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.

City Council will soon consider expanding its city contracting rules to allow for equal benefits for LGBT workers and their partners.

The law would apply to service contracts that amount to at least $250,000.

Councilwoman-at-Large Blondell Reynolds-Brown was scheduled Thursday to introduce an ordinance that would require certain city contractors to offer domestic-partner benefits to their employees that are equal to the plans they offer heterosexual married couples.

Reynolds-Brown explained that such contracts could likely apply to agencies offering janitorial, security or similar services.

San Francisco was the first city to institute a law that mandated city contractors offer domestic-partner benefits in 1996, and several others, including Seattle, Los Angeles, Miami and Atlanta, have since followed.

In 2006, a New York appeals court overturned a similar law passed by the New York City Council.

Reynolds-Brown noted that in 2008, the Liberty City Democratic Club conducted a survey in which its members expressed considerable interest in this issue.

“We thankfully had access to that information and we, as legislators, looked to where we might be able to have the opportunity to make a difference — because that’s why we’re supposed to be here — in the lives of different citizens,” Reynolds-Brown said. “So we knew there was an interest in this raised by members of the LGBT community, so it became an issue of importance for us to look around and research this issue.”

Reynolds-Brown said she learned of the several other jurisdictions that already adopted such a law and was eager for “Philadelphia to get in line with these other cities.”

She said the initiative also has a somewhat personal aspect.

“As a female and an African-American, I feel that it behooves me to be mindful and sensitive to those issues that still require room for equity and fairness, and this is certainly one of them,” she said.

Reynolds-Brown said the $250,000 figure was chosen as a “baseline,” one that is common for contracting rules.

As written, the legislation does not apply to subcontractors, an area Reynolds-Brown said should be reviewed once the original legislation is enacted, as should contracts for goods and products.

According to the legislation, if a contractor’s existing agreement with its benefits provider does not allow for the extension of domestic-partner benefits, the contractor would have to make arrangements to create such a plan “as soon as practical,” and no later than one year after the initiation of the contract. Companies that do not already offer benefits to the married spouses of their employees are exempt.

Companies can verify a life partnership by accepting a couple’s city-approved life-partnership certification or, if the employee is not a city resident, other evidence of an interdependent relationship comparable to the requirements for the city certification. Additionally, a marriage, civil union or domestic-partnership document from any state or country undertaken legally by two men or two women would be acceptable.

When making a bid for a contract, the business must supply a certification that it would comply with the domestic-partner provision and, if selected for a contract, must certify that such benefits will be offered and that it has notified employees of the domestic-partner extension.

The city would be authorized to waive the domestic-partner extension if it would result in the loss of federal, state or other funds, would interfere with a collective-bargaining agreement or if such a waiver would be “in the best interests of the city.”

Companies that do not cooperate would be suspended from bidding on city contracts for up to three years.

Any contractor employees who request but don’t receive the benefits can file private action against the company to recover those healthcare costs incurred by their life partner during the period of non-compliance, or for the amount the contractor would have paid for such benefits. In addition, complainants can seek punitive damages up to $2,000, attorney’s fees and, if the employee was terminated because of retaliation for a complaint, reinstatement.

As of press time, Reynolds-Brown had not yet introduced the measure and begun generating a list of cosponsors but said she was certain she’d find support.

The councilwoman said the measure should be scheduled for a committee vote in the next few months, and she hopes to get it passed and to the mayor by early May.

Published by Jen Colletta in the Philadelphia Gay News on February 17, 2011.

About 150 community members packed the William Way LGBT Community Center ballroom Jan. 31 fo ra meeting with local politicos on the upcoming primary election. Politics 101, organized annually by the Liberty City Democratic Club, featured John Dougherty (from left), Andrew Chirls, Abbe Fletman and Sam Katz, as well as former Mayor John Street (not pictured).

Photo by Scott A. Drake published in the Philadelphia Gay News on February 3, 2011.

With the election now less than two months away, Liberty City Democratic Club has focused its attention on several suburban regions, striving to provide tangible support to pro-LGBT candidates embroiled in tough races.

Liberty City recently launched a Suburban Outreach program, in which it is coordinating phone-banking and canvassing efforts for area candidates who have a history of supporting the LGBT community.

“It’s really important that all of these candidates came to Liberty City asking for our endorsement,” said Mark Dann, Liberty City volunteer. “These candidates see the importance in the LGBT vote, and they’re all simply right on LGBT issues. It’s critical that when candidates embrace the LGBT community that we offer our support as well.”

