For Immediate Release: March 29, 2012
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Philadelphia, PA – Liberty City LGBT Democratic Club, the premiere lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender political organization in Pennsylvania, endorsed challengers Brian Sims in the 182^nd State Legislative District and Fatimah Muhammad in the 188^th State Legislative District at their annual primary endorsement meeting held at the Gershman Y on Tuesday.

"Both Brian Sims and Fatimah Muhammad are out members of the LGBTQ community, but it's not just who they are, but what they've done and pledged to do for the LGBTQ community that won over members. Brian recently served as Board Chairperson of Equality PA, the statewide LGBTQ advocacy organization, and Fatimah was co-founder of Elements, the LGBTQ womyn of color organization,” said Liberty City Co-chairs Lee Carson and Sherrie Cohen. 

LibertyCity voted to endorse Sims and Muhammad in order to provide long overdue LGBTQ representation in Harrisburg. Pennsylvania is alone among the 11 states comprising the Northeast region (Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont, Maine, Delaware, Maryland, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania), in providing NO statewide protection against discrimination for LGBT people and NO statewide recognition of our relationships. 

This is true even though polls over the past decade show that roughly 70% of Pennsylvanians support an anti-discrimination law protecting LGBT people and recent polling shows that 65% of Pennsylvanians think same sex couples should have all the legal rights of marriage.

Pennsylvaniais also one of only two states in the region (with Delaware) to never have elected an openly LGBT representative to its legislature.  Many of our neighboring states have numerous out representatives; Maryland, for example, now has eight out state legislators and Massachusetts has seven.

Liberty City hopes that the addition of out and proud LGBT voices to the many strong allies of our community who are representatives in Harrisburg will help jumpstart our community’s desperately needed civil rights legislation that for too long has stalled.  The organization is prepared to work hard to turn out voters for both candidates in the April 24^th Primary Election.

In the other races, former Bucks County Congressman Patrick Murphy was endorsed for Pennsylvania Attorney General, President Obama received the endorsement for reelection as president, and Eugene DePasquale received the endorsement for Pennsylvania Auditor General.

Others running for open seats who won Liberty City's endorsement include Steve McCarter for State Representative in the 154^th district and Jordan Harris in the 186^th. Challengers Malik Boyd (198^th) and Andrew Kleeman (195^th) also won the group's support.

Incumbent State Senator Larry Farnese (1^st District) was endorsed again after continuing to be a champion for the LGBT community. Incumbent State Representatives Mike O’Brien (175^th), Vanessa Lowery-Brown (190^th), Cherelle Parker (200^th) and Mark Cohen (202^nd) also received the group's support.

The co-chairs were pleased with the process.  "Even in the middle of some passionate debate supporting opposing candidates, the level of civility and discourse was great to see, as always at Liberty City.  We know that not all members supported every candidate that was endorsed, but that speaks strongly about the openness of the process and the diversity of opinions represented by this organization,” Carson and Cohen said in a joint statement.

The club will now begin to implement an aggressive "get-out-the-vote" operation on behalf of all Liberty City endorsed candidates.

Here is the complete slate of Liberty City endorsements for the primary election on April 24^th:

• President – Barack Obama
• Attorney General – Patrick Murphy
• Auditor General – Eugene DePasquale
• State Senate (1) – Larry Farnese
• State House (154) – Steve McCarter
• State House (175)-Mike O’Brien
• State House (182) – Brian Sims
• State House (186) – Jordan Harris
• State House (188) – Fatimah Muhammad
• State House (190) – Vanessa Lowery -Brown
• State House (195) – Andrew Kleeman
• State House (198) – Malik Boyd
• State House (200) – Cherelle Parker
• State House (202) – Mark Cohen

Liberty City is a progressive, membership-based, political action committee serving the greater Philadelphia region that works within the Democratic Party to achieve and sustain economic and social equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons.  www.libertycity.org

City Council is backing a resolution to urge the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority to cease its gender-marker system, which critics say is discriminatory against transgender and gender nonconforming riders.

