This past year was one of highs and lows, progress and setbacks for the LGBT community. There has been increased visibility, with progress on LGBT rights at the local and national level. Sexual and gender minorities gained protections from discrimination in several local municipalities, the Obama administration implemented the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and more out candidates ran for public office.
In the “needs improvement” column, Pennsylvania has yet to pass a statewide nondiscrimination law for LGBTs, the Phillies were the only local sports team to make an “It Gets Better Video” and there were numerous arrests for child-sex abuse, both recent and from years past, in the Catholic church, athletic departments and, in one case, the athletic department of a Catholic school.
A few stories date back further than 2011 — and will likely linger through 2012 and beyond — including the city’s dispute with the Boy Scouts over the building they occupy and the proposed LGBT-friendly senior housing center.
As the year comes to a close, PGN revisits the stories that impacted the community or just caught our eye. We promise to follow up in 2012.
LOCAL
LGBT measures spread across PA
In 2011, eight Pennsylvania municipalities made strides for LGBT equality with the adoption of ordinances banning LGBT discrimination.
With a statewide LGBT nondiscrimination bill stalled for years, local residents have taken the issue into their own hands, with many of the successful measures first proposed by residents of the towns.
Equality Pennsylvania took a leadership role in the effort, working closely with elected officials to craft and move forward the bills.
This year’s victories were secured in Haverford, Conshohocken, Bethlehem, Springfield, Newtown, Whitemarsh and Jenkintown. In December, Susquehanna Township became the first Central Pennsylvania municipality in nine years to approve such a measure.
The state is now home to 26 municipalities that prohibit LGBT discrimination, with several more considering following suit.
Additionally, Allentown and Easton approved domestic-partner laws this year. With those successes, Pennsylvania now has five municipalities that offer such programs.
Philly couple faces deportation
The federal ban on same-sex marriage hit home for one Philadelphia couple this year.
Anton Tanumihardja, a native of Indonesia, is facing deportation after several failed attempts at political asylum based, among other factors, on his sexuality.
Immigration officials ordered Tanumihardja to return to his home country Feb. 14, which would have separated him from partner Brian Andersen. The couple was given a last-minute reprieve on Valentine’s Day as the case was reopened.
Tanumihardja and Andersen wed this past summer in Washington, D.C., but the Defense of Marriage Act precludes the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages, effectively stymieing efforts of binational couples to sponsor their partners or spouses for a visa, a right enjoyed by heterosexual couples.
Subsequent appeals by Tanumihardja were rejected, and in October, immigration officials ordered him to appear again in January to make plans for his return to Indonesia.
The couple has vowed to continue fighting deportation.
Abuse scandals rock city and state
Several high-profile sex-abuse cases in the area dominated the news this year.
In February, four Archdiocesan priests and one lay teacher were arrested after a sweeping grand-jury indictment.
The teacher and three of the priests were accused of molesting male students in the 1990s and, in a first for the nation, a high-ranking Archdiocesan official, Monsignor William Lynn, was arrested for endangering the welfare of a child for his alleged complicity in covering the incidents.
The indictment indicated that nearly 40 priests who had previously faced sex-abuse allegations were still in service, and the Archdiocese later placed nearly two-dozen priests on administrative leave. Several alleged victims subsequently filed suits against the priests and the Archdiocese.
A joint trial for Lynn and his co-defendants is set for March.
This past summer, the Archdiocese took another hit when Neumann-Goretti High School baseball coach Louis Spadaccini was arrested for allegedly sexually abusing at least two male students.
A scheduling conference will be held Feb. 2.
Penn State made international headlines when former football assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was arrested for sexually abusing at least 10 young boys, whom he met through his nonprofit that sought to provide opportunities for underprivileged youth.
The case had wide-ranging implications, with the arrests of two top school officials and the firing of the university president and legendary coach Joe Paterno.
Sandusky is free on bail on house arrest. A trial date has not yet been set.
Gays go for public office
A number of openly gay candidates sought to make history this year in Philadelphia.
Republican Malcolm Lazin and Democrat Sherrie Cohen each vied to become the first openly LGBT member of Philadelphia City Council, narrowly losing their races in the spring primary.
Out attorneys Chris Mallios and Leon King both ran, but were unsuccessful, in the Common Pleas Court judicial race, and attorney Bob Tuerk also lost his bid to become a Traffic Court judge.
However, attorney Barbara McDermott’s campaign to join the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas was successful. She made the cut in the primary and placed first among all of her fellow Common Pleas candidates in the November general election.
Numerous openly gay candidates have already thrown their hats into the ring for next year’s election.
Community leader Brian Sims is running against longtime Pennsylvania Rep. Babette Josephs (D-182nd Dist.) in the April primary, while out candidates Christopher Deitz and Joshua Young plan to run for state House seats in Central Pennsylvania and Chester County, respectively.
