Superior Court
Jack McVay—Democrat
Jack McVay, the Democratic candidate for Superior Court, hails from Allegheny County and was elected in 2007 to serve as judge in the Family Division of Allegheny County’s Court of Common Pleas. McVay, who has been endorsed by the Steel City Stonewall Democrats, said he was raised supporting LGBT rights and equality for all. “Diversity is very important to me. Every opportunity I get, I would hire a diversified staff,” he said. McVay attended Duquesne University’s School of Law, where he attended classes at night while working as a law clerk in the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office and as a pharmacist. He has represented LGBT families and, since joining the bench, has overseen same-sex adoptions. “I have performed as a sitting judge some same-sex adoptions and I was chosen by a gay couple, who I was an attorney for, to perform the adoption of their child. I was extremely honored,” he said. McVay supports marriage equality but noted that, as Superior Court judge, he would have to abide by the laws of the commonwealth. “I am required to follow precedent and am required to apply the law as written by the legislation,” he said. “I think we will get favorable answers to marriage equality from both the U.S. Supreme Court and certainly the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.” McVay also noted he is supportive of statewide LGBT hate-crimes and nondiscrimination legislation. He has had experience with cases involving children who have been bullied for their sexual and gender identity. “When I see bullying cases and assault cases because of a person’s sexual identity, I try to address them,” he said. “I certainly do everything I can to increase awareness and educate the defendant and also try to instill an open-mindedness and change in that defendant. I see those issues in schools. I get those cases in court and preach tolerance and increase awareness.” McVay said the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas has put in place LGBT-specific sensitivity training for employees and that it has helped him to refer parents and youth to organizations that promote LGBT acceptance. “The courtroom is my opportunity to increase awareness for parents,” he said. “I get a lot of cases where parents are not understanding of their own child. I deal with that often. I refer them to PFLAG in Pittsburgh and a variety of other organizations.” McVay said that, if elected to Superior Court, he would continue to bring an open mind to the bench. “If there is one quality a judge should have, it is open mindedness, but the biggest thing a judge can do is put themselves in someone else’s shoes. I’ve always been supportive of things like same-sex adoption and equality for all.” For more information, visit www.judgejackmcvay.com
Victor Stabile—Republican
Republican candidate for Superior Court Victor Stabile has practiced law for the past 30 years and is now looking to bring that experience to the bench. The 1982 graduate of The Dickinson School of Law grew up in New York, where he earned his undergraduate degree at the State University of New York in 1979. Stabile currently serves as the Harrisburg Office Managing Partner for Dilworth Paxson, LLP. He is a member of the American Bar Association and Pennsylvania Bar Association and has served as supervisor for Middlesex Township since 2000. The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Pennsylvania Fraternal Order of Police, Pennsylvania State Chamber of Business and Industry, Pennsylvania Business Council, Action of PA, Pennsylvania Builders Association, the National Rifle Association and Firearms Owners Against Crime have endorsed Stabile. The candidate, who considers himself a fiscally conservative Republican, said he is also an LGBT ally. He said growing up in New York helped him understand the importance of diversity and noted that both his law firm and campaign are staffed with people who represent a range of backgrounds. “I don’t care who you are, as long as you are qualified and you have good people relations,” he said. “We like diversity. If a person is not qualified for the position, just looking at their diversity is not going to do any good. I like rooting for the underdog and I like giving people a chance.” Giving people hope is what Stabile said his legal career has been based on. He said his favorite cases have been those in which he represented people marginalized by the government. “I was doing a pro-bono case with a widow of an Air Force pilot who was killed. The government owed him money and they came to her after he was killed and had the audacity to go to her and say, ‘We’re sorry for your loss, but we can’t pay you the rest of what we owed your husband. He didn’t finish his time with us,’” he said. “The guy died in defense of his country. I spend three years of my life on the case. At the end of the day, I was able to succeed.” He is supportive of both a statewide LGBT nondiscrimination law as well as a law protecting LGBT citizens from hate crimes. “I find it regrettable that we even have to have a law like that because, as far as I know, crimes against people are already a crime, whether it is motivated by hate,” he said. “I think the law should already be providing people that protection.” Stabile, who said he believes the government should refrain from being involved in citizens’ personal lives, said the issue of same-sex marriage is slowly evolving. “The issue of same-sex marriage is presently pending here in both state and federal courts. If elected, I will be sitting in the court that will hear that issue. I cannot tell you how it will go in the court, but I can tell you that I do believe our constitution provides equal protection of its laws to all its citizens,” he said. “We adopted a constitution that recognized slavery, we fought a civil war to get rid of slavery. In the 1920s, women had to fight to vote, and in the 1960s we fought for civil rights. And today, we are still fighting for equal protection for LGBT people. It is a constant evolution in this country.” Stabile said he believes in basic protection for all communities and, as judge, he would follow suit to make sure all Pennsylvanians are treated equally under the law.
