succinct argument was that
the court should rule based on the words of
Title VII “as they were understood then,
which is ‘men’ and ‘women.’ Title VII
was intended to make sure that men were
not disadvantaged relative to women, and
women were not disadvantaged relative to
men.”
Gorsuch, a staunch traditionalist, argued
that if a person is fired because of their sex-
ual orientation, that person’s sex is at least
a “contributing cause.” This leads LGBTQ
advocates to think he might lean toward the
plaintiffs. Still, Gorsuch expressed concern
about “massive social upheaval” if the court
ruled in favor of the plaintiffs.
October 12 & 13
Delicious food • Music and fun
Beer, wine, and spirits garden
Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com
Roberts, who has been an occasional
swing voter on social issues, wondered if
the court was superseding the role of Con-
gress. He also worried about how a decision
might impact religious organizations. Alito
seemed skeptical that the workers had cases
at all.
Kagan argued that the language of Ti-
tle VII “pretty firmly” backs gay workers’
claims.
Bursch was concerned about how the
case would affect bathroom rules, trans
women participating in women’s sports and
trans women running domestic violence
shelters for women.
Breyer dismissed Bursch, calling his list
“a parade of horribles.” He said, “We are
deciding simply whether discrimination
against transgender people falls within Ti-
tle VII’s ban on discrimination ‘because of
sex.’”
One of the critical points in the arguments
came when Francisco asserted that if the
SCOTUS found for the plaintiffs, it would
render a “complete victory to one side,” and
would not address the issue of religious ob-
jections to hiring LGBT employees.
Francisco raised the 2015 Obergefell v.
Hodges case that legalized same-sex mar-
riage. He claimed that the majority opinion
stated that “good and decent people” may
object to same-sex marriage
on religious grounds. page 37
11 a.m. - 5 p.m.
PeddlersVillage.com
OCTOBER 11-17, 2019
PGN
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20
BALLROOM from page 5
Ferragamo. As time passed, more people start-
ed houses or established chapters of east coast
houses that originated in cities like Washing-
ton, D.C. and New York City.
As many Los Angeles ballroom participants
started with the House of Rodeo or House of
Ferragamo, Milan told PGN, the city’s scene
has a smaller, community-focused feel com-
pared to east coast locales.
“There’s ... this certain sense of family and
togetherness that everyone has because we
don’t have as many functions as other states
may have, especially like New York,” said Mi-
lan, now known as Legendary Sean Milan Gar-
con, member of the House of Garcon, which
was established in Los Angeles about a decade
ago when the unit made its way west from
Washington, D.C.
At the turn of the 21st century, younger
ball participants “developed their own scene,”
known as “Kiki balls,” Omni said. These
next-generation, mini-balls give youth a safe
space to practice and gain exposure.
Ballroom star Tommy “Dee” Murphy is
credited with engineering a color-coded, time-
line-based system for chronicling the decades
of house-structured balls, Omni said. It kicks
off with the inaugural White Era that spanned
the 1970s and first half of the ‘80s. Next came
the Red Era, running 1985-90, and the Black
Era of the early ’90s.
“You never knew what you were going to
get,” Omni, who entered the ballroom scene at
16, said of early ball performers. “They gave
you magical acts.”
H I S T O RY
The evolution of
Philadelphia’s ball scene
Walking along Philadelphia’s streets, pass-
ersby will likely pass the sites of balls — past
and present — held at a myriad of unexpected
locations.
During the early 1990s, the since-shuttered
Nile Bar in the Gayborhood served as “ball-
room headquarters,” Davis said. Today, the
1301 Locust Street building houses a restau-
rant and children’s activity center, leaving the
ball community without a dedicated main ven-
ue.
“People just rent space out wherever they
can find space, wherever they can afford space
depending on their budget,” Davis explained.
C o u r t e s y R e a c h L A P h o t o b y I g g y.
“That’s how [it is] now in the new millenni-
um.”
The Onyx Ball — the first ball in Philadel-
phia — took place in August 1989. The event,
which celebrated its 30th anniversary this year
at the Lithuanian Music Hall, was named af-
ter its organizer Michael Gaskins, late moth-
er of the House of Onyx and the person who
launched ballroom in Philadelphia.
In the scene’s early days, balls kicked off at
5 a.m. Sunday mornings and ended at noon,
Davis told PGN. Since, that’s shifted. Balls
now start Saturdays around 8 p.m. and run un-
til 4 a.m.
Roughly 10 active houses light up the the
Philadelphia scene today.
Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com
In 1995, Davis created the annual Dorian
Cory Awards Ball to encourage positive sup-
port of the ballroom community. The ceremo-
ny is akin to the community’s “Grammys and
Oscars,” Davis told PGN, and the biggest ball
held in Philadelphia.
“All the different parents and houses are
nominated. People will nominate the different
categories like ‘vogue of the year,’” he said.
“All the balls throughout the whole year go
through a process and we select people from
all those balls to be nominated for different cat-
egories. That’s our red carpet event.”
Next year rings in various anniversaries in
the city’s scene. The 25th-annual Dorian Cory
Awards Ball is slated for Feb. 1, while the
House of Prestige will celebrate its 30th active
year in June during Gay Pride Week.
“It’s gotten a lot of new, young leaders who
made a lot of young people become responsi-
ble, become leaders, to create new ideals, to
set their own path and how they would want to
see their legacy,” Davis said of the city’s evolv-
ing ballroom culture. “I always tell people you
have to remember where you came from and
where ballroom came from, but it’s all right to
evolve and come up with new ideas, new sug-
gestions.”
Creating safe spaces
When Bowman entered ballroom, he said he
found a lot of people who looked and talked
like him.
“It was just a safe space of where my fem-
ininity or my different way of
thinking or way of talking, my page 22
OCTOBER 11-17, 2019
PGN
21

experience
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22 H I S T O RY
BALLROOM from page 20
BE A CASA CHAMPION! body gestures, my movements, were celebrat-
ed,” Bowman said. “It definitely created that
safe space because it’s true that you can be who
you want to be. You can be whatever it is that
you want to be.”
As a world “built on the backs of Afri-
can-American trans women,” Davis said the
ballroom world has historically created a haven
for trans people and folks of color, especially
those experiencing hardships like homeless-
ness or being cast out by biological families
because of their LGBTQ identities.
“It is imperative that we form a unified fel-
lowship of brothers and sisters, especially our
HELP HER
trans sisters, battling the true enemies of our
oppressed communities, which also include
racism, HIV, homophobia, discrimination and
SEE A
other social misfortunes,” Davis added. “It’s
always been a safe space.”
Bowman introduced Richard LaBoy, an Af-
BRIGHTER
ro-Latino out gay man to the ballroom scene
when LaBoy was in 10th grade at Central High
School in North Philadelphia. At the time,
FUTURE.
LaBoy was in and out of youth shelters. He de-
scribes ballroom as “definitely a community”
and “definitely a family.”
“Ballroom started in the early ‘70s because
a lot of people of color specifically from com-
munities and cities were kicked out of their
homes, like me, for being gay,” said LaBoy,
now 35. “I came out and didn’t have a lot of
places to go. Ballroom actually is one of the
places that accepted me, and it accepted a lot
of people since its founding.”
Beyond creating a sense of belonging, ball-
room provides an escape from current and
political events, like the riots that broke out in
Los Angeles during the 1990s surrounding the
beating of Black motorist Rodney King by city
police.
N ationwide, LGBTQ youth are overrepresented in the foster care
system. In fact, according to a recent study*, more than 30%
of youth in care identify as LGBTQ, compared to about 11% of the
“People would come to ballroom to escape
those things,” Milan said. “So then when you
get into ballroom, it’s like it doesn’t really ex-
ist. … People don’t, a lot of time, bring their
general youth population. religious or political views into the scene.”
Abused and neglected children in the child welfare system fare The AIDS epidemic and
better when they have a volunteer Court Appointed Special beyond
Advocate to stand by their side. Serving as a CASA volunteer Omni estimates he’s lost more than 600
friends in the ballroom scene to AIDS.
champion is a journey that will shape the future of a young
“There was a period of my life where I just
person’s life while changing your own. continuously had to go to funerals,” Omni said.
In 2012, he launched the Kevin Omni Burrus
Our next volunteer information sessions are on Tuesday, Oct. 15, Funeral/Burial Fund to offset funeral costs of
9:30 am-10:30 am in West Chester, PA and Thursday, Oct. 17 at those in the community. From 1989-91, Omni
5:30 pm in Media, Pennsylvania. helped organize The Love Ball, a fundraiser
event for the Design Industries Foundation
Fighting AIDS, a nonprofit that provides pre-
To register, visit DelcoCASA
DelcoCASA
CASA.org
.org or ventive education and advocacy for people im-
call 610-565-2208. pacted by HIV or AIDS.
Many of Davis’ ballroom friends who he
came out with during the 1980s also died from
AIDS, “a scary thing” that was “just taking
people out of here,” Davis said.
“I remember a friend telling me he was pos-
itive and two months later, he was dead,” he
added. “It was a scary feeling, especially when
a lot of people became close within ballroom
and … these people became family. To see all
your family disappearing and dying, or people
[who] couldn’t handle the HIV epidemic and
CASA Youth Advocates, Inc. serving Delaware & Chester Counties, Pennsylvania
were committing suicide.”
* Pediatrics, March 2019, Volume 143 / Issue 3 “LGBTQ Youth in Unstable Housing and Foster Care”
Davis also serves on a Community Advisory
Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com
Board at the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn
Center for AIDS Research, acting as a liaison
between the college and ballroom community
about research, trials and workshops.
LaBoy, an executive member of the House of
Miyake-Mugler, is a clinical research assistant
in the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s
Adolescent Medicine Department, where he
works on the POSSE Project. The health inter-
vention service aims to reduce risky behaviors
among LGBTQ youth in Philadelphia’s house
and ballroom communities.
“Ballroom has not only been extracurricular
for me, but where I get my passion and my drive
from doing HIV prevention work,” LaBoy said,
“because at the end of the day, this community
is unfortunately still being affected.”
Data indicates that young members of the
ballroom community are poised to be some
of the most impacted by new cases of HIV. In
2017, youth ages 13-24 accounted for 21 per-
cent of new HIV diagnoses in the United States,
according to the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention. The same year, Black people
and African-Americans made up 13 percent of
the nation’s population, but 43 percent of new
diagnoses. Within this, 73 percent of new cases
in the Black community occurred in men.
Many ballroom houses collaborate with
LGBTQ organizations to provide HIV testing
at the competitions, which Davis said is espe-
cially important for young participants who
may disproportionately experience homeless-
ness.
On top of the ongoing fight to thwart HIV
and AIDS, Davis said two other issues impact
the ball community: the murders of trans wom-
en across the country and an increase in crystal
meth use.
“We need more people getting involved in
mental health,” Davis said, adding, “If peo-
ple are depressed and stressed … they’re not
going to take their HIV medicine; they’re not
thinking about that. When people are on crystal
meth, they’ll be high for three or four days, so
that’s three or four days that they’re off their
medications.”
Promoting health and well-
ness for the next generation
Rooted in a decades-long tradition of pro-
moting health and wellness in the queer com-
munity, the Kiki ball offshoot largely grew out
of social gatherings hosted by LGBTQ organi-
zations that connected young ball community
members to health services.
Milan works as the social engagement and
arts program manager at REACH LA, a youth
organization founded in 1992 in response to
a lack of HIV/AIDS prevention education
for young people of color. In 2006, to better
address the health disparities in underserved
communities of color, Milan worked with the
group to found the Ovahness Ball, now the lon-
gest-running and largest ball on the west coast,
he said.
LGBTQ young adults have a 120-percent
higher chance of experiencing homelessness
than their straight, cis peers, according to a
2017 University of Chicago report. Twenty per-
cent of trans people have experienced home-
lessness at some point, the National Center for
Transgender Equality indicates.
To address such issues, page 35
OCTOBER 11-17, 2019
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OCTOBER 11-17, 2019
H I S T O RY
25
GLF from page 8 “Maybe I threw the second brick.” But what people
of Stonewall. don’t realize is that Sylvia and Marsha did something Legal & Professional Directory
And that first year, create we did: the first Gay much more important than simply toss a brick and be
Youth, the first trans organization, STAR, the first part of a crowd in a riot. They created a sustainable
LGBT Community Center, on West 3rd Street, the organization where there had been none before, the
world’s first trans organization, Street Transvestite
When It PARTNERS IN LAW
PARTNERS IN LIFE
first demonstrations against media and police and a
continual public presence as we took back our streets. Action Revolutionaries, which was a committee of Comes To
We appeared on TV and spoke on radio, and Gay
Youth even spoke in high schools. We attended an-
Gay Liberation Front, formed during the GLF occu-
pation of NYU’s Weinstein Hall. It was Gay Libera-
Your Money…
ti-war marches and leafleted almost every night. We tion Front’s LGBT Community Center that became Experience
held public meetings, and we held dances during a
time when it was illegal to do so, and we advertised
STAR’S first home for homeless trans people. And
Marsha and Sylvia did it without public funds, train-
Counts
them to show our resistance daring the police, the pol- ing or programs. They created Star House, funded Serving our LGBT Community
iticians and organized crime to stop us. This was not by contributions from GLF and GY, and with GLF for over a decade.
MINSTER & FACCIOLO, LLC
simply a movement, but rather an entire community members doing carpentry and electric work to make • Retirement Income Planning
being created. And that is what we celebrated on that their new home habitable. In doing so, GLF began to • Investment Management • WILLS & ESTATES •
first anniversary: resistance and building communi- create and shape a community that would offer re- • Estate Planning
• DISCRIMINATION •
sources for its most disenfranchised. • SMALL BUSINESS •
ty where there was none before. While those people • Insurance and Annuities
There was no segment of society that didn’t feel • DIVORCE •
who marched in Philadelphia were brave to do so, 2018 Five Star Wealth Manager • EMPLOYMENT •
they failed in creating a movement, an identity or an GLF’s presence that first year after Stonewall. With Philadelphia Magazine • REAL ESTATE •
inclusive community. Gay demonstrations, disruptions Award details at www.fivestarprofessional.com
• CIVIL ACTIONS •
Liberation Front did. and sit-ins, we fought back Jeremy R. Gussick, MBA • AUTO ACCIDENTS •
Even though we didn’t against media silence, police CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ • POWER OF ATTORNEY •
know it at the time, Stone- oppression and the disdain
wall was the start of Gay of universities. We did so by 856-452-0060 • PRE-NUP AGREEMENTS•
Liberation Front. The peo- creating a grassroots, inclu- jeremy.gussick@lpl.com 215-627-8200 PA
ple who wrote on the streets sive and community-wide 302-777-2201 DE
and walls that first night, the campaign. We would no 521 S. 2ND ST., PHILA., PA
people who created the sec- longer accept a segregated A Registered Investment Advisor Member FINRA/SIPC
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ond, third and fourth nights, or isolated movement, so we
were the founders of Gay joined forces and marched to
Liberation Front. The people free Angela Davis, a black
who spoke from the steps of activist. We marched with Small businesses
Stonewall were the founders the Young Lords, who fought can afford special
of Gay Liberation Front. The against the oppression of the
people who did the leafleting and that first march Latino community, and the women of Gay Liberation attention in our PGN
three weeks later were the founders of Gay Libera- Front were major voices in the women’s movement. directories.
tion Front. We made sure to speak to the straight community as
Stonewall was not one night, or two, or six. Stone- often as we could and allied with as many who would
wall was one year — a year of building a community have us. One of my fondest memories as a member
and a sustainable movement. There were people at of Gay Youth was going to speak at Oceanside Se- Spaces this size are
Stonewall who passed by, people who craned their nior High School with Tony Russamono and Doug only $50 per week
necks from around the corner watching, people who Carver. The school newspaper, The Spider Press (a
tossed a stone and ran since the police chased people copy which is now among the Smithsonian’s papers), when you run for a
up and down the street, but the spirit of resistance that wrote the front-page headline: “Gay Activist Lecture: minimum of 8 weeks.
gave birth to the new movement was all Gay Libera- They are not Neurotic.
tion Front. We didn’t leave Stonewall after one night. In 1970, the people who had marched in Philadel-
It’s often stated that we were so radical we were phia from 1965 to 1969 wanted to do the same old
dysfunctional. That statement couldn’t be more true. thing again. But those of us in New York wanted no
Gay Liberation Front had no permanent chairperson. part of it. We didn’t want the status quo. We wanted