Senior housing proposal moves ahead
The effort to create affordable living spaces for LGBT seniors saw several ups and downs this year.
Dr. Magnus Hirschfield Fund’s senior-housing proposal, first submitted in late 2010, in February got the green light from partner William Way LGBT Community Center, to which the new building was slated to be attached.
However, the project was not selected for state tax credits this past summer, setting back the timeline and causing the center to pull out of the deal.
Backers resubmitted the proposal for tax credits in October.
The project, which would cost approximately $19 million, received $2 million in city funding, as well as an additional $6 million from the state.
Organizers also secured a new site, at 249-257 S. 13th St.
Tax-credit awards will be announced in April and, if the proposal is selected, construction could begin in January 2013.
Glassman heads west
The state’s highest-ranking openly gay official left his post this year.
Stephen Glassman, former chair of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, stepped down after eight years to accept a position as president and CEO of a Pittsburgh nonprofit design agency.
While leading PHRC, Glassman lobbied strongly in Harrisburg for the statewide nondiscrimination bill and also worked on numerous local-level ordinances.
Shortly after taking the position, he crafted an executive order for then-Gov. Ed Rendell that extended nondiscrimination protections to transgender state employees.
Glassman led the PHRC’s adjudication of a predatory lending case, in which African Americans were being illegally targeted by a mortgage broker, and oversaw the investigation into racial violence at South Philadelphia High School.
Under his direction, the commission established the nation’s first Disability Stakeholder Taskforce, and he later served as vice chair of Rendell’s Cabinet and Advisory Commission for People with Disabilities.
“Any time there’s an historically marginalized community that’s facing a rollback of rights, Steve has been right there to advocate,” said Andy Hoover, legislative director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania.
Marker hails history at bookstore
The rich history of LGBT bookstore Giovanni’s Room was honored at October’s OutFest.
A coalition of local LGBT community members successfully applied for a historical marker from the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission, which last spring approved the installation of 13 new markers across the state, including at Giovanni’s Room, the nation’s oldest LGBT bookstore.
The Philadelphia Gay Tourism Caucus and other donors pitched in to defray the approximately $1,500 cost associated with the creation and erection of the sign.
A host of leaders and elected officials, including Mayor Nutter, gathered at the Oct. 9 OutFest to celebrate the unveiling of the marker.
The sign heralds the store as a “refuge and cultural center at the onset of the modern LGBT civil-rights movement” that has provided “resources to those working to gain legal rights for LGBT people.”
It is the second in the state — a marker at Independence Hall that recognizes the LGBT demonstrations of the 1960s was the first — to specifically reference LGBT history.
Philly sports see highs, lows
The issue of homophobia in sports took center stage this year as several prominent professional sports leaders made antigay remarks, and many more took a stand against antigay sentiments.
In Philadelphia, Flyers player Wayne Simmonds appeared to direct a homophobic slur at a member of an opposing team during a game in September. The exchange was caught on camera but, since there was no audio, officials with the National Hockey League did not penalize Simmonds. The NHL did, however, affirm that it would treat antigay comments on par with racial slurs in the future.
Eagles player DeSean Jackson also used an antigay slur during a radio interview in June and, after initially taking to Twitter to defend his comments, later issued an apology.
There were also bright moments in the sports world, as a number of Major League Baseball teams joined the “It Gets Better” video campaign, which seeks to support LGBT youth.
The Phillies created their own video, starring members Chase Utley, John Mayberry Jr. Roy Halladay, Michael Stutes and Hunter Pence. The video made its big-screen debut at the Phillies’ Gay Community Night at Citizen’s Bank Park in August.
The effort was supported by a fan-generated petition on Change.org that secured more than 2,000 signatures.
Boys Scouts debate drags on
A deal that would have put ownership of the Boy Scouts building in the hands of the agency died in Philadelphia City Council this year.
The proposal to sell the building on North 22nd Street to the Scouts for $500,000 — much less than its estimated value — was introduced late in 2010 and saw backlash from LGBT community members.
An LGBT coalition met with Mayor Nutter in March to discuss the administration’s support for the proposed deal.
The Scouts have been locked in a legal battle with the city over the property, which it had been using rent-free in an agreement the city said violated the Fair Practices Ordinance, as the Scouts bar openly gay members. A judge in 2010 ruled that the Scouts’ constitutional rights were violated by the city’s efforts to entreat them to denounce the national antigay policy.
As part of the deal, proposed by Councilman Darrell Clarke, the Scouts would drop their claim that the city pay their nearly $1 million legal fees associated with the case.
The future of the building remains uncertain.
Irene makes her mark
Thousands of LGBT visitors got an unwanted welcome to Philadelphia in the summer as Hurricane Irene blew through town.
