Police raid gay bathhouse
Police arrested 13 men March 15 at Club Philadelphia, a gay bathhouse at 120 S. 13th St., in a surprise raid, the second since the club opened in 1973.
Inspector Thomas Roselli of Police Juvenile Aid Division said the charges against the 13 — 10 patrons and three employees — ranged from indecent assault on an officer to conspiracy and voluntary deviate sexual intercourse.
Two undercover officers posed as patrons, wearing only towels, and alleged that they observed men taking part in sexual acts in the open within the establishment.
“[Sex acts] took place in full view of the officers; we didn’t go looking in every nook and cranny,” Roselli said.
Roselli said the raid was initiated after police received a complaint from a Club Philadelphia patron who had his wallet stolen inside the club. Roselli alleged that others complained of drug use and underage patrons, but police did not observe either of those violations.
Center City lawyer Dick Atkins, who represented all of those arrested, contested the officers were “circulating, trying to provoke advances.”
Following the arrests, some of the men were released on their own recognizance while others were ordered to pay $300 bail and weren’t released until 3:30 a.m.
Atkins said Club Philadelphia was going to pay for all legal fees and noted that he received a pledge from the district attorney’s office that all charges would be dropped.
Candidates speak on women’s, gay issues
Seven bipartisan candidates for mayor participated in a March 8 forum sponsored by the Philadelphia Women’s Alliance, during which the candidates were questioned collectively on gay rights for the first time.
Democrats Charles Bowser, Albert Gaudiosi, William Klenk and William Green; Republican Larry Greene; Consumer Party candidate Arthur Liebersohn; and Socialist Worker’s Party hopeful Nora Danielson all attended the event. All candidates expressed support for abortion rights and for a bill that would prohibit discrimination in housing based on the presence of children, age, source of income and marital status.
While all of the participants said they would support expanded rights for LGBT individuals, the candidates differed on how to pursue the issue. Green, who was eventually elected mayor, said there’d be “no active policy of discrimination in [his] administration,” and that he wouldn’t oppose a gay-rights bill, as long as it had exemptions for private housing and religious organizations. Bowser said a gay-rights bill was “advisable” but that he’d want to first repeal statewide sodomy laws. Klenk said he’d support a bill as long as it underwent a “thorough hearing by City Council.”
Philadelphia City Council did pass a gay-rights bill during Green’s administration, but the mayor elected not to sign the legislation.
Philly backs D.C. march A gathering of LGBT leaders from around the nation met in Philadelphia Feb. 23-25 and approved plans for a large-scale LGBT march on the nation’s capital.
Attendees at the conference, which was orchestrated by the New York Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights and ad-hoc committees in Philadelphia and San Francisco, set a date for the march — Oct. 14 — and laid out the purpose of the event. The march would call on lawmakers to end all social, economic and judicial discrimination against gays, repeal antigay laws and approve a national gay-rights bill, and would urge the president to sign an executive order banning discrimination against gays and lesbians in government agencies, companies under government contract and in the military.
Some LGBT organizations, such as the National Coalition of Black Gays and the Empire Rainbow Alliance for the Deaf, asserted that organizers of the conference did not provide enough notice about the event and approved a plan that was not inclusive enough of all LGBT people.
Others expressed doubt that the march would be able to draw enough supporters.
LGBT activist Frank Kameny said he’d only support a national march if he “could be sure there’d be enough people — at least 50,000. What I’m afraid of is that we will show ourselves to be a force not to be reckoned with, and that will take years to recover from that.”
The October march ultimately drew about 100,000 LGBT individuals and allies from the United States and 23 other countries.
— Jen Colletta