A stick was tossed at the beginning of the meeting,
and whoever caught it was the chair. We had no Rob-
ert’s Rules of Order and no officers. Everything had
to be decided by consensus, and we debated every is-
sue passionately in order to define ourselves because
we refused to allow society to define us any longer.
We debated everything, including masculinity and
white privilege, though that wasn’t the term used at
the time. We fought hard amongst ourselves. We even
took in stride the ever-present shadow of the FBI and
NYPD undercover agents. You often heard one mem-
ber say to another, speak into the coffee can, since we
knew we were bugged or had informants, and it turns
pgn
to resist the status quo, and that is what we marched
for. This was a gay liberation march, not a plea for
acceptance. The title said it all: “Christopher Street
Gay Liberation Day March.” That proposal was pre-
sented by Ellen Broidy, a member of Gay Liberation
Front, along with Craig Rodwell and Fred Sargeant.
Gay Pride was Born.
With the close of that first year between Stonewall
and CSGLD, there was now a community in place. SEE PAGE 4 FOR ADVERTISING INQUIRIES
And it wasn’t just in New York. Chapters of the Gay
Liberation Front popped up in most major cities, as
did Gay Youth organizations. In Los Angeles, they
created a West Coast version of the CSGLD march

out we were correct.
So who threw that first brick at Stonewall? The
idea that whoever threw the first brick started the
movement is a strong one, and if that is the crite-
ria, then the person who threw the first brick was a
trans person at the Compton’s Riots in San Francis-
co. In the case of Stonewall, popular culture wants
to believe it was either Sylvia Rivera or Marsha P.
Johnson throwing the brick. Marsha has stated on the
record that she didn’t arrive until 2 a.m., long after
the rioting had started. Sylvia has also jokingly said,
pgn
committee, and as far as London the new movement
was felt. That break from those Philadelphia marches
was complete and a new movement had been born.
From less than 100 marching in Philadelphia in 1969,
Gay Liberation Front had inspired a national move-
ment now in the tens of thousands across the country
in just one year.
During the life of Gay Liberation Front, we fought
the former leadership in our community. The closet-
ed LGBT middle class wanted nothing
to do with us since our motto, as the page 26
26 H I S T O RY
Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com

GLF from page 25

addicted. Call Now at: (866) 247-3307

WWW. P R OV I D E N C E T R E AT M E N T
T.C
.CO M
famous poster stated, was “COME OUT.” At
that time, 99 percent of our community was
not ready to come out. We were. But we had

professionals. our disagreements. Infighting in the organiza-

tion caused a split and created Gay Activists
Alliance, which became popular with histo-

treatment. rians since it went back to those respectable

looking homosexuals that they preferred rep-
resent our community, and which consisted
overwhelmingly of white men. They didn’t
want those of us in Gay Liberation Front who
were drag, youth, street kids and every shade
of radicalism. Want to see the difference be-
tween Gay Liberation Front and Gay Activ-
ists Alliance? Simply Google a photo of Gay
Activist Alliance meetings and note the ocean
of cisgender white men. Sadly, Gay Libera-
tion Front’s inclusive community was not to
be seen again for a long time. Our community
returned once again to assimilation.
But here is the simple fact. The commu-
nity and equality movement we have today
was built by Gay Liberation Front. From its
LGBTQ Addiction Recovery Group | Thursdays @6 PM | Center City Location earliest achievements creating the nation’s
first gay youth organization, trans organiza-
tions and the first Gay Pride, GLF members
went on to become the founders of PFLAG
and Lambda Legal. They founded the Cal-
len-Lorde Clinic, an episodic care program
housing the nation’s first community-based
HIV clinic, and The Rainbow Book Fair, the
longest-running LGBT book fair and largest
LGBT book event in the country. They found-
C E N T E R C I T Y • M A I N L I N E • D E L AWA R E C O U N T Y
ed the Gay Press Association, the nation’s
first LGBT media organization. They were
builders of the first federally funded afford-
able housing for LGBT seniors and the first
to work with elected officials to create LGBT
liaison commissions in state and city govern-

CONSIDERING DENTAL IMPLANTS ?

ment. Our members stormed lived TV shows
to end our community’s invisibility long be-
fore Ellen Degeneres or “Will and Grace.” We
went on to organize the first international Gay
Youth Conference, the first national LGBT
University Student Conference. Members of
Gay Youth went on to be founding members
of the House of Extravaganza. Identity House,
one of the first LGBT peer counseling organi-
zations, counts among its co-founders a GLF
member. Identity House and debates on Phil
Donahue by GLF members were a major fac-
tor that led to the American Psychological As-
sociation changing its nomenclature. Others
in GLF were and still are the leading writers
on sexual politics. And another member was a
leader of The Advocate and Out for 33 years.
There is one thing that stands above all
else. All of us were out. All of us were un-
afraid to be brave and define ourselves how
we wanted. All of us were steadfast in wad-
COMPLI ME NTARY CONSULTATIONS ing through the unknown and piecing togeth-
er what we felt we deserved as a community.
King of Prussia Periodontics & Implants Gay Liberation Front laid the foundation for
what we as a community are today. There has
never been another organization in the LGBT
1O112 VALLEY FORGE CIRCLE, KING OF PRUSSIA, PA 194O6 community that has successfully met its

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core goals so well. We created a community
where there was none before. We showed the
world that LGBT PEOPLE GET TO tell our
own story. AND THIS YEAR THE MEM-
www.kopperio.com BERS OF GLF CLAIMED OUR RIGHT-
FUL PLACE IN THE STORY OF OUR
COMMUNITY. n
OCTOBER 11-17, 2019
LOCAL
27
COHEN from page 1
for a seat on City Council as an Indepen-
dent candidate in the general election after
having relinquished her primary run as a
Democrat. Fletman said Cohen withdrew
too late as a Democrat to run as an In-
dependent. Last month, Commonwealth
Court upheld Fletman’s ruling. But Cohen
asked the state Supreme Court to reverse
the lower-court rulings, which it did.
An opinion explaining the high court’s
reasoning hadn’t been released, as of
presstime.
According to Pennsylvania’s election
code, if a candidate withdraws within
15 days after the deadline for filing their
nomination petition, they don’t need a
judge’s approval. If they withdraw af-
ter the 15-day deadline, they do need a
judge’s approval.
Cohen withdrew after the 15-day dead-
line and thus obtained a judge’s approval.
Court cases in Pennsylvania have al-
lowed candidates who voluntarily with-
draw from a primary to run in the general
election as an Independent. But if their
withdrawal is involuntary because they’re
stricken from the ballot due to some type
of error, they’re disqualified from running
as an Independent.
Cohen, a lesbian, withdrew from the
primary race after her former campaign
manager made negative comments about
Deja Alvarez’s ancestry during a Trans
Day of Visibility celebration. Alvarez and
Christopher Volger filed a petition in Au-
gust asking Cohen be removed the general
election ballot.
In court papers, Cohen faulted Fletman
and Commonwealth Court for treating her
withdrawal as involuntary because a judge
had to give permission. Cohen argued that
getting a judge’s permission to withdraw
doesn’t make the withdrawal any less vol-
untary. Cohen also faulted Fletman and
Commonwealth Court for appearing to
place her in the same category as some-
one who’s been stricken from the ballot
against their will.
“[Fletman and Commonwealth Court]
seemed to bend over backwards to devel-
op a rationale to keep Sherrie Cohen off
the ballot,” Cohen’s appeal stated.
Moreover, Cohen’s appeal blasted Flet-
man for allowing lengthy court testimony
about Cohen’s reasons for withdrawing.
Cohen argued that her reasons for vol-
untarily withdrawing are irrelevant to the
case.
Cohen researched the law before decid-
ing to withdraw and believed she could
run as an Independent. She subsequently
collected 8,300 signatures from Philadel-
phians who support her candidacy. “If the
law is to be changed, it would be unfair to
apply these changes to [Cohen] due to the
above discussed existing law,” her appeal
stated.
Louis S. Agre, an attorney for Alvarez,
said, “I’m very surprised that the lower
courts were reversed. I haven’t seen the
opinion yet. As far as I’m concerned, it’s
over. Let the voters decide whether Sher-
rie Cohen should be elected. ” n
28 PGN
Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com

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Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com
OCTOBER 11-17, 2019
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32 H I S T O RY
Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com

LGBT BOOKSTORES from page 4 commentary of other gay and lesbian writers. I would
Health and Wellness Directory the staff was acquitted. During a pre-trial hearing, the not be who I am without those voices, those closely
leader of the operation admitted that officers were giv- watching eyes, those critical and understanding per-
en guidelines to confiscate work dealing with homo- spectives,” said Allison.
sexuality. In the mid-’90s, as the first HIV drug cocktails
Such seizures, which relied on archaic customs laws, emerged, chain booksellers like Borders had spread
Advertise your business happened to bookstores in other countries, including across the country and, coveting a foothold in a bur-
Glad Day and Little Sister’s Bookstore in Vancouver geoning market, opened gay and lesbian sections in
in our directories — both took their cases through Canadian courts. The their stores. Their augmentation caused the number
censorship came during a time when queer booksell- of LGBT bookstores to reach its tipping point. The
ers distributed items that could be found no place else, subsequent decline, felt in full by the late 2000s and
for only $25 per week including information that much of society wished to hastened with the arrival of online bookselling, led nu-
when you run for remain hidden. merous outlets, including A Different Light, Lambda
a minimum of 8 In the early years of the AIDS cri- Rising, and the Oscar Wilde Me-
sis, most medical and government morial Bookshop, to permanently
weeks. establishments refused to share the shutter.
most up-to-date information for fear “It was devastating when Bor-
of promoting or associating with ho- ders opened in Philadelphia,”
mosexuality. Groups such as ACT- Hermance said. “Virtually every
UP created pamphlets that explained issue of the Inquirer [newspa-
transmission, symptoms and how to per] had some story that included
get tested. Giovanni’s Room printed Borders. Something like a dozen
a bibliography of all known books bookstores in Center City closed.”
on the disease. A person caught with The shops that remained were
such literature, even if they were not forced to adopt new strategies
infected, could be fired from their to survive. Several decided to
job or ostracized in their communi- open café spaces and sell items
ty, so bookstores such as Gay’s The far-removed from queer books.
Word, according to longtime man- Giovanni’s Room, which near-
ager Jim MacSweeney, gave people ly closed for good in 2014, was
A SELECTION OF BOOKS AVAILABLE AT
a protected environment to take in GIOVANNI’S ROOM IN PHILADELPHIA. purchased by the nonprofit Philly
the information. Photo by Jason Villemez AIDS Thrift and now operates as
“Sometimes, when people came part-thrift shop, part-bookstore.
in and asked about different books, And a number of shops launched
they were also perhaps outing themselves as being fundraising campaigns within their communities to
HIV-positive, knowing that they were doing it in a safe, help encourage sales, donations and sponsorships.
non-judgmental space. At the height of the epidemic, Even the newest queer bookseller, Category Is
when newspapers and society were savage in their fear Books, which opened in 2018 in Glasgow, Scotland,
and loathing of gay people and people affected by HIV/ has had to find fresh perspectives on what a queer
AIDS, we managed to retain our sanity and provide a bookstore can be. Owners Charlotte and Fionn Duffy-
welcoming environment.” Scott said that understanding the neighborhood and cli-
The AIDS crisis reminded the community to rally entele has been imperative to their early success.
around each other, both in times of celebration and in “We have a pop-up queer barbershop on our closed
times of stress. Throughout the late ’80s and early ’90s, days because there isn’t something like it anywhere
as queer bookstores continued to help people weather else in Scotland. We also run Drag King scratch
the storm, a new generation of publishers and writers nights, again because we love drag and there’s a king
came into its own. Giovanni’s Room often hosted up community in the city, and we stock local zines and
to 50 writers a year, including stalwarts like Rita Mae weekly comics, which maybe wouldn’t traditionally
Brown, whose novel “Rubyfruit Jungle” went on to be in a bookshop but is something we are passionate
sell over 1 million copies, Alan Hollinghurst and Mat- about.” The shop, whose best selling item over Christ-
tilda Bernstein Sycamore. LGBT publishers like Aly- mas was the zine Queering the Map of Glasgow, also
son Books began to widen their scope of releases to has quirky sections including “Lesbian Detective” and
include history texts, more work by queer women and “Books with Maps at the Beginning.”
children’s books. Classics like “Giovanni’s Room” (the Throughout the changes in the industry, the shifting
novel), which at times had fallen out of print in the tastes of consumers and the rise and fall of brick-and-
U.S., were reprinted and celebrated. And openly gay mortar shops, the hallmark of queer bookstores serving
celebrities wrote memoirs, among them the diver Greg as a gateway for their communities has endured. Alan
Louganis, whose 1995 effort “Breaking The Surface” Chelak, the current manager at Giovanni’s Room, said
became the top seller for many queer bookstores that that in the aftermath of the 2016 election, people came
year. Many store owners recorded their highest sales en masse in search of political and feminist books.
ever during the decade between 1987 and 1997. This year too has been busy with tourists and school
Dorothy Allison, whose 1992 novel “Bastard Out of trips due to the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Ri-
Carolina” was a finalist for the National Book Award, ots. But despite the recent excitement, Chelak always
credited the proliferation of LGBT bookstores with remembers those people the store was built to serve.
shaping her work and her life. He had similar advice for anyone wishing to follow in
“I well remember the Oscar Wilde Bookstore in the footsteps of Craig Rodwell and booksellers past.
downtown NYC, wandering in there as a sort of baby “One lesson I’ve learned is that you’re nothing
dyke and being closely observed by the gay man be- without the people around you. I am incredibly lucky
hind the counter. I was concerned that he thought I was to be doing this, but it’s the people around me that
a shoplifter, but actually, he was admiring my leather have helped me get to where I am. So, if you’re look-
jacket. That was a tiny but wonderful bookstore. With- ing to start an LGBT bookstore anywhere, I think
out gay and lesbian bookstores, and the many feminist you have to work with your community and listen to
bookstores of youth, I would never have found my peo- your community, because if you do that, you can’t go
ple, my community, never had the encouragement and wrong.” n
OCTOBER 11-17, 2019
PGN
33