Councilwoman-at-Large Blondell Reynolds Brown introduced the measure March 22 and it unanimously passed on its first reading.

The resolution may come up for public debate during the March 29 Council meeting, 10 a.m. in City Council Chambers at City Hall.

LGBTs and allies have pushed in recent years for the removal of the stickers to avoid discrimination and public questioning of those who do not conform to gender norms. SEPTA has used gender markers on its transpasses for decades in an attempt to curb sharing of the passes. The transit system has said it is open to removing the stickers when it overhauls its fare system, although a timeline for that is unclear.

Reynolds Brown said her measure is meant to enhance understanding of the need for a gender-neutral fare system and take the city closer to that reality. “At the end of the process and debate, we want Philadelphians of all cultures, walks of life and backgrounds to get through each day without feeling discriminated against — without someone dimming their shine,” Reynolds Brown said. “We hope this resolution will move the needle further toward our goal.”

The councilwoman said she pledged to assist the Liberty City LGBT Democratic Club last year in any pro-LGBT endeavors and, when the club requested she work on this resolution, she eagerly complied.

“People listen to what we say, but ultimately, they watch what we do,” she said. “I commend the membership of Liberty City for paying attention and doing the necessary follow-through.”

Supporters of the removal of the markers are encouraged to attend next week’s City Council session.

Written by Jen Coletta of the Philadelphia Gay News on March 22, 2012.

Shortly after President Obama outlined where the nation stands in his State of the Union, Philadelphia’s LGBT leaders came together to delineate where the local LGBT community stands on a number of topics, and where it should focus its attention in the coming year.

Liberty City LGBT Democratic Club’s State of the City identified a number of areas of focus — including safe spaces for youth, LGBT homelessness, equal access to health care for transgender people and opportunities for economic development — that the local LGBT community can concentrate on in 2012.

The first-of-its-kind discussion, held Feb. 2 at The Church of St. Luke and The Epiphany, was moderated by Liberty City board member Sherrie Cohen and featured remarks from city director of LGBT affairs Gloria Casarez, former city LGBT liaison and founder of The Colours Organization Inc., Mike Hinson, former co-president of OutFront! Kathy Padilla and president of The Attic Youth Center’s Youth Planning Committee Ibrahim Vicks.

The panelists reviewed LGBT accomplishments in the city in the past year, including the progress that was made on the LGBT senior-housing project, the approval of a bill to mandate domestic-partner benefits for partners of employees of city contractors and Mayor Nutter’s vocal support for the national Mayors for the Freedom to Marry movement.

Casarez outlined federal efforts, such as the administration’s decision to end its legal support for the Defense of Marriage Act and the recent adoption by the Housing and Urban Development of LGBT nondiscrimination regulations, noting the impact that pro-LGBT policy changes could have in Philadelphia.

Locally, the city is on the cusp of launching the nation’s first residential treatment facility for transgender individuals, Casarez noted, and efforts have also been made by several city departments, especially those that work with youth and homeless populations, to educate staffers on LGBT issues.

While steps have been taken to support LGBT youth, more outreach and education is needed to ensure young people feel safe in city schools, Vicks said.

“LGBT youth need safer spaces in schools. I’ve had friends who have been really hurt by things people say and do in school,” Vicks said. “Students would say, ‘That’s so gay,’ in some classes and get away with it, but not in others, so the teachers really have to be responsible.”

Casarez added that the ongoing leadership transitions at the school district have hindered the city’s ability to adequately address LGBT youth issues in schools.

Padilla identified a number of aims for the coming year, including enhanced transparency in the Nizah Morris investigation, voter-protection efforts and the launch of an LGBT Community Development Center.

Removing exclusions from health-insurance coverage for transgender city employees, an effort that Padilla said has been underway for about a decade, should also be a community aim this year.

Other unresolved challenges the panelists referenced included the ongoing debate over the Boy Scouts building, SEPTA’s gender markers and unsolved homicides in the community, including that of Morris and Stacey Blahnik.