The Category 1 storm, which hit Aug. 27, threw a wrench in the scheduled National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association convention and the world series of the Amateur Sports Alliance of North America, both held in Philadelphia that weekend.
While most of the series got in before the rain began, a number of events, including a Gayborhood-wide festival and the ASANA championship ceremony, were cancelled.
NLGJA axed a number of its Saturday workshops, as well as most of its city tours and a Sunday morning brunch.
Both events were set to end Sunday and, while some guests got early flights and trains out of Philadelphia, many participants extended their stays.
The Gayborhood was a ghost town that Saturday night, as a number of bars and restaurants closed their doors early, although the party continued at Venture Inn and ICandy.
NATIONAL
DADT is repealed
This year saw the final repeal of the military’s ban on openly gay servicemembers.
Congress voted to lift “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” at the end of 2010, but full repeal was contingent upon the heads of the military and President Obama signing off that the military was prepared for the law to be lifted.
Members of all the branches were trained in the first half of the year and, in July, Obama, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen certified that the military was ready.
The law officially hit the history books Sept. 20.
Philadelphia LGBTs celebrated repeal that night at locales like Tabu, where former Congressman Patrick Murphy, the prime sponsor of the repeal bill, was in attendance to mark the occasion.
In October, Servicemembers Legal Defense Network filed a federal suit challenging the Defense of Marriage Act on behalf of eight married same-sex couples who were unable to access equal benefits from the military for their same-sex partners.
Feds drop DOMA defense
The Obama administration dropped its support for the federal ban on same-sex marriage this year, stepping out of a number of federal lawsuits.
In February, Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the administration found the portion of the Defense of Marriage Act that limits the definition of marriage to being between one man and one woman to be unconstitutional. While the administration said it would continue to enforce the law, it would no longer defend it in court.
The move caused Republican members of Congress, backed by the Bi-Partisan House Legal Advisory Group, to step into the cases.
The group initially selected D.C.-based firm King & Spalding to represent Congress; however, the agency later backed out after intense pressure from LGBT advocates.
King & Spalding partner Paul Clement resigned from the firm after the dust-up and is now handling the case with Bancroft, PLLC.
The Respect for Marriage Act, which would repeal DOMA, was introduced in March in both chambers of Congress, and a number of Pennsylvania LGBT activists have been calling for Sen. Bob Casey (D) to sign on as a cosponsor.
Wedding bells in NY
In a late-night vote June 24, the New York Senate approved a marriage-equality law, making the Empire State the sixth and largest state to sanction same-sex marriage.
LGBTs took to the streets of New York City that night to party and, in Philadelphia, the Gayborhood was host to several impromptu celebrations.
The prospect of legislative victory had been up in the air up until the final day, as supporters appeared one vote short, but eventually succeeded with the support of four Republicans.
A number of local gay and lesbian couples trekked to New York this summer to tie the knot, including August owners MaryAnn Brancaccio and Maria Vanni and Jim Kelly-Evans and Dan Evans. The two couples were among the approximately 800 selected in a lottery to take their vows July 24, the first day marriage equality became legal.
Philadelphia’s director of LGBT affairs Gloria Casarez and partner Tricia Dressel also headed to the Big Apple in August to wed.
Couples counted in census
The U.S. Census Bureau for the first time counted same-sex couples in its data, which was released throughout 2011.
The Census found a total of 646,464 same-sex couples across the nation. About 132,000 of those couples listed themselves as married.
According to the data, Pennsylvania is home to 33,602 gay and lesbian couples, with a rate of 6.7 couples per 1,000 households.
About 5,700 same-sex couples live in Philadelphia, with 10.62 couples per 1,000 households, or 1 percent of the city’s total households.
The highest concentration of same-sex couples in the state was in New Hope, followed by Lansdowne.
Females made up about 63 percent of the state’s same-sex couplings, and there were areas of high concentrations of same-sex couples raising children in Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania.
Elsewhere in the area, New Jersey is home to 24,112 same-sex couples and Delaware to 3,352, amounting to 7.5 and 9.8 couples per 1,000 households, respectively.
Inroads made abroad
Efforts were made this year to promote LGBT equality across the globe.
The United Nations’ Human Rights Council approved its first-ever resolution calling for LGBT rights in June.
The measure, submitted by South Africa and supported by the United States, mandated a study to examine violence and discrimination committed against LGBTs around the world.
In December, President Obama issued a memorandum instructing all U.S. agencies engaged abroad to adopt a number of policies to enhance their defense of LGBT rights.
The president’s directive established a standing group to ensure proper responses to LGBT-rights violations and required all affected agencies to report back to the U.S. Department of State on their LGBT progress.
The same day as the president’s announcement, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressed the United Nations in Geneva, where she called on all nations to respect and protect LGBT rights.