OUT &
PROUD
34 PGN
Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com
OCTOBER 11-17, 2019
BALLROOM from page 22
house parents split their time between prepar-
ing their “children” for balls and helping them
grow personally and professionally.
“We have a golden rule that you’ve got to
work, go to school, do some type of volunteer-
ing, because that’s what our house is about,”
Davis said of House of Prestige. “We don’t
only just walk balls, we try to be a community
activist house also.”
As house mother to about 125 children at
Philadelphia’s House of Prodigy, which was
founded in 2002, Bowman said he aims to
show them that ballroom extends beyond the
runway. His goal is to “nurture and help de-
velop” the kids to “make them be the best that
they can be.” Having once been incarcerated
for 10 months, he draws on his experiences to
exemplify how to get through difficult times.
“As young people that … go through dif-
ferent things, they may experience homeless-
ness or they may experience losing their job
or losing a friend or losing a family member,
they don’t see the light at the end of the tun-
nel,” Bowman said. “My primary job is just
to make sure they see that light and help them
get to that light.”
Ballroom is “a great teaching tool” that pre-
pares participants for other life experiences,
Milan told PGN.
“You prepare for the ball, you walk your
category in front of judges and whatnot and
it’s the same thing as you would do if you go
to a job interview,” he added. “You have to
prepare for the job interview, you may have
four or five different interviews, you don’t
know any of the people really who are judging
you at the interview. So there are a lot of life
skills that young people are actually able to
learn in the ballroom scene, and they’re able
to learn them as who they are, as opposed to
what society says they should be.”
Entering the mainstream
A new wave of visibility has washed over
ballroom culture in the era of social media.
Whereas “Paris is Burning” and Madon-
na’s song “Vogue” may have introduced ball-
room to larger audiences, the culture has gar-
nered mainstream attention in recent years
H I S T O RY
35
with TV shows like “Pose” and “RuPaul’s
Drag Race.”
“[Before], you had to go to another ball to
find out when the next one was, that’s how
underground it was,” Davis said. “If you
WHERE LOVE WINS
didn’t know somebody in ballroom, you
might’ve seen people at the clubs voguing
back in the day and didn’t know they were
part of a house.”
In LaBoy’s eyes, “it’s about time” for the
spotlight to shine on the ballroom scene, and
not just within it.
“A lot of folks in ballroom are the ones
doing your makeup, styling you, behind the
camera. We’ve always been a part of main-
stream pop culture, to say the least,” he said.
“It’s been great to see it being presented in
pop culture, but also honored as art.”
For Bowman, the recognition comes with
drawbacks in the form of “culture vultures”
preying on what has always been a “hidden
jewel of talent.”
“During my 20 years of experience in ball-
room, I’ve watched people come into our cul-
ture and steal from us and then take it and do
it mainstream,” he said. “Then they get all the
credit for it when they really got it from us.”
Milan echoed that some mainstream de-
pictions “don’t really get the real essence” of
ballroom, and present a “more appropriated
version” that misrepresents terminology and
how the scene operates. Having people from
the ball community collaborate on the shows
is important, he said.
“Pose” made history by casting the largest
number of trans actors — Indya Moore, MJ
Rodriguez, Dominique Jackson, Hailie Sahar
and Angelica Ross — to ever appear as series
regulars on a scripted show. Billy Porter also
became the first out gay Black man to win an
Emmy in the outstanding lead actor in a dra-
ma series category for his role in the show.
Davis said he’s primarily happy to see
mainstream representations like “Pose” pro-
vide LGBTQ people with outlets for their
acting, dancing or showcasing their lighting
and choreography skills.
“It has opened up a lot of doors and op-
portunities for people,” he added. “Especially
trans women of color.” n
Carlos Dorrien, The Nine Muses, 1990-97, granite, 132 x 240 x 360 inches, Grounds For Sculpture, Gift of the Seward Johnson Atelier, Photos by MK Photography
Looking for a truly unique and inclusive wedding venue? Look no further than
Grounds For Sculpture. We offer exceptional indoor and outdoor spaces that
lend a delightfully elevated museum ambience to your special day. Delight in
breathtaking settings, seasonally inspired local menus, and our belief that
exceptional events are built upon attention to the smallest of details.
Begin planning your truly memorable celebration of love.
Contact Lauren Shepard by calling 609. 249. 0212
or email lshepard@groundsforsculpture.org
80 Sculptors Way Hamilton, NJ 08619
36 PGN
Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com

yougotthis
UNTIL EVERY CANCER IS CURED. STARTING WITH YOURS.

1-800-JEFF-NOW
JeffersonHealth.org/Cancer
WELLNESS DIRECTORY
OCTOBER 11-17, 2019

OUTFEST from page 16

PGN
37

take myself and my volunteers

from the table into the crowd? Health and Wellness Directory
How can we party together and
celebrate this time where we
are free to come out and be who
we are?”
The LGBT concert and
marching ensemble Philadel-
phia Freedom Band will be
recruiting new members, and
although they are not officially
performing, they will provide
opportunities for a little bit of
practice at their table.
PFB president and oboist
Erin Worrell said the group
gains the most new players at
Outfest because it’s so centrally
located in the community and
talent is everywhere.
“They always get a lot of good
performers on the stage, a lot of
sing-alongs,” Worrell said. “It’s
great seeing the crowd and just
feeling that energy all over the
place.”
Since its inception nearly 30
years ago, Philadelphia Outfest
has grown substantially, from a
small community gathering to
an annual event that typically

Retirement is a Journey,
attracts up to 40,000 people.
“We’re growing and grow-
ing,” Price said. “And we’re
going to have to take on more
streets next year. It’s exciting Not a Destination.
knowing that this was a lit-
tle tiny block party in 1990
and 1991, and now we’re 12
blocks.” n

SCOTUS from page 18

Justice Sonia Sotomayor
interrupted Francisco’s asser-
tion, asking when the SCOTUS • Spacious Studio, 1, and • 3 Meals Per Day
should intervene to “stop invid- 2 Bedroom Apartments
ious discrimination.” Sotomay- • Maintenance-free Living
or said that Title VII was ex- • 24 Hour Security • Beautiful Gardens and
plicitly meant to create a level • Engaging Activities/Events Courtyards
playing field so workers would • Private Parking
• Wellness Center
be treated equally. Sotomayor
said, “gay people are still being
fired just because of their sex- 215-624-7575 8301 Roosevelt Blvd,
ual orientation. At what point www.deer-meadows.org Philadelphia, PA 19152
do we say that Congress did ad-
dress this?”
Andy Hoover, spokesperson
for the Pennsylvania ACLU,
said, “Everyone needs a way rev. dr. Nadine Rosechild Sullivan, ph.d.
to support themselves and their
family. No one should have to
fear that they can be fired just
Spiritual Counseling
because of who they are.” drsullivan@rosechild.org
Hoover said, “The public 215.704.4264
agrees that discrimination is
against the law, and we need to www.rosechild.org
make sure the Supreme Court
and the President know it.”
Spirituality • Sexuality • Relationships • Self-Esteem
Rulings in the Bostock, Zarda
and Stephens cases are expect-
ed sometime next year. n
38 PGN
Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com
OCTOBER 11-17, 2019
BUTTIGIEG from page 1
pioneers like Barney Frank or Tammy
Baldwin or Elaine Noble?
PB: Yeah, I’ve had a chance to meet
Tammy Baldwin, and again Annise Park-
er has been a great source of encourage-
ment and support as well as advice. I’m
not sure what’s more amazing, the fact
that we’re the first to do this or the fact
that we can do it at all. Part of just living
it seems strange that I’d be the first ma-
jor candidate to do this, then again you
think about where we were just a decade
ago.
MS: That’s a great point. Many in our
community never thought we’d see
someone being so open and running for
president, and we’d always looked at
what that opposition would look like.
While you’ve been running, the largest
number of those opposing you have been
religious protesters, and you’ve been
very good by saying “I’m going to be
judged by my god, not by you.” Is there
a time that either on a personal level
or on the campaign that you’ve faced
homophobia one-on-one?
PB: Well yeah, somebody will come
up on a rope line and have something
nasty to say, or you see stuff coming in
the mail, although I don’t pay too much
attention to that. But I gotta say that any
homophobia that comes my way is less
concerning than what’s happening to so
many youth and really vulnerable people
out there of any age around the country,
what’s happening to black trans women
endangering their life, I try not to dwell
on the irritation of any of the nonsense
that might come my way because I’ve
got, I can feel all the support that I
have, folks from my own team and from
millions of people out there. I think of
all the people who don’t know that they
have that support, who don’t know that
we’re rooting for them when they’re
dealing with whatever it is they’re up
against.
CITY COUNCIL from page 1
Today, we move closer to that goal.”
The first bill, which is co-sponsored
by Councilmembers William Greenlee,
Mark Squilla and Derek Green, requires
youth organizations to implement poli-
cies meeting or exceeding the standards
set forth by the School District’s Policy
252 for protecting trans and nonbinary
young people from discrimination. The
existing measure outlines guidelines for
keeping a student’s trans identity confi-
dential, evaluating when activities can
appropriately be gender-segregated, us-
ing gender-inclusive language and more.
Gym’s new bill also requires regular
training for staff working with youth on
how to properly execute the non-discrim-
ination policies.
Linda Hawkins and Nadia Dowshen,
co-directors of the Sexuality Develop-
ment Clinic at Children’s Hospital of
Philadelphia, said in a statement that
PGN
MS: One of the most amazing similari-
ties I see in your campaign is one I saw
in President Obama’s campaign. When
he was a candidate, being the first major
African American running for president,
he kept running up to the race issue no
matter how many issue papers he put out
on certain subjects. Similarly, you’re the
first out gay man, and therefore no mat-
ter how many issue papers you put out,
it still comes up. President Obama, then
candidate Obama, did something spec-
tacular. He decided he had to address
the issue in a major speech in March of
2008, just on race. Do you think if that
one issue keeps plaguing you, you’re
going to have to give the LGBT equality
speech, and are you prepared to do that?
PB: Well, I’m not sure my equivalent of
that speech will be a speech, although it
might be. I think it is important for folks
to hear me tell my story, and while I’ve
done it in a number of ways, I may need
to find new ways to do it. I think not
only about President Obama’s example,
but also the steps that President Kennedy
had to take to reassure voters that they
could vote for the first Catholic presi-
dent. So often it comes into form, and
I remember this from 2008, is people
saying, “this is not an obstacle for me,
but I’m just not sure about everybody
else,” and finding a way to speak to that
and stay ahead of it. I think we’ll contin-
ue seeking the right ways to do that, true
to who I am and true to what we need to
convey as well.
MS: There’s this old political saying,
politics is a dime and a day, meaning
politics can change on any given issue,
and you can’t stay in politics unless you
raise funds. You’ve had an incredible
success at raising funds. In fact, so well,
that you are basically one of the only
candidates who can stay in the entire
game if they wish up to the convention.
You have an enormity of support from
the LGBT community, which would like
many of the more than 1,300 trans and
gender-diverse young people they have
worked with experienced bullying.
“When we work with patients, fam-
ilies, and school staff to ensure a better
environment for transgender youth in our
clinic, and youth can then go to school
and learn rather than feeling excluded
or discriminated against, we see positive
impacts on their health and well-being,”
they added.
A 2018 LGBTQ Youth Report by the
Human Rights Campaign found 26 per-
cent of LGBTQ teenagers reported al-
ways feeling safe in school, while 5 per-
cent said all of their teachers and school
staff supported their identities.
Gym’s second bill, No. 190559, re-
quires a gender-inclusive bathroom on
each floor of City Hall. It also calls for
the Department of Public Property to file
annual reports listing new renovation and
you to stay in through the convention. Do
you feel an obligation that regardless of
where the polls go or where the votes go
that you need to stay in just to be front and
center on this issue?
PB: Well, you know, I think there’s so
many things that motivate this campaign.
We’re certainly conscious of the historic
nature of it, and at the same time, there
are many reasons why we’re in this and
why I’m going to stay in it. We want to
know that I’ve got the resources to go the
distance. And if you say not knowing how
things may evolve even from week to week,
I’m glad that we do, because the very same
things that can be a disadvantage in terms
of an issue that’s visible or something that’s
in the news, sometimes what’s making
things harder for you politically can turn
around and be an asset a few months or
weeks later. So we’re definitely in this to go
the distance and feeling increasingly bullish
about how this is going to unfold.
MS: Some of the candidates who will be
appearing with you at this week’s CNN
Town Hall meeting on LGBT equality
have long-standing positions, Elizabeth
Warren, Joe Biden, and have evolved
on our issues long before most others.
How do you differ from them on LGBT
issues?
PB: I think we all have different areas
of emphasis. I'm certainly proud of my
record, not just in terms of my identity
but what we’ve done because I think it’s
important not to take for granted or as-
sume that, just because I’m out, LGBTQ
voters are going to automatically decide
I’m the best person to make a difference
in their lives. I think that what’s really
important is to have a robust and strong
plan. And to me, the equality act is very
important but I hope it’s also understood
that that’s table stakes, that there’s a
lot more that we need to do proactively
around issues like conversion therapy,
protecting LGBTQ youth, attacking
the AIDS epidemic, diplomacy around
construction projects and the number and
location of corresponding gender-inclu-
sive restrooms. The policy builds on Ken-
ney’s 2013 equality legislation, which
stipulated that new City buildings include
gender-inclusive facilities.
The final LGBTQ-focused bill passed
by council last week, No. 190651, revises
the definitions of “gender identity” and
“sexual orientation” in The Philadelphia
Code. The new definitions read:
Gender identity - An individual’s in-
ternal sense of gender, or one’s gender as
perceived by others, that may or may not
align with one’s physical anatomy, chro-
mosomal sex, or sex assigned at birth.
Examples include, but are not limited to,
man, woman, non-binary, genderfluid,
and agender.
Sexual orientation - An individual’s ro-
mantic, physical, sexual, or emotional at-
traction to others, or a lack of attraction to
39
human rights including the way we think
about how we treat refugees, work for
community-based programs. There’s so
many things that we need to do that I
think each of us has an obligation to put
forward a robust plan and not simply
make it seem as though we think that the
struggle was won when marriage equality
came to the land or that the Equality Act
is all we’ve got to do.
MS: One of the most important things
you do is the fact that you’ve become
a role model for LGBT youth. That’s
a heavy responsibility. How does that
weigh on you?
PB: You know, I liken it to a moment
of growth that happened to me, around
what’s now been a very small thing
when I was mayor, which was, when I
was a candidate I used to think, when I
was riding a bike, a little bit of irritation,
oh I better wear a helmet because if
somebody sees me without one they’re
going to say something. And somewhere
along the line, I realized my responsibil-
ity was different, and I started thinking I
better wear a helmet because somebody
might see me without one and decide not
to, and I’d be responsible for their safety.
And I think it’s the same now on a much
bigger stage. When people are looking
to you, and people see in you so much
more than one person can really be, you
realize that it’s not just you but what
you’re building. And to me, the best
way to make good on that is not only
to seek to act with integrity and do the
right thing, but also to make sure that our
campaign organization shows the values
that we’re trying to promote, including
the idea of belonging. It’s part of what
I’m trying to build for the whole country.
And I’m very mindful of the obliga-
tion to live up to the need to model and
support those values, knowing just how
many people have pinned their hopes on
the conduct of this campaign as well as
its outcome. n
others, by preference, practice, or as per-
ceived by others. Examples include, but
are not limited to, heterosexual, bisexual,
gay, lesbian, and pansexual.
City Council’s rulings come on the
heels of a September public hearing
held by the body’s Law and Government
Committee. There, local LGBTQ leaders
like Rue Landau, executive director of the
Philadelphia Commission on Human Re-
lations; Evan Thornburg, deputy director
of the Mayor’s Office of LGBT Affairs;
and Naiymah Sanchez, trans justice co-
ordinator of the ACLU of Pennsylvania,
provided supportive testimony for the
bills.
“There is a need to protect margin-
alized Philadelphians,” Sanchez said.
“Passing bills like these should be a pri-
ority, as a city lacking these protections
through policy only causes further trauma
to a community already oppressed.” n
40 PGN
Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com

style
go for it
OCTOBER 11-17, 2019
PGN
41

Legal & Professional Directory

#TheDistrict spans three city blocks in the heart of downtown Philly.