Despite the breadth of the issues and interests facing the community, Casarez suggested that collaboration could be integral this year.

“Our LGBT community is a community of communities. We’re not one, we’re not whole and we’re not of one particular mindset, need or interest. We as a collective should reject that notion that we are one group. We are many but we do have some points of unity,” she said. “It’s a broad landscape but I firmly believe it’s a great time to be alive, and it’s a really important time for us to be engaged.”

Just as unity is critical, Hinson also noted concrete action will be key to achieving progress this year.

“We have to be the change,” he said. “We have to be an action and not wait for action to take place. Real transformation requires an investment in being better, being more secure and more complete, and it requires absolute action. Our challenge is to be the change.”

Padilla hailed the event as an important conversation starter that could be a useful annual tool.

“It was a chance to look backward and see where we’ve come from and to look forward as a community,” she said. “I think it was really brilliant on Liberty City’s part, and I hope it becomes a tradition for them.”

Written by Jen Coletta of the Philadelphia Gay News on February 10, 2012.

A City Council committee this week unanimously approved a measure that would require some city contractors to offer domestic-partner benefits for the same-sex partners of their employees.

The measure would mandate that service contractors receiving more than $250,000 from the city must extend the same benefits they offer to heterosexual married partners of their employees to employees’ same-sex partners. The measure would apply only to companies that currently offer benefits plans.

Businesses that fail to comply could be suspended or barred from bidding on future contracts for up to three years.

“In the 21st century, the battle for equal rights needs to end with equality being the victor,” Reynolds Brown said in a statement. “We have an opportunity with this bill to take one more important step to ensure that all Philadelphians who are ‘created equal’ are treated equal. Judging one’s employment benefits due to gender of their life partner is not acceptable in this day and age. Period. We will change that standard through the Equal Benefits Bill.”

Reynolds Brown was not able to be present for the vote because of a family emergency.

Voting in favor of the measure were committee chair Councilman Bill Greenlee and Councilmen Frank DiCicco, W. Wilson Goode Jr., Bill Green and Jack Kelly. Committee vice chair James Kenney was absent.

Greenlee, DiCicco and Kenney are cosponsors.

The Councilmembers held a public hearing before the vote, with all testimony in favor of passage. Witnesses included Equality Pennsylvania board president Adrian Shanker, Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations executive director Rue Landau, Liberty City Endorsement Committee chair Sara Jacobson, Mazzoni Center executive director Nurit Shein and attorney and former City Council candidate Sherrie Cohen.

Shanker encouraged the councilmembers to consider the basic tenets addressed in the bill.

“We are talking about partner-based employee benefits such as access to medical coverage, FMLA [Family and Medical Leave Act] and bereavement leave,” he testified. “While good people may disagree on national social issues, I think it is pretty non-controversial to suggest that these benefits should be required for large city contractors to provide to same-sex partners of their employees. If we start with the basic idea that all people deserve equal treatment, equal benefits and in fact equal rights, then there is no rational reason to oppose the Equal Benefits Bill.”

Landau also addressed the theme of equality.

“The purpose of this law is simple: equal treatment,” she said. “This truly is an issue of equal pay for equal work.”

Jacobson urged the lawmakers to remember the promises many of them made to Liberty City membership to support the LGBT community when asking for the club’s endorsement in this year’s election.

Shein noted that about 35 percent of Mazzoni’s clients are uninsured, and that expanding benefits opportunities for LGBTs in the area makes both economic sense for the city and can foster a better and more loyal workforce.

The first law of this nature was instituted in San Francisco in 1996, and Cohen noted that 14,000 companies in the city have since complied, representing a combined workforce of about 2 million people. The enrollment rate in the domestic-partner program is very minimal — between 1 and 3 percent — Cohen said, and has had an “almost negligible” financial impact on the companies.

No testimony was offered in opposition, and the councilmembers posed no questions for the witnesses — which, noted Greenlee, demonstrates the “long way” the city has come on LGBT issues.

Written by Jen Colletta for the Philadelphia Gay News on November 17, 2011.

