Katherine Moennig, who rose to fame on “The L Word,” listed all the reasons she was proud to return home to Philadelphia Feb. 27 to receive the Equality Award at the 20th annual HRC Greater Philadelphia Gala. She covered everything from water ice to Wawa and joked, “Then you mention the word ‘jawn’ and there goes your whole night.”
On a more serious note, Moennig told the hundreds gathered at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown: “The fact that Philadelphia stands up for its LGBTQ community and gives a voice to people like Maya Young, who no longer has one, only adds to that pride. I hope that this voice gets louder and stronger in this town as time goes on.”
It’s likely that will be the case. Moennig was one of several people throughout the gala to memorialize Young, the young transgender woman of color who was stabbed to death last month in Frankford. Mayor Jim Kenney opened the evening and similarly remembered Young.
“I want to mention Maya Young, who lost her life because of who she is, who she was,” Kenney said. “We need to work every day to stop that from happening in our city streets and in our nation.”
Kenney quoted the statistic that 23 transgender people were killed last year, a record high.
He said, when he was elected to Philadelphia City Council in 1991, he “wound up replacing probably the most homophobic city council member in city history.”
“That happened because the LGBT community decided they were going to take a leap of faith on this Irish-Catholic kid from South Philadelphia,” Kenney said. “My career is based primarily in the LGBT community. I have your back. I’ll always have your back.”
Gala speakers also included Jim Obergefell, the plaintiff in the U.S. Supreme Court case that created marriage equality nationwide, and Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign. Thea Austin, from the group Snap!, closed the evening with a performance of “The Power” that got attendees dancing.
Moennig split her 10-minute speech between Philadelphia pride and LGBT pride. She said she earned her street cred in the community through her six years on “The L Word.”
“I know that was way back in the dark ages of 2002,” said Moennig, who now has a role on the Showtime series “Ray Donovan,” “but I remember we all felt like the stars must have been perfectly aligned when the show was coming together.
“I got to portray this utterly unapologetic woman,” she continued. “That message was so unwavering and put out there without the fear of judgment.
“It’s a huge compliment when someone comes up to me and tells me that the show has changed their life or it has helped them to accept themselves for who they are.”
Obergefell also hit on themes of using his story to help others.
“We have to come out and tell our stories because that’s how we change hearts and minds,” he said.
After being in a relationship with John Arthur for more than 20 years, Obergefell said they flew to the Baltimore Washington International Airport and married on the tarmac because they could not legally do so in their home state of Ohio. Arthur had recently received a terminal ALS diagnosis and the couple wanted to wed and share the rest of their time together as husband and husband.
When Arthur died in 2013, in his last official record with Ohio, the state listed him as single. Obergefell was not listed as the surviving spouse on his husband’s death certificate. That’s what caused him to sue the state of Ohio and his case ultimately worked its way up to the Supreme Court.
“I could’ve stopped fighting, gone back to my quiet life and tried to move on without him,” Obergefell said. “But I couldn’t. I promised John to love, honor and protect him, and I had to do everything in my power to live up to those commitments. I had to keep fighting and I had to keep telling our story.”
He reminded gala guests that the need to keep fighting is evident in state legislatures across the country that have proposed anti-LGBT bills in the wake of marriage equality.