It’s an immersive shopping experience where all your favorite brands hang out.
Want to grab a drink? Go for it. Want to catch a flick? Go for it.
Want to find the perfect gift? Go for it.

CENTER CITY MARKET EAST #THEDISTRICT

42 PGN
Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com

INFORMATION STATEMENT ON ACCESS TO THE ELECTION PROCESS FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES IN THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA
MUNICIPAL GENERAL AND SPECIAL ELECTION TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2019
In accordance with Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the Voter Accessibility for the Elderly and Handicapped Act of 1984, the City of Philadelphia does not discriminate against people with disabilities in providing access
to its election process.
According to these federal laws, the City of Philadelphia is required to ensure that its election process is accessible to people with disabilities in all elections. This means that polling places shall be accessible to people with disabilities to the
extent that accessible locations are available within each election district.
The City Commissioners designates and lists polling place accessibility in varying degrees. Polling places that fully meet all federal and state criteria are designated with an “F” for fully accessible building and an “H” for handicapped parking.
If a polling place location does not fully meet these federal and state criteria but provides relative accessibility with minor assistance in entry, then that location will be designated with a “B” for substantial accessibility.
If a fully accessible location, that meets all federal and state criteria (designated as “FH”), is not available for a polling place in your election Division, voting accessibility will be provided using an Alternative Ballot in accordance with directives
issued by the Secretary of the Commonwealth.
If you are a registered voter who is disabled or age 65 or older and who is not assigned to a polling place that has been designated as “FH”, you are qualified to vote using an Alternative Ballot.
ONLY THE FOLLOWING WARDS AND DIVISIONS POLLING PLACES HAVE BEEN DESIGNATED AS “FH” OR FULLY ACCESSIBLE.
IF YOU ARE A REGISTERED VOTER IN ANY ELECTION DISTRICT IN PHILADELPHIA, EXCEPT FOR THOSE LISTED BELOW, AND YOU ARE DISABLED OR AGE 65 OR OLDER YOU ARE ELIGIBLE TO VOTE FROM HOME USING AN ALTERNATIVE BALLOT
OR AT CITY HALL ROOM 142 ON ELECTION DAY USING AN EMERGENCY ALTERNATIVE BALLOT:
THIS LIST IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE – REFER TO THE WEBSITE BELOW FOR UP TO DATE INFORMATION
www.philadelphiavotes.com

Ward Division Address Location Ward Division Address Location

2 15, 16, 25, 27 416 Queen St. Settlement Music School (Curtis Branch) 35 15, 16, 17, 22 Langdon & Sanger Sts. New Fels High School

3 3, 4 6212 Walnut St. Care Pavilion 36 22 2600 Moore St. St. John Neuman Place

5 15 1039 N Lawrence St. St. John Neumann Center 37 9 2862 Germantown Ave. Warnock Village

6 2 4400 Fairmount Ave. Angela Court Nursing Home 38 1 3226 McMichael St. Abbottsford Homes

6 6 Aspen & Markoe Sts. Lucien E. Blackwell Community Ctr 38 12 3300 Henry Ave. Falls Center Live Work Campus

6 9, 11 4035 Parrish St. Sarah Allen Senior Housing 38 17 4200 Wissahickon Ave. Salvation Army KROC Center

6 15
th
40 St. & Parkside Ave. School of the Future 38 19 4349 Ridge Ave. Falls Ridge Apts. Com Ctr.

6 17 4700 Parkside Ave. Discovery Charter School 39 10, 19, 40 501 Jackson St. Jackson Place

7 5 167 W Allegheny Ave. Villas Del Caribe 40 31 7100 Grovers Ave. Hardy Williams Veterans Center

7 13, 17 200 E Somerset St. Somerset Villas 41 13, 14 Magee & Keystone Sts. Fire Engine # 38

8 25 2 Franklin Town Blvd. The Water Mark 42 1 4501 G St. City Sign Shop

8 27 2400 Chestnut St. 2400 Chestnut St. Bldg. 44 8 4901 Chestnut St. West Phila. High School
th
8 30 17 St., South of Spring Garden St. Community College 44 16, 17 5201 Haverford Ave. Spectrum Community Health Ctr

9 4, 5 20 E Mermaid Lane Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting 48 7, 22 2600 Moore St. St. John Neuman Place

9 12 7301 Germantown Ave. Lutheran Theological Seminary 49 3, 20 1300 W Godfrey Ave. Community College of Phila.

13 6, 7, 8 4340 Germantown Ave. Nicetown Court 52 3 3900 City Ave. Presidential City Apts

14 5 1100 Fairmount Ave. Gladys Jacobs Apts. 52 11, 12 2600 Belmont Ave. Inglis House Founders Hall
th
14 8 1100 Poplar St. Street Community Center 52 22, 23, 24 1717 N 54 St. Wynnefield Place

17 6, 7 6401 Ogontz Ave. Mt Airy Church of God in Christ 56 22 2101 Strahle St. Samuel Tabas House

18 1, 2 1340 Frankford Ave. Lutheran Settlement House 58 5, 21 13500 Philmont Ave. Calvary Chapel
rd
19 2, 3, 4 3 & Ontario Sts. Marin Munoz School 58 9, 13, 17 608 Welsh Rd. St. Thomas Syro Malabar Church

19 6, 7 2800 N American St. Congreso Edu. & Training Ctr. 58 19 1619 Grant Ave. Randi’s Restaurant

19 11 2400 N Howard St. Hunter School 58 44 9896 Bustleton Ave. Paul’s Run
th
20 3, 11 1601 N 12 St. Bright Hope Baptist Church 59 20 633 W Rittenhouse St. Rittenhouse Hill Apts.
th
20 4 1600 N 8 St. Gray Manor 60 2 ,8, 12, 23 4901 Chestnut St. West Phila. High School

21 3 7901 Henry Ave. Henry on the Park Clubhouse 60 4, 6 5429 Chestnut St. Holmes Senior Apts.

22 3 6400 Greene St. Cliveden Convalescent Center 63 11, 23 8550 Verree Rd. Villages Pine Valley Clubhouse

27 2 4400 Baltimore Ave. H.M.S. School 63 21 608 Welsh Rd. St. Thomas Syro Malabar Church
th
27 17 1450 S 50 St. Reba Brown Senior Apts. 64 8, 9, 10, 13, 14 3201 Ryan Ave. Lincoln High School

30 1 1525 Fitzwater St. Gideon Hall @Scottish Rite House 64 15, 16 8301 Roosevelt Blvd. Deer Meadows

30 3 1526 Lombard St. Powerback Rehabilitation 66 2, 7 10980 Norcom Rd. Norcom Community Center

30 7 1800 Lombard St. Penn Medicine 66 24, 44, 46 11099 Knights Rd. Katherine Drexel Library

Rising Sun Ave. &

35 10, 11, 25 Lawncrest Recreation Center
Comly St.
An Alternative Ballot may be obtained for any election, upon your advance request on an Alternative Ballot Application. In Philadelphia an application for an Alternative Ballot can be made on the regular Absentee Ballot Application by checking
the box for “Handicapped or 65 years or older and who is assigned to an inaccessible polling place”. The applications may be obtained at the County Board of Elections in Room 142, City Hall or by contacting (215) 686-3469 VOICE, or TTY/TDD
through the AT&T Relay System. TDD users may utilize this service by calling 1-800-654-5984 and telling the communications assistant they want to speak to the Pennsylvania Bureau of Elections at (717) 787-5280.
Alternative Ballot Applications by mail must be submitted to the County Board of Elections no later than 7 days before the election.
Alternative Ballots must be returned to the County Board of Elections no later than the close of the polls, at 8:00 P.M. on Election Day.
Additionally, registered electors with disabilities may apply for an Emergency Alternative Ballot Application and cast their ballot in person at the County Board of Elections, in Room 142, City Hall, up to the close of the polls on Election Day.
In addition, the City shall provide registration materials in large print at each registration facility and voting instructions in large print at each polling place.
Should you have any questions about your rights, or the City’s obligations under these laws, or if you need assistance in determining if your polling place fully meets federal and state criteria, please contact the Accessibility Compliance Office,
or the County Board of Elections.
County Board of Elections
City Commissioner's Office Accessibility Compliance Office
City Hall, Room 142
City Hall, Philadelphia, PA 19107 1401 JFK Blvd, MSB, 10th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19107
Philadelphia, PA 19102-1677
215-686-3469 / 215-686-3943
OCTOBER 11-17, 2019
PGN
43
44 PGN
Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com

DECLARACIÓN DE INFORMACIÓN SOBRE EL ACCESO AL PROCESO DE ELECCIONES PARA LAS PERSONAS CON DISCAPACIDADES EN LA CIUDAD DE FILADELFIA
ELECCIONES MUNICIPALES GENERAL Y ESPECIAL DE NOVIEMBRE 5 DEL 2019
De acuerdo con el Título II de la Ley de Americanos con Discapacidades de 1990 y la Ley de Accesibilidad de Votante para los Ancianos y los Discapacitados de 1984, la Ciudad de Filadelfia no discrimina a la gente con discapacidades al suministrar acceso para el
proceso de elecciones.
Según estas leyes federales, se requiere que la Ciudad de Filadelfia asegure que su proceso de elecciones en conjunto sea accesible a la gente con discapacidades en todas las elecciones. Esto significa que los sitios de votación serán accesibles a los discapacitados
de tal manera que haya locaciones accesibles disponibles dentro de cada distrito electoral.
Los Comisionados de la Ciudad designan y enumeran la accesibilidad de los lugares de votación en grados variables. Los sitios de votación que cumplen en su totalidad con los criterios federales y estatales son designados con una "F" que indica que es un edificio
totalmente accesible, y con una "H" que indica que hay estacionamiento para discapacitados.
Si un logar de votación no cumple en su totalidad con estos criterios federales y estatales, pero provee accesibilidad relativa con una pequeña ayuda en la entrada, entonces ese logar será designado con una "B" que indica que tiene una accesibilidad substancial.
Si no hay disponible un lugar totalmente accesible, que cumpla con todos los criterios federales y estatales (designados como “FH”), como sitio de votación en su División de elección, la accesibilidad para votar será proporcionada mediante el uso de una Boleta
Alternativa de acuerdo con las directrices expedidas por el Secretario del Estado.
Si usted es un votante registrado, que es discapacitado o tiene 65 años de edad o más, y no se le ha asignado un lugar de votación que haya sido designado como “FH”, entonces cumple con los requisitos para votar mediante una Boleta Alternativa.
SÓLO LOS CENTROS DE VOTACIÓN DE LOS DISTRITOS Y LAS DIVISIONES ELECTORALES QUE SE MENCIONAN A CONTINUACIÓN SE HAN DESIGNADO COMO “FH” O TOTALMENTE ACCESIBLES.
SI USTED ES UN VOTANTE REGISTRADO EN CUALQUIER DISTRITO ELECTORAL DE FILADELPHIA, SALVO EN AQUELLOS QUE SE ENUMERAN A CONTINUACIÓN, Y ES DISCAPACITADO O MAYOR DE 65 AÑOS, CUMPLE CON LOS REQUISITOS PARA VOTAR DESDE SU
HOGAR MEDIANTE UNA BOLETA ALTERNATIVA O EN LA SALA 142 DEL AYUNTAMIENTO EL DÍA DE LA ELECCIÓN MEDIANTE UNA BOLETA ALTERNATIVA DE EMERGENCIA:
ESTE AVISO ESTA SUJECTA A CAMBIOS – PARA OBTENER INFORMACION ACTUALIZADA IR A
WWW.PHILADELPHIAVOTES.COM
Barrio División Domicilio Centro de votación Barrio División Domicilio Centro de votación

2 15, 16, 25, 27 416 Queen St. Settlement Music School (Curtis Branch) 35 15, 16, 17, 22 Langdon & Sanger Sts. New Fels High School

3 3, 4 6212 Walnut St. Care Pavilion 36 22 2200 Moore St. St. John Neuman Place

5 15 1039 N Lawrence St. St. John Neumann Home 37 9 2862 Germantown Ave. Warnock Village

6 2 4400 Fairmount Ave. Angela Court Nursing Home 38 1 3226 McMichael St. Abbottsford Homes

6 6 Aspen & Markoe Sts. Lucien E. Blackwell Community Ctr 38 12 3300 Henry Ave. Falls Center Live Work Campus

6 9, 11 4035 Parrish St. Sarah Allen Senior Housing 38 17 4200 Wissahickon Ave. Salvation Army KROC Center
th
6 15 40 St. & Parkside Ave. School of the Future 38 19 4349 Ridge Ave. Falls Ridge Apts. Com Ctr.

6 17 4700 Parkside Ave. Discovery Charter School 39 10, 19, 40 501 Jackson St. Jackson Place

7 5 167 W Allegheny Ave. Villas Del Caribe 40 31 7100 Grovers Ave. Hardy Williams Veterans Center

7 13, 17 200 E Somerset St. Somerset Villas 41 13, 14 Magee & Keystone Sts. Fire Engine # 38

8 25 2 Franklin Town Blvd. The Water Mark 42 1 4501 G St. City Sign Shop

8 27 2400 Chestnut St. 2400 Chestnut St. Bldg 44 8 4901 Chestnut St. West Phila. High School
th
8 30 17 St., South of Spring Garden St. Community College 44 16, 17 5201 Haverford Ave. Spectrum Comm Health Center

9 4, 5 20 E Mermaid Lane Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting House 48 7, 22 2600 Moore St. St. John Neuman Place

9 12 7301 Germantown Ave. Lutheran Theological Seminary 49 3, 20 1300 W Godfrey Ave. Community College of Phila.

13 6, 7, 8 4340 Germantown Ave. Nicetown Court 52 3 3900 City Ave. Presidential City Apts

14 5 1100 Fairmount Ave. Gladys Jacobs Apts. 52 11, 12 2600 Belmont Ave. Inglis House Founders Hall
th
14 8 1100 Poplar St. Street Community Center 52 22, 23, 24 1717 N 54 St. Wynnefield Place

17 6, 7 6401 Ogontz Ave. Mt Airy Church of God in Christ 56 22 2101 Strahle St. Samuel Tabas House

18 1, 2 1340 Frankford Ave. Lutheran Settlement House 58 5, 21 13500 Philmont Ave. Calvary Chapel
rd
19 2, 3, 4 3 & Ontario Sts. Marin Munoz School 58 9, 13, 17 608 Welsh Rd. St. Thomas Syro Malabar Church

19 6, 7 2800 N American St. Congreso Edu. & Training Ctr. 58 19 1619 Grant Ave. Randi’s Restaurant

19 11 2400 N Howard St. Hunter School 58 44 9896 Bustleton Ave. Paul’s Run
th
20 3, 11 1601 N 12 St. Bright Hope Baptist Church 59 20 633 W Rittenhouse St. Rittenhouse Hill Apts.
th
20 4 1600 N 8 St. Gray Manor 60 2, 8, 12, 23 4901 Chestnut St. West Phila. High School

21 3 7901 Henry Ave. Henry on the Park 60 4, 6 5429 Chestnut St. Holmes Senior Apts.

22 3 6400 Greene St. Cliveden Convales Center 63 11, 23 8550 Verree Rd. Villages Pine Valley Clubhouse

27 2 4400 Baltimore Ave. H.M.S. School 63 21 608 Welsh Rd. St. Thomas Syro Malabar Church
th
27 17 1450 S 50 St. Reba Brown Senior Apts. 64 8, 9, 10, 13, 14 3201 Ryan Ave. Lincoln High School

30 1 1525 Fitzwater St. Gideon Hall @Scottish Rite House 64 15, 16 8301 Roosevelt Blvd. Deer Meadows

30 3 1526 Lombard St. Powerback Rehabilitation 66 2, 7 10980 Norcom Rd. Norcom Community Center

30 7 1800 Lombard St. Penn Medicine 66 24, 44, 46 11099 Knights Rd. Katherine Drexel Library

Rising Sun Ave. &

35 10, 11, 25 Lawncrest Recreation Center
Comly St.