“I don’t view the LGBT community as different than anybody else when it comes to our laws and our constitution. They are entitled to the same benefits and laws as anybody else.”
City Controller
Alan Butkovitz—Democrat
Since 2005, Democratic incumbent Alan Butkovitz has served as Philadelphia’s city controller and this November, he plans on winning another term as the city’s top fiscal watchdog. Butkovitz, who defeated Democratic challenger Brett Mandel in the May primary election, has prided himself on being a progressive LGBT ally. Butkovitz was endorsed by the Philadelphia Inquirer and has received support from the Liberty City LGBT Democratic Club. Butkovitz hopes to continue his work in getting the Philadelphia Public School system back on its feet financially and making sure the city is adequately and appropriately allocating funding. “The city hasn’t figured out how to operate a school system,” he said. “And the budget assumes that snowstorms or other unforeseen events are not important and gives the city a margin of error with only $8.5 million with a $4-million budget to take care of those issues.” Butkovitz said his office is currently reviewing the ongoing funding issues with charter and public schools, and that City Council and the mayor should allocate further funding to contend with unforeseen events that require city resources. Butkovitz said he has made the City Controller’s Office the most transparent it has ever been. “You can find anything we have ever done on that website. The first thing I did was set up campaign financial reports on the website,” he said. “We also provide more transparency in the campaign-finance area than any other agency that has a responsibility for that. We do hundreds of audits. We do analysis of the city’s financial conditions. It is on our website and is easily accessible.” Butkovitz said his office also developed an app called Philly Watchdog, which helps residents report issues to the City Controller’s Office. He added that he would continue the commitment to treating all employees equally. “When we first came into office, I had a high-level assistant who was gay and we made sure that people were guaranteed full equality in the workplace,” he said. “Someone wrote graphic antigay commentary in the bathroom about that employee and we took an aggressive approach and did sensitivity training, which included issues of gender identity and sexual orientation. We want to send the strong message that we weren’t going to allow harassment.” Butkovitz said that incident exemplifies his belief in diversity and equality. “I am a progressive and believe that everyone should have the right to their personal lifestyle choices. People should be allowed a full range of rights with the people they love under the law.”
Terry Tracy—Republican
Republican City Controller candidate Terry Tracy is looking to unseat two-term incumbent Alan Butkovitz. Tracy attended Temple University for his undergraduate education and went on to earn a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Pennsylvania. He is a director of stores for Ralph Lauren Co. clothing chain and previously served as the regional campaign manager for Philadelphia City Councilman David Oh. Tracy said he has LGBT supporters working on his campaign and also works with community members in his workplace. He said, if elected, he would look to hire the most qualified staff that represents all Philadelphians. “I am blind when it comes to hiring. I look at the best candidates. We live in a diverse city. If you walk down the block, you will come across people of all different backgrounds,” he said. “If you wind up with staff that is not diverse, that is when you are doing something wrong. I feel like you have to go out of your way to not have a diverse staff.” Tracy supports marriage equality and noted that, while the position of city controller has no say in legislative issues, he hopes to bridge the gap between the LGBT and Republican communities. “I am pro-marriage equality and I am a Republican, and I think it is in the interest of the LGBT community to have people in the Republican Party advocating for them as well,” he said. Tracy said he is concerned about the city’s current financial position and would tackle such issues as education funding, job creation and poverty and would press for a more cohesive and efficient city government. “We spend money as a government because there are moral imperatives. Any government’s budget is the city’s way of anticipating the problems we face, how we prioritize those problems and how we face those problems,” he said. “You look at how we spend our budget and how the poverty rate is devastating and we are second-to-worst in big cities. We spend billions of dollars a year that is supposed to improve those things.” Tracy said city funding for nonprofits such as LGBT groups is directly tied to cutting wasteful government spending. “The best thing is to make sure the city has money to invest in those issues and you do that by rooting out the waste. The reason the city is grabbing for revenue is because it doesn’t do blocking and tackling very well. We have the nation’s worst tax collection amongst big cities,” Tracy said. “If they want the city to be in a position to invest in organizations that are important, the city has to be efficient and effective with its own funds to have that leverage.” For more information, visit http://tracyforphilly.com.