Liberty City LGBT Democratic Club was founded in fall 1994 and ever since has served as the only lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Democratic political organization in Philadelphia. One of our primary purposes is to harness the political power of LGBT communities to get officials elected who are good on our issues and who will support the advancement of our communities.

In the past year, there have been quite a few changes within Liberty City that we would like to share, as well as some of the exciting directions we are going in. I was elected as the new male-identified co-chair of the organization in the spring of this year after serving on the board of directors for the past few years. Shortly after I came on as the co-chair, Adah Bush, the female-identified co-chair, had to resign her position due to mounting work commitments. The board of directors and I would like to thank Adah for all the hard work she put into the organization in her time as a board member and co-chair.

Moving forward organizationally, the board has started to lay the groundwork for improving the infrastructure of the club so we can strengthen the work and effectiveness of Liberty City. On Sept. 10, we held a membership retreat, where we conducted a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis to examine what we are doing well and what we need to improve. At this retreat, we also discussed ideas to re-energize the various committees that comprise the organization’s structure. Within the next few months, a synopsis of the retreat will be available to our membership.

As we move toward increasing the presence of Liberty City in Philadelphia’s LGBT communities, we have started to enhance our communications. We have recently launched a redesigned website, which can be found at www.libertycity.org. Here you can find candidate questionnaires dating back to 2003, our current endorsements and our committees, among other things. We have also created a Facebook page: We encourage you to “like” us so you can be kept up to date on the organization.

Another priority for Liberty City is to increase the transparency with which we operate. On our new website, you will be able to find all of our campaign finance reports dating back to 2000, and soon you will be able to find the minutes from our board of directors’ meetings too. In addition to the September retreat, we will have other mechanisms in which organization members can give us feedback about our work.

The final priority of the organization is to increase the diversity of our membership, including people of color, women and transgender persons. We are currently working on strategies to create greater inroads to these communities to increase their involvement.

This is an exciting time for Liberty City and we hope you will join us to increase the political power of Philadelphia’s Democratic LGBT communities. There are several ways you can get involved: Become a member of the organization, join a committee of the organization, volunteer during our get-out-the-vote efforts in the fall and spring, or make a monetary contribution to the organization. You can find information on our website.

I invite you to join us for our next event, a fall fundraiser, from 6-8 p.m. Nov. 1 at Stir, 1705 Chancellor St. Please join us, make a contribution, meet candidates and learn more about the work of Liberty City.

Written by Lee Carson as an Op-Ed for the Philadelphia Daily News published on October 13, 2011.

The Liberty City Democratic Club held its endorsement meeting last week, lending its support to a number of pro-LGBT candidates on the Nov. 8 ballot.

About 30 members came together for the endorsement meeting Oct. 6 at the William Way LGBT Community Center, where they heard about the platforms and plans of a number of candidates in attendance.

Liberty City co-chair Lee Carson said membership turnout was lower than usual for an endorsement meeting, but that, given the city’s overwhelming Democratic majority that often makes the spring primary the deciding election, it was expected.

Leading the club’s slate of endorsements is Mayor Nutter for reelection, along with a reelection nod for Councilwoman Maria Quiñones Sánchez. The group endorsed 1st District Council candidate Mark Squilla, running unopposed in the district that includes the Gayborhood; 2nd District hopeful state Rep. Kenyatta Johnson and 8th District candidate Cindy Bass, who have a Republican and Green Party challenger, respectively.

Liberty City endorsed four Democratic at-Large Council candidates — incumbent Councilmembers Blondell Reynolds Brown, Bill Green, Bill Greenlee and James Kenney — but did not support a fifth incumbent, Councilman W. Wilson Goode Jr., who Carson said was unable to attend a Liberty City meeting, a prerequisite for endorsement.

The group didn’t endorse Greenlee in the municipal primary, Carson said, but after further discussion decided to back him in this election.

The club endorsed Stephanie Singer for city commissioner, who will square off with a Republican and Democratic incumbent and a Republican challenger for one of the three commissioner positions.