Es posible obtener una Boleta Alternativa para cualquier elección, a través de una petición por adelantado de una Solicitud de Boleta Alternativa. En Filadelfia se puede pedir una Boleta Alternativa en la solicitud corriente de Boleta para Votar
en Ausencia, señalando la casilla de “Discapacitado, 65 años de edad o mayor y a quien se le ha asignado un lugar de votación inaccesible”. Las solicitudes se pueden obtener en la Junta de Elecciones del Condado en Sala 142, del Ayuntamiento
o llamando al teléfono (215) 686-3469 VOICE, o por TTY/TDD (Teletipo/Aparato de Telecomunicación para Sordos) a través del AT&T Relay System. Los usuarios de TDD pueden utilizar este servicio llamando al 1-800-654-5984 e informándole al
asistente de comunicaciones que desean hablar con la Oficina de Elecciones de Pensilvania en el (717) 787-5280.
Las Solicitudes de Boleta Alternativa deben enviarse por correo a la Junta de Elecciones del Condado a más tardar siete días antes de la elección.
Las Boletas Alternativas deben devolverse a la Junta de Elecciones del Condado a más tardar al momento del cierre de las urnas, a las 8:00 p.m. del Día de Elecciones.
Además, los electores registrados con discapacidades pueden pedir una Solicitud de Boleta Alternativa de Emergencia y depositar la boleta personalmente en la Junta de Elecciones del Condado, en sala 142, del Ayuntamiento, hasta el
momento del cierre de elecciones durante el Día de Elecciones.
Además, la Ciudad proporcionará materiales de inscripción en letras grandes en cada instalación de inscripción, y suministrará las instrucciones en letras grandes sobre cómo votar en cada sitio de votación.
Si tiene alguna pregunta sobre sus derechos o sobre las obligaciones de la Ciudad según estas leyes, o si necesita ayuda para determinar si su lugar de votación cumple en su totalidad con los criterios federales y estatales, comuníquese con la
Oficina de Cumplimiento con la Accesibilidad, o la Junta de Elecciones del Condado.


Junta de Elecciones del Condado
Oficina del Comisionados de la Ciudad Oficina de Cumplimiento con la Accesibilidad
City Hall, Room 142
City Hall, Philadelphia, PA 19107 1401 JFK Blvd, MSB, 10th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19107
Philadelphia, PA 19102-1677
215-686-3469 / 215-686-3943
OCTOBER 11-17, 2019
PGN
45
46 PGN
Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com
 Arts & Culture
Q PUZZLE : PA G E 5 6 COMEDY :
F A M I LY P O R T R A I T
Queer films at this year’s Philadelphia Film Festival
GARY M. KRAMER
PGN Contributor
The Philadelphia Film Festival opens
Oct. 17 with a screening of “Just Mercy”
and unspools at various locations through-
out the city before closing Oct. 27 with a
screening of “Knives Out.” In between are
more than 100 features, shorts and doc-
umentaries, including several films with
LGBTQ content. Below is a rundown of
what to catch at this year’s fest.
One of the highlights is the Philadelphia
premiere of “Adam,” director Rhys Ernst’s
shrewd romantic comedy-drama about a
lie that gets out of hand. The title charac-
ter (Nicholas Alexander), is a cisgender,
heterosexual and virginal 18-year-old man.
Spending the summer of 2006 in New
York City with his older, lesbian sister
Casey (Margaret Qualley), Adam attends
parties and rallies that expose him to a
vibrant queer and trans world. It is at one
MARGARET QUALLEY (LEFT)
A N D D A N A A L I YA L E V I N S O N
i N “A D A M ”
C o u r t e s y o f Wo l fe r e l e a s i n g
PA G E 7 2 THEATER : P A G E
L a u r a M i n a a n d Wi l l i a m D o n n e l l y : P r e s e r v i n g t h e c r o w n
ADÈLE HAENEL (LEFT)
AND NOÉMIE MERLANT
I N “ P O R T R A I T O F A L A DY O N F I R E ”
Cour tesy of Neon
event where Adam meets Gillian (Bobbi
Salvör Menuez), a lesbian to whom he
is attracted. Adam does not initially cor-
rect Gillian when she assumes that he is
transgender. As their relationship blos-
soms, however, Adam struggles with his
deception — and things get complicated
when they attend an S&M-themed party,
or when Gillian wants to have sex with a
strap-on. If “Adam” sounds like an insen-
sitive comedy, out lesbian writer Ariel
Schrag, adapting her novel, is quite clever
in how she addresses issues of gender
and sexuality. A pivotal scene has a news
report of a transgender murder prompting
a nuanced discussion about identity. Also,
Gillian has an interesting and important
backstory, as do other key supporting char-
acters, such as Ethan (the scene-stealing
Leo Sheng), one of Casey’s roommates
who befriends Adam. “Adam” is a smart,
enjoyable teen film for an aware crowd.
The Philadelphia Film Festival gives
audiences a sneak peek at the best lesbian
film of the year, “Portrait of a Lady on
Fire.” Out director Céline Sciamma’s film
is a stunning, slow-burn romantic drama
set in the 1700s in France. Marianne
(Noémie Merlant) is hired to paint Héloïse
(out actress Adèle Haenel) without the
latter’s knowledge. As the two young
women slowly get to know one another, a
friendship develops. But their bond even-
tually becomes something more profound.
When the two women finally kiss, it is
28TH PHILADELPHIA FILM FESTIVAL
66 EVENTS : PA G E 6 5 SCENE IN PHLLY : PA G E 5 5 pgn
PAG E 4 9
electrifying. This sparse, elegant from the Catholic church. Several stories
and seductive period drama has the unfold, starting with Alexandre (Melvin
women slowly and subtly revealing Poupaud), who takes a respectful approach
themselves to each other. Merlant to confronting the church and its hierar-
is outstanding as Marianne, con- chy. He eventually files a complaint that
veying her emotions and burgeon- sets a chain of events and disclosures in
ing desires, while Haenel gives a motion. François (Denis Ménochet) is one
lovely performance as the enigmatic
Héloïse. (Haenel also appears in
“Deerskin” screening at the fest).
“Oh Mercy!,” is French director
Arnaud Desplechin’s intriguing
police procedural, set in his home-
town of Roubaix. Yacoub Daoud
(Roschdy Zem), the chief of police,
handles cases ranging from fraud
to a missing girl to a serial rap-
ist. When Claude (Léa Seydoux)
and her girlfriend Marie (Sara
Forestier) provide information for M E LV I N P O U P A U D
an arson case, the lovers soon find IN “BY THE GRACE OF GOD”
Cour tesy of Music Box Films
themselves suspects in the related
murder of an elderly woman. “Oh
Mercy!” is quite engaging in its
first half, but things slacken a bit once victim who goes to the media to inform
Claude and Marie are questioned. The the public and forms an association for
investigation is interesting, but it lacks other sufferers. One of the most moving
emotion and power, despite strong perfor- stories is Emmanuel’s (Swann Arlaud), a
mances from the actors. young man who is still haunted by what
Another excellent French import is out happened to him as a child. The ripples
gay director François Ozon’s riveting the abuse has on the men, their families
drama, “By the Grace of God,” about the and loved ones is artfully handled as the
church’s recent child abuse scandal in victims seek justice, not revenge and
Lyon. The film chronicles the efforts of hope to change the statute of limitations
several victims of pedophile priest Bernard about such cases as men are encouraged
Preynat (Bernard Verley) to bring the sit- — and find the courage
uation to light and demand accountability — to speak out. This is page 67
B AC H I VA L I S H V I L I ( L E F T )
A N D L E VA N G A L B A K H I A N I
I N “A N D T H E N W E D A N C E D ”
Cour tesy of Music Box Films
OCTOBER 17-27
48 H I S T O RY
Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com

CUSHMAN from page 7

OCTOBER 11-17, 2019
FAMILY PORTRAIT WITH SUZI NASH
Laura Mina & William Donnelly: Preserving the crown
OK, I admit it, I’m a bit of an Anglophile
when it comes to my television preferences.
Starting with the original “Avengers” (hello,
Mrs. Peel!) and extending to “Are You Being
Served?” and “AbFab,” I’ve always en-
joyed entertainment from across the pond. I
especially love period dramas, and I didn’t
know if I could give my heart to another after
“Downton Abbey” went off the air (before it
returned on the big screen). To my great plea-
sure, I found another drama to get caught up
in, “The Crown.” A good deal of what makes
period dramas so much fun are the sumptuous
costumes, and “The Crown” does not disap-
point. The show is on hiatus right now, but
luckily for us, from now through January 5th,
the beautiful Winterthur Museum is keeping
the excitement going with an exhibit of cos-
tumes from the show.
I had a chance to speak to two of the peo-
ple responsible for the queen’s knickers and
the rest of the collection. Laura Mina, associ-
ate conservator of textiles and head of the tex-
tile lab, is responsible for the “preservation,
treatment, exhibition and enhanced under-
standing of textiles in the Winterthur Museum
collection, which includes over 20,000
objects with a particular depth in printed
textiles, needlework, furnishing fabrics and
quilts.” She also teaches at the University of
Delaware and the Fashion Institute of Tech-
nology. William Donnelly holds a Bachelor
of Fine Arts with a concentration in sculpture
from the University of Delaware and a Master
of Arts in preventative conservation from
Northumbria University in Newcastle upon
Tyne. Among other things, he specializes in
the handling, care and installation of special
exhibits and represents Winterthur at other
museums around the world.
PGN: Laura, I’m going to start with you.
You’ve worked as a conservator with the Cos-
tume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, had an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship
in Costume and Textile Conservation with
the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and worked
with the Smithsonian Institution’s National
Museum of African American History and
Culture. My question to you is … do you use
a lot of club soda?
LM: [Laughing] No! Only as a beverage! But
one of the aspects of the job involves a lot of
chemistry so you have a close understanding
of the materials, the stain and the chemical
bonds involved. What you buy at home to
clean your clothes with is a premixed cocktail
of things they assume will be good for the
most stains and harmful for the least, but here
we custom build cleaning solutions for any-
thing we need to clean. It’s a time-consuming
process, but we want to make sure we have
the lowest risk of harming the textile.
PGN: What’s the most nerve-wracking proj-
ect you’ve worked on?
LM: I think the most challenging was a silk
piece that was part of our collection here.
There was a coat of arms embroidered onto
the silk, but the silk was so fragile that if you
PROFILE
looked at it the wrong way it turned into
powder. It was a real challenge working with
it but very satisfying when we got it framed
and into the gallery for a needlepoint exhibit.
PGN: When I was a kid, I loved to polish
silver. I loved taking something old and
tarnished and leaving it bright and shining.
What was your childhood fetish?
LM: I was definitely one of those kids who
loved playing dress-up. But my biggest in-
terest was actually dance. It was my involve-
ment in the dance world that got me inter-
ested in costumes and costume design. I’m
from Atlanta, and when I was young I was
lucky enough to see the Alvin Ailey dance
company doing their famous piece “Revela-
tions.” It has the most amazing costumes. The
interplay between the bodies of the dancers
and costumes and the fabrics to create a vi-
sion was profound for me. I got increasingly
interested in costume design, which is what I
studied in college.
PGN: When did you start getting into the
hardcore part of working with textiles and
preservation? How did your artistic brain
cope with chemistry classes?
LM: I was working at the Atlanta History
Museum as an educator when I started learn-
ing about the whole behind-the-scenes work
that goes on in the museum world and that
there were people who get paid to handle the
art up close and touch it. It was super cool,
and I wanted to be a part of it. I was hesitant
about the science aspect of it, but I had some
amazing professors and found chemistry was
really fun for me.
“I LOVE THE FACT THAT WE’RE
NOW IN A TIME WHERE
SELF-EXPRESSION SEEMS TO BE
A LOT MORE TOLERATED...”
PGN: Describe what you now do at Winter-
thur.
LM: I have two jobs here, one is to care for
the textiles in the Winterthur collection. As
head of the textile conservation lab, I work
with exhibitions of textiles in the gallery
spaces, in the historic mansion and in our
storage spaces where we make the textiles
available for researchers. The other part of
my job is training future conservators, so I
work with the Winterthur/University of Del-
aware Program in Art Conservation, called
WUDPack for short. I teach mostly at the
graduate level but sometimes work with un-
dergrads or Ph.D. students.
PGN: What’s the most valuable piece you’ve
worked on?
LM: That’s tricky, the art market is really
sensitive to financial value, but it’s also about
cultural or personal significance which I’m
more
interested in.
One of the things I
love about working here
is that they’re more interested
in the stories the pieces tell than the
monetary value. One of the projects I
worked on was a number of samplers
that were made by schoolgirls. Museums
don’t typically collect art made by chil-
dren. Historically, samplers were made
by girls as part of their education and to
show prestige for their schools. The work
was often done by girls as young as seven
or eight and you’d see things you’d expect
like beautiful alphabets or biblical pas-
sages, but sometimes I’d find very serious
or profound questions about the meaning
of life as they tried to find or define them-
selves as people at a young age. Women’s
lives were very minimally documented,
so to know that the pieces that they put so
much work and time into were still being
valued more than a century later was
special.
PGN: I had a hat that I wore 24/7 as a
teen until I think some of my friends had
an intervention and destroyed it. What’s a
piece of clothing from your youth that has
significance for you?
LM: Doc Marten boots. Before then I
mostly wore lightweight slippers, and I
remember the weight of the boots and
how they made me feel powerful and
changed the way I walk. I also remember
watching the movie “Cabaret” and being
smitten with green nail polish. It was
really hard to find at that time, but I was
determined to find it. I love the fact that
we’re now in a time
49
where
self-expression
seems to be a lot more
tolerated and it’s easier to find
things like green nail polish!
PGN: William! Tell me a little about what
you do?
WD: I’m an assistant preventive conservator.
I’ve worked here at Winterthur for about 15
years. I got my start as a preparator, installing
exhibits and then worked my way here. For
the “Crown” exhibit I worked on a lot of the
soft supports.
PGN: Soft supports?
WD: Yes, kind of like the dress dummies that
go under the garments, but ours are very spe-
cialized. The costumes were all custom made
for the actors — their bodies, their postures
and the way they move — so we created a lot
of padded structures to ensure that the gar-
ments would reflect that as well. The manne-
quins may look standard but they’re definitely
not. It took about 35 hours to construct each
one. The actors might only wear the costumes
for a few hours, but they’re going to be on
display for a year, so we don’t want anything
to sag or droop over time.
PGN: Were you given the actor’s measure-
ments?
WD: In some cases, yes, but we mostly used
the textiles themselves as a baseline.
PGN: What was your favorite piece to work
on?
WD: I worked a lot with the men’s cloth-
ing, and I really liked the Duke of Windsor’s
windowpane suit. Very handsome and smart
looking.
PGN: What did you want to be when you
grew up?
WD: I wanted to be a lunch page 69
50 PGN
Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com

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Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com

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Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com
OCTOBER 11-17, 2019
S C E N E I N P H I L LY
55

TEAM AUSTIN FUNDRAISER FOR

SUICIDE AWARENESS AT UBAR PHOTOS BY KELLY BURKHARDT

N i c k , R a s h e e d , A n d r e w, C h u c k a n d A d a m E n e i d a , J a m e s , A n t h o ny a n d A l e x i s

