Jonathan Lax Scholarship for Gay Men accepting applications
The Bread and Roses Community fund is accepting applications for the Jonathan Lax Scholarship for Gay Men until Nov. 1. The scholarship was founded in 1994 by AIDS activist Jonathan Lax, who passed away the following year, leaving the scholarship behind to benefit gay men seeking to help their communities. Applicants must be living or studying in the Philadelphia region or Camden County. Scholarships range from $5,000-10,000. Previous winners include OUTPour executive producer Antar Bush and local medical and legal professionals.
Trans-related murder trial postponed
A jury trial for Matthew J. White, who stands accused of murdering the boyfriend of a trans woman last year, has been postponed until January due to a scheduling conflict.
Jury selection for White’s murder trial was set to begin Oct. 22, but his defense attorney, Eileen J. Hurley, was unavailable due to other work-related obligations, according to court records.
White, 34, allegedly murdered Barry Jones in the city’s Carroll Park section on Jan. 9, 2017. Jones was the boyfriend of Vivian Royster, a trans woman who’s expected to testify at his trial. A day before Jones was killed, White allegedly burglarized the nearby residence of three trans women.
White maintains his innocence but five witnesses have identified him as the killer of Jones or the burglar of the trans women, according to court records. He faces life imprisonment if convicted of all charges. White remains incarcerated at the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility in Northeast Philadelphia, pending the outcome of his trial.
Digitize your LGBT archives
The William Way LGBT Community Center is looking for more transgender and people of color to contribute to the second LGBT Community Digitizing Days event, noon-4 p.m. Oct. 27.
“We want to center more trans and people of color this time around. We didn’t have many contribute to the first event but we’re looking to get the word out that we want to include more underrepresented voices into this project. That’s been our main focus,” said John Anderies, the director of William Way’s John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives.
A grant from the National Endowment for Humanities Common Heritage is funding the archiving project. Community members are encouraged to bring awards, banners, signs, buttons, T-shirts, diaries, correspondence, newsletters, flyers, photographs, videos and newsletters. More than 600 items were added to the online archive at the center’s first digitizing event in June.
— compiled by Timothy Cwiek, Adriana Fraser and Miranda Lankas