In the judicial races, Liberty City is supporting Kathryn Boockvar for Commonwealth Court, and Diana Anhalt, Jonathan Irvine, Angelo Foglietta, Carolyn Nichols and Barbara McDermott, an open lesbian, for Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. The club also endorsed Keith Collins for Delaware County Council.

The membership decided against endorsing judicial candidates up for retention.

Liberty City will host its fall fundraiser from 6-8 p.m. Nov. 1 at Stir, 1705 Chancellor St., with proceeds going to support the club’s voter mobilization for the spring primary.

Written by Jen Colletta for the Philadelphia Gay News on October 13, 2011.

In a narrow vote before a packed chamber last week, City Council approved a measure that would mandate private companies in the city to offer their employees paid sick leave, although it is still unclear whether the mayor will sign the bill into law.

Council voted 9-8 June 16 to approve the Promoting Healthy Families and Workplaces measure, spearheaded by Councilman Darrell Clarke (D-5th Dist.) and Councilman-at-Large Bill Greenlee.

The bill would require companies with 10 or more employees to offer one hour of sick time for every 30 hours they worked, with a maximum of seven eight-hour work days possible, or four days for employees at companies with five to nine employees.

Workers can use the time for themselves or to care for sick relatives, including same-sex domestic partners.

Mark McDonald, a spokesperson for Mayor Nutter, said the bill is “under advisement” in the mayor’s office. He said the measure does not have mayoral support but stopped short of saying whether Nutter would veto it.

“It’s pretty clear through the various iterations of this bill with its many amendments that the mayor opposes this legislation,” McDonald said. “He believes it should be handled at the state or federal level. It certainly is a laudatory goal, but given the nature of the difficulty that small businesses and business in general in this city face, this is something that should be done on a broader basis. It sets up burdens and impacts the competition between businesses in the city and those just outside the city.”

If the mayor vetoes the bill, it would need 12 council votes to be overridden. If the mayor takes no action on the bill, it would become law in the fall.

Stephanie Haynes, community coordinator at LGBT family group Philadelphia Family Pride and a member of the Coalition for Healthy Families and Workplaces Coalition, said the effort to pass the measure was a grassroots one.

“I definitely felt a lot of momentum, especially from the LGBT community,” she said. “It seemed like a lot of people were reaching out to Councilmembers ... so I felt we had a pretty good chance of passing this.”

More than 100 groups signed on to the coalition, including numerous HIV/AIDS and LGBT groups such as Action AIDS, AIDS Fund, BEBASHI, Gay and Lesbian Latino AIDS Education Initiative, the William Way LGBT Community Center, AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania, Mazzoni Center and Liberty City Democratic Club.

“I’ve been a politically involved person for a long time, and I know the hard work it takes to win something contentious like this,” Haynes said. “It really came down to the wire, and I think that hearing from members of our community was part of what made the difference.”

In addition to Clarke and Greenlee, Councilmembers Jannie Blackwell, Blondell Reynolds Brown, W. Wilson Goode Jr., Bill Green, Curtis Jones, Donna Reed Miller and Maria Quiñones Sánchez voted for the bill.

Opponents include Republicans Jack Kelly, Brian O’Neill and Frank Rizzo, and Democrats Frank DiCicco, Anna Verna, Jim Kenney, Joan Krajewski and Marian Tasco.

Published by Jen Colletta in the Philadelphia Gay News on July 21, 2011

June 14, 2011--Liberty City LGBT Democratic Club today officially joined the Coalition for Healthy Families and Workplaces and called on Philadelphia City Council to pass earned sick days legislation Thursday, June 16th.

"Liberty City has worked tirelessly to promote policies that support LGBT residents and families and we have worked just as tirelessly to elect councilmembers who support those LGBT-friendly policies," said Lee Carson, Co-Chair of Liberty City. "The earned sick days bill is critical in supporting and protecting LGBT families and Liberty City expects LGBT-supportive councilmembers to vote for it."