To d d a n d J e r r y J ay a n d M a x

John and Joseph A e r ya n a h , Ty a n d C h r i s M i c h a e l , Au d r ey, M a t t a n d J u s t i n

56 Q PUZZLE
Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com

Judy Collins sings of Sondheim

J U DY C O L L I N S , P h o t o b y B r a d Tr e n t

GARY M. KRAMER Collins then provides an example to make

PGN Contributor her point. “Randy Newman wrote a musical
called ‘Faust.’ It’s interesting, but it has one
Grammy award-winning singer Judy Col- song that is spectacular, called, ‘Feels Like
lins will perform a concert, “Love Letters to Home.’ It is a stunning song. It’s worth this
Sondheim,” at the Merriam Theater on Oct. effort to write whole musical just to get this
17 at 7:30 p.m. The show is a fitting tribute to one song.”
the out gay composer, whose song, “Send in Ten songs by Sondheim appear on Collins’
the Clowns” from his show, “A Little Night 2017 album, “A Love Letter to Sondheim,”
Music,” became a signature song for Collins which is the basis for her concert. She
and one of her biggest and best-known hits. anticipates performing “Not While I’m
In a recent phone interview, the singer Around,” “Take Me to the World,” “Liaisons”
talked about “Clowns,” admitting that at the and “Anyone Can Whistle” in Philadelphia.
time she discovered the song, she didn’t know “They are stand-alone songs,” she observed,
Stephen Sondheim. A friend had sent her the “They don’t need a show to go with them.”
cast album for “A Little Night Music” and The album almost never came to be. Twen-
told her to listen to the track. Collins did and ty-seven years ago, Sondheim was going to
immediately called Hal Prince, who knew play on the album for Nonesuch Records, but
Q Puzzle 39 Like clothing
after an orgy
mon
9 Vowel for Soc-
36 Stein, for one
37 What S&M peo-
Collins from her recording of Joni Mitchell’s Sondheim declined and Nonesuch passed.
“Both Sides Now.” Collins was crushed, and after 25 years, final-
40 With 52-Across, rates ple are as smart as?
S ATA N , “The ___ ” (fashion 10 Vidal’s “Live 40 Explorer Vasco She recalled, “I told him I listened to this ly released the dream project.
S A R TO R I A L LY industry flick) from ___ ” ___ cast album and there’s a wonderful song on “I wanted to do an album of the songs that
42 Pleased sound 11 What a Subaru 41 Down in the here, and I told him what it was. He said, were right for me. Not because they were
Across 43 R. Simmons’ loss Forester gives a les- dumps ‘200 people have recorded it.’ I said, ‘I don’t Sondheim, but because they were interesting
1 Common connec- 46 “Fabu!” bian? 43 “A ___ of Their care.’” She asked him who should do the to me and wonderful songs,” she acknowl-
tions 49 Like Everett, as a 12 Visit casually Own” orchestration. He said, “Jonathan Tunick.” edged. “I’ve had 40 years to choose from
5 Go in only part- movie husband 20 “ ___ Got Mail” 44 Homophobe, The rest is musical history. The song spent the repertoire of Sondheim. So, I’ve looked
way, at the beach 51 Bellows on the 21 Threesome for e.g. 11 weeks on the charts in 1975, and 16 more and listened to the songs and chosen the best
9 “How queer!” set Marcella Hazan 45 Stonewall candi- weeks in 1977. It won Song of the Year at the — especially those for a singer, not simply
13 Honeypot lover 52 See 40-Across 25 Performer with date lists Grammys in 1976. an interpreter or dramatist. There are lyrical
14 Anal alternative 55 Hertz compet- a big mouth? 47 What to scan in Collins got to know Hal Prince well in the songs that fewer people know from ‘Into the
15 Etheridge con- itor 28 “Ixnay” and “No poetry
years before his death and he told her, “You Woods.’ I think you’ll find that I made them
cert series 57 Brisk pace way” 48 Before the cock
58 “___ a Kick out 29 RBI to Glenn rises don’t know how much you did for Sondheim singable.”
16 Shirley’s la
Douce role of You” Burke 50 A dentist may and that song — it was phenomenal!” Collins’ style is distinctive, and she
17 ___ Hari 59 Sexy clothing 31 Lover of Henry stick it in your Collins boasts that she was “the first to get observed, “I sing like Judy Collins, not like
18 Low-voiced lady material and June mouth the hit,” citing that Frank Sinatra also record- anyone else. That’s the secret — if there is
19 She plays Ms. 60 “Lohengrin” so- 32 Blade brand 53 Lorca’s pink ed “Send in the Clowns” around the same a secret. I’m not a cabaret singer. It doesn’t
Charlton in a fash- prano 33 Daughter of 54 Gay-dog owner time. Jac Holzman an executive at Elektra matter what venue I am in, or how large the
ion industry flick 61 Go downhill Uranus of _South Park_ Records later confessed to Collins that he audience is — a huge outdoor festival or 100
22 Log Cabin org. fast? 35 Pub propri- 56 “The L Word”’s once got a call from the then-President of seats at the Carlyle — it’s me singing the
23 Pound poem 62 Concerning etresses old network Elektra saying that Sinatra’s people called song.”
part 63 Phillippe of to ask Elektra to hold the release of Collins As for what audiences can expect from
24 Wireless inventor “Gosford Park” version because [Sinatra] wanted to go first. “Love Letters to Stephen Sondheim,” Collins
26 “Can’t Get It Out 64 Staying power, Jac told Collins, “I guess you know what I demurs, “I’ll do a little of this and a little of
of My Head” band in “Variety”
told him.” that. It’s 60 years of music. I sing some of
27 Young ___ (kids,
D ow n The anecdote serves as a guide for how the hits, and I’ll intersperse other songs from
to Gomer)
30 John, who is 1 Singly Collins determines what to sing. She re- my career. I hope it’s a wild adventure in
working on a musi- 2 Tom Wilkinson’s vealed, “In each case, there are songs I chose sparkling history. I’ll do highlights — ‘Send
cal version of a fash- trans film that made it out of the jungle,” and added, “I in the Clowns,’ and ‘Both Sides Now’ — and
ion industry flick 3 Tile with pips am attracted to songs I fall in love with. It’s a new song I’ve written called ‘Dreamers,’
31 2009 James Cam- 4 Commandment not going through the whole show.” about immigration. I think you’ll find some
eron film word She explained, “It’s great to see a show, surprises as well as hits.” n
34 Bit of resistance 5 Orientation loca- but what everybody wants is to walk out and
on the circuit tion, some say sing the song that’s the point of the whole Judy Collins performs “Love Letters to
35 She plays Ms. 6 Inland Asian sea show. It means that the author [of the show] Stephen Sondheim” at the Merriam Theater,
Sachs in a fashion 7 Bit spit out by a has made his point. It may have taken him Oct. 17 at 7:30 p.m. For tickets and more
industry flick computer two hours and 350 musicians, and the whole information, visit kimmelcenter.org/events-
38 Long, in Hawaii 8 Writer Dykewo- mishegoss, but it makes his reputation.” and-tickets/201920/kcp/judy-collins.
OCTOBER 11-17, 2019
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FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11
THROUGH
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 13
4231 Avenue of the Republic, Philadelphia, PA 19131 • 215.581.3181 • www.pleasetouchmuseum.org
OCTOBER 11-17, 2019
Groundbreaking musical
still relevant in Philly
CAMERON KELSALL
PGN Contributor
William Finn and James Lapine’s
groundbreaking musical “Falsettos” chron-
icled a queer blended family before those
terms were even a part of the lexicon. Work
on the production began in the late 1970s,
but it premiered on Broadway in its final
form in 1992. The musical follows the tri-
als and tribulations of Marvin, who divorc-
es his wife, comes out of the closet and
commences a same-sex partnership with
his friend, Whizzer. Marvin and Whizzer
co-parent Marvin’s son, Jason, along with
Marvin’s ex-wife Trina and her new hus-
band Mendel. The show is notable for its
frank examination of sexuality, the HIV/
AIDS epidemic and what it means to be a
family.
The material has remained relevant
across the decades — a 2016 Broadway re-
vival, featuring out actors Andrew Rannells
and Brandon Uranowitz, was broadcast on
public television. It returns to Philadelphia
in a new production by 11th Hour Theatre
Company, running from Oct. 12-20 as part
of the Next Step Concert Series. Multi-tal-
ented out artist Jennie Eisenhower directs,
and 11th Hour co-founder and associate ar-
tistic director Steve Pacek stars as Marvin.
PGN spoke with Eisenhower and Pacek
about the musical’s enduring message and
J E N N I E E I S E N H OW E R
D I R E C T O R O F “ FA L S E T T O S ”
(Cour tesy of 11th Hour
Theatre Company)
S T E V E PA C E K
11TH HOUR CO-FOUNDER &
A S S O C I AT E A R T I S T I C D I R E C T O R
(Cour tesy of 11th Hour
Theatre Company)
T H E AT E R
59
how the show intersects with their personal
lives. Some responses have been condensed
and edited for clarity.
PGN: “Falsettos” is a show about family.
What draws you to the theme of family in
the show?
SP: I grew up in Philadelphia, and more
and more, I’m shocked at how much of my
extended family have started to come out
and support the projects I’m involved in.
It used to just be my nuclear family — my
mom, my stepdad, my sister — but now
my aunts and uncles have started coming.
So extended family, and what that means,
is a growing theme in my life. Also, my
stepdad is Jewish, so that aspect of the
show is something that’s really cool for me
to start thinking about — how that part of
my upbringing will be central to this piece,
which is about a Jewish family.
JE: The definition of the American family
is expanding and changing rapidly, and I
think “Falsettos” was at the forefront of
that. The piece feels so relevant right now,
with the whole idea of a queer man who
HALLOW
is raising his son with his ex-wife and her
new partner, and the idea of a family as not
just mom, dad, two kids and a white picket
fence. It is two different houses and five
QUEEN
sets of grandparents, or whatever the real-
ity is. That is what my family is: I co-par-
ent my child with my ex-husband and my
current partner, who is a woman. “Falset-
tos” really explores the struggles and the
beauty of a blended family, because when
you’re trying to show up for your child and
extra effort is involved, you’re more aware
of how important it is that everyone is on
the same road.
PGN: This musical has been around, in
one form or another, for almost 40 years.
As contemporary artists, what are some of
OCT 26
the ways you’re approaching presenting
this piece to a 2019 audience?
JE: I think the show can’t exist in any
time other than when it was written, so I
don’t have any plans to modernize it. That
specific era so deeply impacted the queer
community, and the broader acceptance
of that community. I grew up in the ’90s,
and if you said or thought anything about
THORGY THOR • SHERRY VINE
“gay,” people thought “AIDS.” It was at-
tached to the word. This musical is on the
precipice of that, with the first version of
PANDORA BOXX • PHI PHI O’HARA
it coming right before the AIDS epidemic
really came to light, and that’s such an im-
portant part of the piece. I definitely want
to use our rehearsal time to talk with the
cast about the history of the period, and of
being gay in America.
SP: It’s crazy to think how much society’s
$
99 FALL ESCAPE PACKAGE
thinking about AIDS has shifted from the INCLUDES $50 DINING & SHOW TICKETS
early ’80s to today. That’s really an anchor
FOR TICKETS & TO BOOK YOUR STAY, VISIT: HARDROCKHOTELATLANTICCITY.COM
point, because as we’ve said, so much of
the rest of the story relates directly to what
is still being figured out now. Certain rules & restrictions apply. Valid Sunday-Thursday through 12/16/19;
JE: It is difficult for those page 63 based on availability. Excludes taxes, fees, holidays & blackout dates.
60 PGN
Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com
OCTOBER 11-17, 2019
PGN
61
62 PGN
Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com
OCTOBER 11-17, 2019
PGN
63
FALSETTOS from page 59

of us who didn’t live through it to put

ourselves into the position of a time when
AIDS was viewed as a death sentence or
with great uncertainty. The main thing that
shifts between the first and the second acts
of this show is that we go from everyone
worrying about the minutiae of life into a
life-or-death experience. And it really calls
into question who your family is and what
matters to you. I think we can all relate to
that, even if the material hearkens back to
a different era.

PGN: What are the elements that make

you want to work on a project?
SP: If I can feel the heartbeat of a piece, I
am drawn to that. I believe that actors are
emotional warriors. When I’m teaching,
I tell my students this all the time: It is
our job to take on these larger emotional
states so that we can help audiences for
when they might be going through a
similar journey in the present or the future.
Any show that celebrates having to figure
things out, where people are not afraid to
dive into their hearts to find answers, is
what I am very connected to.
JE: I love drama and I love story — usu-
ally one with a fair amount of adversity. I
love a scrappy heroine. I love conflict and
a fight, and I love great music too. William
Finn is just such a beautiful composer, and
his music just makes you feel things.

PGN: Steve, as a co-founder of 11th

Hour, how do you view “Falsettos” in the
trajectory of the musicals the company
has presented in the past?
SP: The mission of 11th Hour has always
been risky and cutting-edge musicals —
not the stuff you would necessarily see in
more “mainstream” venues. I think Wil-
liam Finn has always pushed the envelope,
so his work is perfect for what we do.
Also, part of the mission of our Next Step
Concert Series is to highlight work that is
new or seldom-seen. I think “Falsettos”
has fallen off the radar somewhat. When I
was in high school, everyone in my drama
club knew “Falsettos,” but I’m not sure
that’s true anymore. It excites me that we
will be introducing an important work
of the musical theater canon to the next
generation. I’m really curious to see how
they are going to react to the similarities
and differences of life then and now.
JE: I agree. “Falsettos” takes place in
1978 and 1981. I’m in a queer family in
2019, and the forms my daughter gets at
school still say “Mother” and “Father” as
the options. There is still a father/daugh-
ter dance at her school. It’s interesting
that things are becoming more fluid, but
the societal expectations are still there.
Anything that breaks from that is worth
continuing to explore and discuss, because
it’s happening more and more, but it’s not
reflected in our culture as much as it could
be. n