Among the targeted candidates are Congressman Patrick Murphy (D-8th District), who’s facing a challenge from Republican Mike Fitzpatrick, whom he defeated four years ago, and Congressional hopefuls Manan Trivedi, who is challenging incumbent Republican Jim Gerlach to represent the Sixth District, and state Rep. Bryan Lentz, seeking to fill the 7th District seat that was vacated by Senate hopeful Joe Sestak.

Liberty City is also pursuing the state-level races of House of Representatives candidates Fern Kaufman, an out lesbian, and Shannon Meehan, and state Senate hopeful Ruth Damsker.

“The Democratic Party is facing a lot of negative press lately, and the approval rating of the president could have a downstream impact on a lot of races this year,” said Liberty City co-chair Adah Bush. “It’s crucial that people who do vote Democrat not only get out to the polls and vote, but get people excited and educated about the different issues and the fact that every vote counts.”

Dann said each of the six candidates included in the Suburban Outreach has demonstrated support for the LGBT community, such as Murphy leading the effort in Congress to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and also could be crucial to moving forward LGBT legislation. For instance, Damsker is challenging Republican incumbent Stewart Greenleaf, chair of the Judiciary Committee, who has voted against several pro-LGBT measures and whose committee could be key to the success of a Senate version of the statewide LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination bill.

“I know people sometimes get cynical when it comes to politics and think that it’s often a choice between two not-so-wonderful people, but these candidates in Southeastern Pennsylvania are fantastic,” he said. “Patrick Murphy has been a champion for the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ repeal since he was elected in 2006. Fern is running in a swing district in Chester County as an out lesbian, which alone really shows a lot about her. Trivedi is a veteran who knows health care inside and out. They all have something to be proud of and are all high-equality candidates who are certainly worth people’s time.”

Bush noted that Liberty City is seeking support from both its suburban and Philadelphia members, as the election of each candidate could have a significant impact on the statewide LGBT movement.

Liberty City is currently looking for volunteers to canvas for Lentz and Meehan on Sept. 12.

Published by Jen Colletta in the Philadelphia Gay News on September 9, 2010.

The maturation and empowerment of Philadelphia’s LGBT community was in full view after Tuesday’s primary election. And this community pulled in some very impressive wins. But while all eyes were on the marquee races for governor and U.S. senator, we also had two high-profile races and, as the expression goes, all politics are local.

The races were two Center City state House of Representatives districts, the 175th and 182nd. In both, proven incumbents with long track records were challenged by LGBT people, both with no community ties and little record. The LGBT political establishment endorsed incumbents Mike O’Brien and Babette Josephs, respectively.

O’Brien and Josephs soundly beat their opponents. O’Brien won with a whopping 80 percent of the vote and Josephs received 61 percent of the vote.

Here’s where a politically organized community comes into play. Community leaders overwhelmingly supported incumbents O’Brien and Josephs. Those leaders, from a cross-section of the community and with the trust of the community, took that message to the community itself with meet-and-greets, fundraisers and a get-out-the-vote campaign. Finally, Liberty City endorsed both candidates, as did this publication.

On primary day, the organizations went to work. Mass e-mails went out to almost all LGBT voters in the districts, mailers were out and, finally, the field operation took over. Liberty City Democratic Club had 60 poll watchers. In some cases, Liberty City was the only organized political presence.

These are the races city political leaders and pundits look to in order to gauge the community’s strength and political maturity. And the margins are impressive. Yet, as impressive as the margins are, those numbers will only be good when you have candidates who have their own strong operations. It’s a delicate balance but, this year, the community and the candidates were like a symphony.

All this LGBT political activity also showed results with the election of a slew of out individuals to Democratic state committee positions.

But we’d be remiss if we didn’t discuss those two marquee races. The heart of this community was clearly with Joe Hoeffel, but his loss comes at the hands of a much-better-financed campaign, that of Dan Onorato. While all the candidates for governor had LGBT support, this publication endorsed Williams for his long voting record and keeping an antigay marriage referendum off the ballot. While not the strongest on LGBT issues, Onorato shows promise. Hopefully, you’ll see his vision for the LGBT community in these pages.

On to the U.S. Senate race. The community was split. This publication and many LGBT leaders backed incumbent Arlen Specter for his long record and a belief that he would be better positioned to beat Republican Pat Toomey in the fall. Joe Sestak won convincingly and is now the Democratic candidate; he must move quickly to paint Toomey for the right-winger he is, which will unite the Democratic Party base for a strong turnout in November.

Published by Mark Segal in the Philadelphia Gay News on May 20, 2010