"Passing the earned sick days bill is an important step forward for LGBT civil rights in Philadelphia." added Liberty City Co-Chair Adah Bush.

Liberty City joins the following LGBT Community and HIV/AIDS leadership organizations in supporting earned sick days legislation: Mazzoni Center, William Way, Action AIDS, Philadelphia AIDS Fund, Philadelphia Family Pride, AIDS Law Project, GALAEI, and Philadelphia Fight.

Promoting Healthy Families and Workplaces Act (Bill 080474) would allow Philadelphia workers the opportunity to earn up to 7 days of sick time per year for a large business and up to 4 days per year for a small businesses. It was voted out of the Public Health and Human Services Committee earlier this year. The bill could affect up to 200,000 workers in Philadelphia who do not have access to paid sick days.
The earned sick day bill is LGBT-inclusive. The bill explicitly allows workers to use earned sick time to care for spouses, domestic partners or life partners, parents, grandparents, siblings, biological children, grandchildren, foster children, adopted children, stepchildren, legal wards, and children of workers who stand "in loco parentis" (this phrase covers LGBT parents who do not have a legal or biological relationship to their children).
With over 40 percent of Philadelphians lacking earned sick days, a large portion of the population cannot take the time off work to go see a doctor or obtain medical treatment - regardless of the medical coverage they have.

Employees with earned sick days are more likely to stay home when they are sick, limiting the spread of the illness and protecting co-workers, customers, or anyone else they meet during the work day. During the height of the H1N1 pandemic, people were urged to stay home if they had any signs of the flu, however, those without earned sick days were less likely to stay home because they could not afford to. As a result, nearly 8 million H1N1 cases were traced back to employees going to work while sick.

City Council is expected to vote on the bill on Thursday, June 16, 2011.

Liberty City LGBT Democratic Club works to register, educate, and mobilize lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) voters, elect openly LGBT candidates for public and party office, support LGBT-friendly candidates and promote legislative issues of importance to the LGBT community.

For more information, contact Micah Mahjoubian at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Liberty City Democratic Club elected two new executive board members last week.

At its May 5 meeting, the board selected Lee Carson as its new male co-chair and Stephanie Haynes as secretary.

Carson will replace Micah Mahjoubian, co-chair for the past year, who will remain as a board member.

Carson, a health researcher at Public Health Management Corporation, has served on the board for two years and said he was eager to "build upon the years of work that have already been done to make it a strong and viable organization."

Carson will work alongside female co-chair Adah Bush, who, he said, "demonstrated great leadership over the past year."

Bush noted that Carson has nearly seven years of community-organizing experience and "has built strong connections to various segments of the LGBT community, which he will use to help grow the organization."

Haynes, who also serves as community coordinator for Philadelphia Family Pride, has been an active member of Liberty City for four years.

Re-elected to the board were treasurer Eric Cheung, Sarah Jacobson, Mahjoubian and Su Ming Yeh, while Bush and Howard Moseley were not up for re-election yet.

Haynes was newly elected alongside at-large member Dwayne Bensing, a second-year law student at the University of Pennsylvania, where he serves as president of the Lambda Law group.

Published by Jen Colletta in the Philadelphia Gay News on May 5, 2011

Mayor Nutter was one of a slew of politicos who packed into the second floor of Woody’s April 11 for Liberty City Democratic Club’s candidate meet-and-greet and fundraiser. More than 50 people, including incumbent City Councilmembers Blondell Reynolds-Brown and Bill Green and at-Large candidates Andy Toy and Sherrie Cohen, who is an open lesbian, attended. All four First District Council hopefuls — Joe Grace, Jeff Hornstein, Mark Squilla and Vern Anastasio, one of whom will represent the area encompassing the Gayborhood — turned out, as did openly gay judicial candidates Chris Mallios and Bob Tuerk, running respectively for Court of Common Pleas and Traffic Court. The event was Liberty City’s last before the LGBT political group voted on its slate of endorsed candidates April 14.

Photo by Scott A. Drake published in the Philadelphia Gay News on April 14, 2011.