“Falsettos” runs Oct. 12-20 at Christ

Church Neighborhood House in Old
City. For tickets and information, visit
11thhourtheatrecompany.org.
64 PGN
Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com
OCTOBER 11-17, 2019
T H E AT E R & A R T S
CATHERINE COHEN
The writer and comedian (“Seek Treatment”)
performs 8:30 and 10 p.m., Oct. 12 at Good
Good Comedy Theatre, 215 N. 11th St.; 215-
399-1279.
CHINA NIGHT
The Philadelphia Orchestra performs music
by Tan Dun and John Adams, as well as
works celebrating Chinese musical culture, 8
p.m. Oct. 12 at Kimmel’s Verizon Hall, 300
S. Broad St.; 215-893-1999.
DON QUIXOTE
Pennsylvania Ballet performs one of the most 215-923-2960.
popular ballets of all time, through Oct. 20 at
Kimmel’s Academy of Music, 240 S. Broad
St.; 215-893-1999.
HAMILTON
The smash-hit blockbuster musical makes its Central Library, 1901 Vine St.; 215-686-5322.
Philly debut, through Nov. 17 at Kimmel’s
Forrest Theatre, 1114 Walnut St. St.; 215-
923-1515.
HERBERT FERBER: FORM INTO SPACE
Philadelphia Museum of Art presents an
exhibition featuring sculptures and related
drawings that Herbert Ferber (1906-91) cre-
ated during the 1950s — the artist’s most
creative period, through Jan. 5, 26th Street
and the Parkway; 215-763-8100.
MATILDA: THE MUSICAL
Media Theatre Company presents the Tony
Award-winning musical based on the beloved
literary character created by Roald Dahl,
through Oct. 27, 104 E. State St., Media;
610-891-0100.
MICHAEL IAN BLACK
The comedian seen on “The State” performs
through Oct. 12 at Helium Comedy Club,
2031 Sansom St.; 215-496-9001.
MIMI IMFURST PRESENTS DRAG DIVA
BRUNCH
Mimi Imfurst and special guests perform 11
a.m.-2 p.m. Oct. 12 at Punch Line Philly, 33
E. Laurel St.; 215-606-6555.
THE MOST REVOLUTIONARY: LGBTQ
POLITICS 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
decades following Stonewall, through Dec.
27, 1315 Spruce St.; 215-732-2220.
#QUEERLIFEPHL
William Way LGBT Community Center
hosts an exhibition exploring how we use our
phones as a tool to record and communicate
our stories and how, by sharing, we create a
sense of identity, expression and, ultimately,
an act of resistance by refusing to be erased,
through Oct. 25, 1315 Spruce St; 215-732-
2220
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.
EVENTS
THE ROOMMATE
1812 Productions presents the comedy about
two women in the ’50s sharing a house in Iowa
and in need of a fresh start, through Oct. 20 at
Plays & Players Theatre, 1714 Delancey Place;
215-592-9560.
SAMANTHA RUDDY
The comedian on “The Late Show” and Comedy
Central records her live comedy album, 8:30
and 10 p.m., Oct. 11 at Good Good Comedy
Theatre, 215 N. 11th St.; 215-399-1279.
SERENA J. BISHOP
The author of “Dreams” hosts a reading, 6 p.m.
Oct. 12 at Giovanni’s Room, 345 S. 12th St.;
SUSAN RICE
The former national security advisor talks her
new book “Tough Love: My Story of the Things
Worth Fighting For,” 7:30 p.m. Oct. 10 at
YANNICK AND MAHLEr
The Philadelphia Orchestra performs, Oct.
17-19 at Kimmel’s Verizon Hall, 300 S. Broad
St.; 215-893-1999.
YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN: THE MUSICAL
Walnut Street Theatre presents the stage adap-
tation of Mel Brook’s classic comedy, through
Oct. 20, 825 Walnut St.; 215-574-3550.
MUSIC
THE MELVINS
The alternative rock band performs, 9 p.m.
Oct. 12 at Underground Arts, 1200 Callowhill
St.; 215-627-1332.
together the best of the dance form
RAY LAMONTAGNE
The singer-songwriter performs 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 13 at The Met, 858 N. Broad St.; info@
TheMetPhilly.com.
THE BLACK KEYS
The rock band performs 6 p.m. Oct. 14 at
Wells Fargo Center, 3601 S. Broad St.; 215-
389-9543.
GRETA VAN FLEET
The retro rock band performs 8 p.m. Oct.
15-16 at The Met, 858 N. Broad St.; info@
TheMetPhilly.com.
NATASHA BEDINGFIELD
The singer-songwriter performs 8 p.m. Oct.
17 at Union Transfer, 1026 Spring Garden St.;
215-232-2100.
REZZ
The Canadian DJ and producer performs 8
p.m. Oct. 18 at The Met, 858 N. Broad St.;
info@TheMetPhilly.com.
!!! (CHK CHK CHK)
The dance/punk band performs, 9 p.m. Oct. 18
at Underground Arts, 1200 Callowhill St.; 215-
627-1332.
‘ALWAYS’ ALI:
Actress and comedian, Ali
Wong, brings her “Milk and
Money” comedy tour through
town for an evening of hilarity 7
and 9:30 p.m. Oct. 17 at The
Met, 858 N. Broad St. For more
information or tickets e-mail,
info@TheMetPhilly.com.
Stars of American Ballet brings
for the ensemble’s Philadelphia
debut, Oct. 18-19 at Zellerbach
Theatre, 3680 Walnut St. For more
information or tickets,
call 215-898-3900
GAZING AT THE STARS
65
events
NIGHTLIFE
WITCH PLEASE!
Philly Drag Wars returns with a special
Halloween edition, 7 p.m. Oct. 11 at
Voyeur, 1221 Saint James St.; 215-735-
5772.
BUNS OUT
Mr. Philadelphia hosts an Outfest under-
wear dance party fundraiser, 10 p.m. Oct.
11 at The Bike Stop, 206 S. Quince St.;
215-627-1662.
SWAY
Philly’s biggest, queerest monthly dance
party, 8 p.m. Oct. 12 at Tabu, 200 S. 12th
St.; 215-964-9675.
MELANGERIE: AN ALL QPOC SHOW
Essa Terick, Foxworth Vorn, Leila
Estrella, Arayna AKA Pyxilation Ray and
Renaissance Noir perform, 8 p.m. Oct. 16
at Frank Bradley’s, 1320 Chancellor St.;
215-735-0735.
HARRY POTTER AND THE NIGHT OF
DRAG
Drag performers wave their magic wands,
7 p.m. Oct. 17 at Tabu, 200 S. 12th St.;
215-964-9675.
BLACK GIRL MAGIC
A drag show featuring local black per-
formers, 8 p.m. Oct. 18 at Voyeur, 1221
Saint James St.; 215-735-5772.
O U T TA T O W N
FOUND FOOTAGE FESTIVAL
Hosts Joe Pickett (The Onion) and
Nick Prueher (Late Show with David
Letterman) take audiences on a guided
tour of their all-time favorite VHS finds, 8
p.m. Oct. 11 at The Colonial Theatre, 227
Bridge St., Phoenixville; 610-917-1228.
LEWIS BLACK
The comedian seen on “The Daily Show”
performs Oct. 11-12 at the Borgata Hotel,
Casino & Spa Music Box, 1 Borgata Way,
Atlantic City, N.J.; 609-317-1000.
SARAH COLONNA
The comedian seen on Chelsea Lately
performs Oct. 17-18 at The Queen, 500 N.
Market St., Wilmington, Del.; 202-730-
3331.
ROY WOOD JR.
The comedian seen on “The Daily Show”
performs 9 p.m. Oct. 18 at the Borgata
Hotel, Casino & Spa Music Box, 1
Borgata Way, Atlantic City, N.J.; 609-317-
1000.
FLOWER PARADE
Saul Lyons Gallery presents an exhibition
for works by Susan Ottaviano focused on
colorful flora, through Nov. 2, 39 Bridge
St., New Hope; www.saullyons.com. n
66 T H E AT E R
Out actor talks Philly theater,
starring role
A.D. AMOROSI
PGN Contributor
Inis Nua Theatre commences its 16th
season, this week, with the Philadelphia
premiere of Tony Award-nominated
playwright Conor McPherson’s “The
Night Alive.” The City of Brotherly
Love’s producer of provocative, con-
temporary, plays from Ireland, England,
Scotland and Wales offers a tale of ordi-
nary madness, starring out local actor
Andrew Criss. As directed by Inis Nua
founder and artistic director Thom Reing,
McPherson’s tale of finding safety and
solace from abusive relationships, past
and present finds Criss’ Tommy battling,
literally and figuratively, for his life.
Before October 11’s “The Night
Alive” opening at Louis Bluver Theatre
at the Drake, Criss talked to PGN about
his time as a Philadelphia thespian.
PGN: I know you first from Mauck-
ingbird Theatre, “Tartuffe” and Peter
Reynolds. What do you think you gleaned
from Reynolds and the Mauckingbird
experience, especially the company’s
LGBTQ focus?
AC: I’d been wanting to work with Peter
Reynolds ever since seeing his production
of “The Pirates of Penzance,” so I was
delighted when he cast me as Orgon in
“Tartuffe.” Peter blends comedy, camp
and the classics in a way that makes them
fresh, funny and relatable. Even though I
was playing a straight man in our pro-
duction, Peter, God bless him, gave me
license to make Orgon not only domineer-
ing and bombastic, but also flamboyant
and fabulous. Having permission to paint
with all the colors of my own personality
was liberating, and it’s influenced my
work ever since.
PGN: What would you say, as an acting
presence, is your signature? Your tell?
Your tic? And why is that, do you think?
AC: I play people who have great power
and great problems. Often, their power is
the source of their problems. I’m drawn
to characters who are intense, emotionally
complex and physically capable; charac-
ters who can do all three Fs: fight, flee,
and f--k.
PGN: How and why did you get to Inis
Nua in the first place?
AC: Tom Reing, Inis Nua’s artistic di-
rector and founder, cast me in “Our Few
and Evil Days” after seeing me play Leo
Tolstoy in a production at The Lantern
Theater Company. I’d enjoyed the plays
I’d seen at Inis Nua: new plays — to me
at least — skillfully acted in cleverly
mounted productions.
PGN: After there, what was your percep-
tion?
AC: The Inis Nua productions I’d seen
Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com
crackled with intriguing tension, and “Our
Few and Evil Days” was no exception. I
was delighted to find that, by contrast, the
rehearsals and preparations for Inis Nua
shows are calm and collaborative.
PGN: What do you think differentiates
Tom as a director from others?
AC: Tom gives the actors great freedom
to experiment. He’s never dictatorial in
the room and welcomes the team’s ideas
and perspectives, even when it’s later in
the process. It’s never a problem to ask
questions, and it’s never too late to try
something to make the performances even
better.
PGN: Who is or what is the character
of Tommy for you? What can you tell
me about the character and how your
internalized him…. Go home with him
at night?
AC: Though Tommy resonated with
me from my first reading, I spent a lot
of time thinking and re-thinking about
what Tommy wants and why he wants it
and what’s stopping him from getting it.
He’s complicated, in an interesting way.
We’re the same age, but (like me) he’s
kind of a boy in a man’s body. Some of
the problems that come with his place on
his life path are problems I wrestle with.
He longs for connection, even though
people who love him (or will love him)
are nearby. He swings between manic
energy and melancholy. He interrupts
—even himself — exaggerates, fibs,
changes topics quickly and struggles to
let go and love. He needs to love himself
so he can love others. No matter how
many times I watch Drag Race, I’m
often — well, always — working on that
one.
PGN: How does McPherson’s poetry
speak to you, directly?
AC: McPherson’s plays are full of
language that is incredibly simple and
direct while exploring themes that are
heart-stirring and universal. There is
always something underneath, or just
beyond, what is being said. The beauty
comes not from the floweriness of the
language, but in the thoughts, images
and questions it provokes.
PGN: I have heard bits and pieces about
the fight scene and the special fight
choreographer. Tell me something funny
or fascinating about being part of a stage
brawl. And are you much of a boxer?
AC: Two words: head butt. Steve Wei, our
fight choreographer and director, is awe-
some, and he’s designed a nicely nasty
brawl. Minou Pourshariati (who is also
awesome) plays Aimee and is our fight
captain. Together they’ve helped everyone
learn, refine and execute the stage com-
bat. If I come off as a good fighter, they
get the credit. And there will be blood. n
OCTOBER 11-17, 2019
PGN
67
FILM FEST from page 47
an absorbing film made with consider-
able empathy and righteous anger. Ozon’s
concerned approach never allows “By the
Grace of God” to become too melodra-
matic or histrionic.
“Temblores (Tremors)” is an exquisite —
and exquisitely made — Guatemalan drama
by out gay filmmaker Jayro Bustamante.
Pablo (Juan Pablo Olyslager), an upper-class,
evangelical, married father of two, leaves
his family for his lover, Francisco (Mauricio
Armas). The ripples of his coming out create
the tremors of the title as Pablo is cut off
from his kids and brings shame on his family.
How he negotiates his situation is compelling
as Pablo learns the harsh lesson that he cannot
have his family and his lover — society won’t
allow it. “Tremors” is a quietly powerful film
buoyed by Olyslager’s remarkable, internal
performance. The film speaks volumes about
how Latin American culture is ruled by
religion and class issues, especially when it
comes to homosexuality.
Although “And Then We Danced,” is a
familiar coming out story, it is set in an unfa-
miliar place — Tbilisi. This engrossing drama
concerns Merab (Levan Galbakhiani), a clos-
eted young dancer in a Georgian National
company who finds himself attracted to Irakli
(Bachi Valishvili), a replacement performer.
At first, Merab is threatened by his rival —
they are both competing for a position in
the main ensemble — but soon they become
friends, and, one fateful night, lovers. Writer/
director Levan Akin allows Merab to express
all his desires and emotions through dancing,
be it in his seductive routine for Irakli one
evening, or his visit to a nightclub with a gay
stranger he meets. Galbakhiani’s performance
as an actor and a dancer is fantastic, and his
goofy smiling at the thought of Irakli is infec-
tious. It compensates for Akin going through
the expected motions of telling the heartfelt
story of a young man’s sexual awakening
while illustrating the difficulties of being gay
in Georgia.
The festival also features two short films
with queer content. The nifty and intense
drama “Lockdown,” by Caroline Held and
Logan George, concerns Marie (Allegra
Leguizamo), a teenager with a crush on her
best friend. “The Distance Between Us and
the Sky” is a beautifully made drama about a
young man (Yoko Ioannis Kotidis) who asks
a handsome stranger (Nikos Zeginoglou) for
some money at a gas station. As they converse
and share a joint, the men form an intense
connection that may lead somewhere.
A few films in the festival are not available
for preview but have queer talent in front of
or behind the camera. “Cunningham” is a
documentary, filmed in glorious 3-D, about
the late gay dancer and choreographer, Merce
Cunningham. The Brazilian import “Invisible
Life,” by out gay filmmaker Karim Aïnouz,
tells a tale of two sisters. “Seberg” stars out
actress Kristen Stewart as the controversial
actress Jean Seberg. The festival also includes
a screening of the late gay filmmaker Franco
Zeffirelli’s classic 1968 film, “Romeo and
Juliet.” n

For tickets, showtimes, and more informa-

tion, visit http://filmadelphia.org/festival/.
68 PGN
Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com
OCTOBER 11-17, 2019
PGN
69
PORTRAIT from page 49
box maker. I have a collection of lunch boxes
that I love. My mother was convinced I was
going to be a graphic designer, but I wanted
to be a jeweler. I studied silversmithing and
eventually found my way into sculpture. I
love thinking of something, creating it and
then sitting on it, but that’s hard to translate
into a career unless you’re a trust-fund baby.
So I started working in retail trending towards
window design. As luck would have it, I
found my way into a two-week position at the
Delaware Art Museum, and that’s how it all
started.

PGN: Aside from “The Crown,” what are

some of your favorite projects?
WD: As Laura mentioned, we do a lot of
work with needlework and there’s a big show
and conference every other year which is a
big draw for us and I’ve had a few fun chal-
lenges with that. I also get to do some courier
jobs, escorting exhibits to other museums and
that’s fun. To see how other institutions set
things up and also to problem solve on the fly.

PGN: Where did you grow up?

WD: In Oxford, Pennsylvania, not far from
here, and I went to school here too. I have a
master’s degree from the University of Dela-
ware.

PGN: The fighting Blue Hens!

WD: Yes, that’s about as much as I know
about the sports department. I didn’t get the
athletic gene, but I do have a tee shirt.

PGN: You mentioned that you work in pre-

ventive conservation. What does that mean?
Keeping things in a dark vault?
WD: Sometimes, there are 10 agents of dete-
rioration and one of them is light, others are T H U R SDAY, O C TOBER 24
correct temperature, correct humidity, theft,
disassociation which could mean a piece be-
ing separated from other parts or its story. LINCOLN FINANCIAL FIELD

2019
PGN: What kinds of things do you keep VIP TASTING: 5–9PM | GRAND TASTING: 6:30–9PM
here?
WD: In this room, we have mostly the equip-
ment for constructing and preserving things,
but in storage, we have everything from quilts Enjoy more than 250 premium distilled spirits including whiskey, scotch,
and curtains, some costumes, rugs, printed vodka, gin, rum, tequila, cordials and handcrafted cocktails—all in one night!
textiles and then there are other collections
that other departments work with, ceramics
and metals, etc.