District Attorney
Seth Williams—Democrat
In 2009, Seth Williams made history when he was elected the first African-American District Attorney in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. And next week, he hopes to continue his commitment to breaking barriers as the city’s top prosecutor. Williams grew up in West Philadelphia and attended Penn State University, where his interest in public service began. He served as president of the Black Caucus and also of the Undergraduate Student Government, where he represented the entire undergraduate student body. Williams considers himself a strong ally for the LGBT community and said fighting for human rights has been in his blood since he was young. “I’ve always shown a commitment to justice not just in my campaign and career but as a student at Penn State,” he said. “I led protests against racism, sexism and homophobia and made sure LGBT students were represented. That was when I was just 20 years old. It has been a lifelong commitment to justice, to fairness and equality.” Williams earned his law degree from Georgetown University and went on to serve as an assistant district attorney for the city for 10 years. He said his pledge for LGBT equality motivated him to hire Nellie Fitzpatrick as the office’s LGBT liaison two years ago. Williams noted the office has a diversity-hiring committee to ensure that it represents the people of Philadelphia. He said his office also hosts an annual reception to reach out to organizations that represent the various minority communities in Philadelphia. The D.A.’s Office has worked with such organizations as the Gay and Lesbian Lawyers of Philadelphia, the Hispanic Bar Association of Pennsylvania and a variety of student law groups to create more awareness on what the office does and the various employment opportunities it presents. “We want the office to reflect the city that we serve,” he said. Williams said he has spearheaded several events to open up the lines of communication between his office and the LGBT community. “I had an LGBT forum where I had leaders of the LGBT community come to my office to tell me some of the issues,” he said. “I’ve gone repeatedly to the William Way LGBT Community Center to talk and answer questions. I think that I have done a lot. I’ll never say I have done enough. I do everything I can to better serve every group in Philadelphia.” Williams, who was named Philadelphia FIGHT’s 2012 AIDS Education Month honorary chair, is a strong supporter of marriage equality and said support for a statewide LGBT nondiscrimination bill is a “no-brainer.” He said the next battle will be for a hate-crimes law that specifically protects the LGBT community. Without such a measure, Williams said his office is planning a learning session focused on educating the LGBT community about the options that exist if they are faced with a crime. “We do all we can to reach out, and right now we plan to host a forum where we would have some people in the LGBT community come out and we would have a two-part series talking about how to prevent hate crimes, and we would have people come to my office to ask specific questions on how to report a crime,” he said. As far as hate-crime prevention, Williams believes simple education could go a long way. “There is a huge cultural difference from my father’s generation and my generation and my daughter’s generation,” he said. “People are becoming much more accepting and understanding. All it takes is people being in contact with different people and accepting people for who they are, not just what they are.” Williams’ office has been pressed to release records in the 10-year-old homicide of transgender woman Nizah Morris, who was found lying in the street with a fatal head wound Dec. 22. Morris had accepted a courtesy ride from Philadelphia Police prior to her death. Williams attended the same church as Morris’ family and said he knew about the case before assuming the D.A. position. He added that his office has done all it could to push the investigation forward. “I understand the facts and I understand the community is concerned — I knew this even before I took over the D.A.’s office. We reviewed and look at the files that we had and we want to show that it wasn’t us that tried to suppress anything,” he said. “We will never really know whatever tragically happened. There will be no more closure unless the perpetrators or people that were there and saw something give us additional information. We are sensitive to all those issues and have eyes on the case, and all we can do is learn from the past.” Williams said that, if re-elected, he will continue to advocate for LGBT equality throughout the criminal-justice system. “I have always believed in respecting and treating people well and I think, personally, I have demonstrated that commitment for equality for everything, specifically the LGBT community.”