PGN: I feel like we’re in a lab created by Dr. TICKETS ON SALE NOW
Seuss, there are all sorts of giant funnels and
things with big hoses hanging down. P H I L LY M A G . C O M / W H I S K E Y F E S T
WD: In conservation, we work with a lot of
solvents, the cleaning mixes that Laura was @ P H I L LY M A G E V E N T S | # P H LW H I S K E Y F E S T
speaking about, so we have a lot of machines
that are designed for our safety to keep the
fumes, etc. away. We have something called
a threshold limit value which measures how
much you’re exposing yourself to make sure PRESENTED BY SPONSORED BY BENEFICIARY

we’re safe.

PGN: [Laughing] Are you worried you’ll

extract the Bubonic plague out of a garment,
“Jurassic Park”-style?
WD: No, but we do get some mystery stains
that you try not to think about. A LWAY S W E A R Y O U R S E AT B E LT A N D P L E A S E D O N ’ T D R I N K A N D D R I V E .

PGN: I guess a blue dress

comes to mind. page 72
70 PGN
Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com

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71
72 COMEDY
Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com

Laughter is the best medicine

LARRY NICHOLS TM: I never used to touch on my day job people. Do they have that for pets as well? TM: Absolutely. If I can find a way to make
larry@epgn.com because I didn’t think it was interesting to TM: It’s purely out of pocket unless you my day funny on stage, it takes a bit of the
anyone at all. Then I was telling work stories have insurance for your pets. Definitely, in sting out for sure. I use it as an outlet, and I
Standup comedy is going to the dogs…and to comedian friends of mine, and they said Canada, people have a twisted idea of how also use my comedy at work. If I can make
cats. Out Canadian comedian and veterinarian “Why don’t you talk about this on stage?” much health care costs. It’s a challenge a tense or depressing situation a little bit
Ted Morris takes his bedside pet manners to Sometimes it’s awkward. One time I was every time. It’s the worst part of my job. I lighter with comedy, I will definitely do that.
the stage with his first comedy album, “Dawn counseling a woman about her ancient dog wish I wasn’t the one who had to go over the I turn a lot of my euthanasias into wakes.
of the Ted.” whose time was coming, and she might want finances. I wish I could tell them what their People are crying and laughing and telling
Morris has spent the last 20 years tending to consider euthanasia. And then I was doing pets need and someone else could come in stories. It always confuses the staff. Why
to people’s small fur-babies during the day some cat-killing jokes on stage that night, and go over the finances. The reality is I’ll is everyone laughing? What’s going on in
and taking the stage at night to make people and she was in the audience. So that was come up with my Plan A and act as if the pet there? Just don’t ask. It definitely helps to
laugh, sometimes at the darker aspects of slightly awkward. But I’ve had the opposite has socialized medicine and the take things lighten the mood. My clients like that. Most
being a vet. where people had just put their cat down and down from there. of them know that I do stand up and enjoy
PGN talked to Morris about his new album decided to go see a comedy show and found coming to see “the fun vet.”
and how he turns some people’s bad days at it quite cathartic to hear me talking about it. PGN: What’s the biggest medical bill you’ve
the vet’s office into good nights at the come- I definitely do have some people come up to ever had to drop on a pet owner? Ted Morris’ “Dawn of the Ted” is available
dy club. me and tell me they were offended afterward TM: The biggest single estimate I gave was via Howl & Roar Records. For more infor-
and I always say, “OK!” three grand to fix a puppy with parvovirus, mation, visit tedmorriscomedy.wpcomstag-
PGN: You’re making medical professional with a chance that they might spend all that ing.com/ or howlandroarrecords.com. n
money. Why be a comedian? PGN: How long have you been doing money and end up with a dead puppy. But
TM: Standup was something I never thought standup comedy? they spent all that money, ended up with a PORTRAIT from page 69
I would do. I fell into it, and I can’t stop. It’s TM: I stepped on stage for the first time 20 very alive puppy and still complained about LM: [Laughing] That would be a little less mys-
an addiction. It’s much more fun than my years ago. I was very much a hobbyist for it. “He said it was going to be three grand, terious!
day job. the first five or six years. I was still in med and it was, and we’re mad.”
school so I was limited by location and PGN: What was your best and worst Hal-
PGN: People are really sensitive and spare time for the amount of comedy I could PGN: What’s more emotionally taxing for loween costume?
sentimental about pets and animals. Is it do. Then, when I moved to Toronto after I you: having to give bad news to pet owners LM: I really like puns and a group of
challenging to incorporate humor into your graduated, it was to do tons of standup. I or trying to make it in the comedy business? crows is called a murder, so I made a fas-
profession? didn’t realize how much time it would take TM: My job would be very easy if we didn’t cinator with a crow killing another crow
to become a competent veterinarian. I had have to worry about owners. I had to take a with red sequins dripping down like blood.
T E D M O R R I S a very slow burn to start, so I feel like I’m year off a couple years back because I was That was a favorite. The worst, when I was
making up for lost time now. getting very burnt out. Now I’m looking at in second grade I was fascinated by elec-
taking an extended break because it’s just tricity so I decided to go as “the spirit of
PGN: Are you excited to release your first too much. It’s a lot of giving people bad energy.” I dressed in blue with a rainbow
comedy album after all that time? news, dealing with very difficult situations feathered face mask that somehow in my
TM: I’m thrilled about that. I tend to do and a lot of people with unrealistic expecta- 7-year-old mind represented electricity. No
things when I’m overly prepared. I’m a tions about what we can actually do for their one had any idea what I was.
couple years behind what I should be doing. pets, especially if they hamstring me with fi- WD: My best and worst are the same. I
I tend to wait until I’m very confident about nancial limitations. Some people want to do was always anxious at Halloween, I didn’t
what I’m putting it out. I think it’s crazy. Ev- everything and I’m like, “I don’t care how like people in masks, I still don’t, but a
erybody is putting out an album these days. much money you spend; there’s absolutely friend suggested I take an umbrella, cut
I look at comics that have been doing it for nothing you can do for your cat.” I often it in half and glue it into a long sleeve
five years and yeah, you’re funny but I can’t have to talk people out of making really bad t-shirt to make bat wings. Unfortunately, I
imagine putting any of my original material financial decisions. Is it really in your cat’s didn’t think to remove the armature which
on an album in perpetuity. I think I may have best interest to do all this stuff to keep them became problematic when driving! It was
waited slightly too long, but it feels like the alive for another week? It’s an emotionally painful, and to add to my misery, when
right time for me. draining job for sure. I got to the party I ran into some friends
PGN: So, it sounds like comedy is some- who were costume nerds — sorry Laura
PGN: Canada has socialized health care for what healing for you. — who were in custom-sewn George and
Martha historical outfits and berated me
for my hot-glued bat wings. But I liked it.
Out playwright tells ordinary tales PGN: What fashion era would you go
back to?
CAMERON KELSALL are our extraordinary people. to know Bock’s work when Award-nominee John Dos- WD: For fashion only, I love the 60s and
PGN Contributor When we write about ‘ex- Philadelphia Theatre Com- sett) and adult daughter Jenny the men’s clothing, that “Mad Men”-style
traordinary’ people, we’re pany opens its season with (local favorite Sarah Gliko). from that era.
Adam Bock prefers to keeping the politicians in his 2011 play “A Small Fire,” Bock began writing “A LM: I wouldn’t want to live in a different
chronicle the unsung hero. power.” running Oct. 18-Nov. 10 at Small Fire” after his father time period, but my graduate thesis in-
The prolific gay playwright Bock’s roster of extraordi- the Suzanne Roberts Theatre. suffered a stroke. cluded the treatment of a French 18th-cen-
told PGN that when he sits narily ordinary tales include It follows the playwright’s “He went from being a tury man’s silk suit, and I’d like to go back
down to write, he wants “to “A Life,” about the mundane usual formula: Emily Bridges really vital guy, riding his to Regency England and see the men’s
focus the story on someone existence of a middle-aged (played by Emmy and Tony bike every day and being very clothing from that era.
who isn’t typically focused gay man, and “Before the Award-winner Bebe Neu- athletic, to suddenly not be-
on.” Meeting,” which centers on wirth), a high-powered con- ing able to move,” Bock said. PGN: I’m so gay…
“I like to turn the camera an older woman in recovery struction magnate, is gradual- “I was really interested in the WD: I’m becoming my mother.
on the place where it normal- from alcoholism. The Mon- ly stripped of her senses by a idea of what happens when LM: Oh sheesh, I can’t think of an answer!
ly doesn’t go,” Bock said. treal-born, Manhattan-based mysterious illness. No longer your body betrays you.” My wife is going to be shocked I couldn’t
“Writers usually write about playwright has won an OBIE able to manage activities of In the wake of his father’s think of anything.
extraordinary people, but I’m Award and received a Gug- daily living on her own, she illness, Bock saw his fami-
not very interested in that. I genheim Fellowship. must learn to rely on the care ly’s dynamics PGN: I think the fact that you have a wife
think, in our own lives, we Local audiences can get of her husband John (Tony change. That page 77 qualifies as the answer. n
OCTOBER 11-17, 2019
PGN
73

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Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com

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Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com

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Conceptual Halloween experience
features dance and virtual reality
A.D. AMOROSI
PGN Contributor
Since its inception in 1997, JUNK — a
dance and physical theater troupe that
uses found objects and amorphously
defined atmospheres as the basis for con-
ceptual performances — has illuminated
and mesmerized.
And now, Brian Sanders, the man
behind it all, JUNK’s out founder and
choreographer, is looking to scare you —
a little — with a “multi-experience Hal-
loween attraction” called 2nd Sanctuary.
The event runs through Nov. 3 at 2040
Christian St, an abandoned 19th-century
Victorian church space. Sanders said he
“wanted the whole of this experience to
be about the beauty of decay and what
that has to offer us as a rite of fall.”
Sanders’s three-tier 2nd Sanctuary
experience features acrobats dancing in
mossy, grassy graveyards and swinging
in mid-air, as well as several virtual real-
ity adventures held in phone booths and
lingering music from the ’70s.
He compared the process of creat-
ing 2nd Sanctuary to a GPS that keeps
rerouting itself. “Eventually we got to
where I wanted it to be, but we went
through a few neighboring states to get
there,” he said with a laugh.
“If I am honest, there is always a
desperate need to top myself, or at least
grow and challenge myself. … Hopeful-
ly, it’s organically desperate,” he added.
The ideas for all of JUNK’s perfor-
mances are Sanders’s, but according to
him, “It’s the artists, performers, digital
animators and collaborators who become
the storytellers and authors.”
Sanders’s first project at the church
was several years ago, and he knew it
would provide “a labyrinth of ways into
2nd Sanctuary.”
T H E AT E R
“Sometimes the space or object pre-
cedes the idea,” he said, “and sometimes
the reverse. I just try to be open to what
the universe sends my way. I’m not a
very good listener when it comes to
people, but I could listen to spaces and
objects all day.”
Sanders started working in Philadelphia
in 1992 with his troupe Archetype, which
would eventually become JUNK. His first
show was at the Trocadero, the now-closed
burlesque theatre. He “wanted people to
experience dance, theater and performance
somewhere less stodgy.” Sanders said, “It
was well received and I’m still going, so
I guess it worked.”
When asked about his contributions to
Philadelphia’s dance and performance
scene, he said, “I think I helped make
it possible that a whacky, dysfunction-
al, misfit artist has a place in society,”
he said. He recalled what an audience
member recently told him: “I’m para-
phrasing here, ‘I am old and life gets me
down, every time I come to your show,
I feel like living again.’ … I had tears in
my eyes.”
Still, Sanders said he continues to
struggle with conformity.
“The one thing that keeps going wrong
is I keep trying to fit in. Eventually, it
fails, and I become happy not fitting in
again.”
2nd Sanctuary is an immersive expe-
rience sure to capture the hearts of other
artists and audience members looking for
an alternative to a haunted house. “I’ve
learned it’s a dangerous game trying
to predict what audience members will
ultimately walk away with,” Sanders
said. “This time around I am hoping it’s
something unique for everyone.” n
For 2nd Sanctuary showtimes and ticket
prices, visit briansandersjunk.com/.
P h o t o b y Te d L i e v e r m a n
77
BOCK from page 72
experience influenced the themes of the
play, and the ways in which Emily be-
comes dependent on her loved ones.
“It’s interesting to see what happens to
the people around you when the power
shifts,” he said. “My dad was very pow-
“IN MY PLAYS,
erful, and then my mom sort of had to THERE IS ALMOST
take over everything.”
The drama also considers another topic ALWAYS A MOMENT
that has been central to Bock’s writing
career: how people react in times of
WHERE SOMEONE
extreme change. HAS TO CHANGE
“The moment when you have to
change, and you know it, is a big one for
IN ORDER TO
me,” Bock said. “In my plays, there is KEEP GOING –– I’M
almost always a moment where someone
has to change in order to keep going, or VERY INTERESTED
a person has changed and must figure out IN THE MOMENT
what they’re going to do with it. I’m very
interested in the moment when someone WHEN SOMEONE
wakes up to a new reality.”
Bock is also keenly aware of gender
WAKES UP TO A
perceptions in stories of illness, where NEW REALITY.”
women are often assigned the role of
caregiver. That is one of the main rea-
sons he decided to write the play from a
female protagonist’s point of view.
“I know a ton of really strong wom- ences will take away a greater recogni-
en, so the fact that they are rarely seen tion of the impact an illness can have on
on stage in their strength suggests it’s a an entire family unit, and that they will
narrative, rather than the truth,” he said. consider how relationships evolve in
“My work often has strong women, their wake.
because that’s usually how women are — “Everybody gets shaken — not just
they have to sustain and resist more than the person who is sick,” he said. “Things
men.” shift, and if you’re used to things being
The play premiered at the prestigious one way, you may react in a way you
Playwrights Horizons theater in New don’t recognize. I had a difficult relation-
York, starring Tony Award-winner ship with my father at times before his
Michele Pawk as Emily. (Coincidentally, stroke, and I had to shift. It turned out to
Pawk is married to Dossett, who appears be a great experience because it allowed
in PTC’s production.) During the New me to grow.” n
York production, Bock was surprised to
meet many female audience members “A Small Fire” runs from Oct. 18-Nov.
10 at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre, 480
who told him that they, like Emily, were
in the construction field. S. Broad Street. For tickets and informa-
tion, visit philadelphiatheatrecompany.
“Women kept coming up to me and
saying, ‘I run a construction company,’” org or call 215-985-0420.
Bock said. “It’s an area where women
are often in control. I had no idea. When ADAM BOCK
I was writing, I thought, ‘Oh, well she
could be the head of an art gallery.’ And
then I thought, jeez, listen to how sexist
I am.”
One of the women who saw that
production was Paige Price, now the pro-
ducing artistic director of PTC. The work
stayed with her, and when she took the
reins of the Philadelphia company, she
put it on the shortlist of plays she wanted
to produce.
When I spoke with Bock, he was in
California, preparing for the premiere of
his new play, “The Canadians,” at South
Coast Repertory. After that staging gets
off the ground, he plans to join the com-
pany in Philadelphia for rehearsals and
preview performances.
“I’m really psyched,” Bock said.
“There have been a few productions
[since the New York premiere], but not
tons. When I heard Paige was going to
do it — and especially with Bebe — I
was so stoked.”
Bock hopes that Philadelphia audi-
78 PGN
Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com
OCTOBER 11-17, 2019
PGN
79

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80 PGN
Philadelphia Gay News . epgn.com