Is Real Equaly Fally Comg to the Gayborhood? - Philalphia Magaze

Contents:

• 'GO THE F*** HOME!': WOMAN REPEATEDLY SCREAMS BLOODY MURR, DROPS F-BOMBS ON ANTI-ABORTN STREET PREACHER SEATTLE 'GAYBORHOOD'
• EXCLUSIVE: ICANDY OWNER BREAKS SILENCE ON VIO THAT LNCHED RACIAL FIRTORM THE GAYBORHOOD
• IS REAL EQUALY FALLY COMG TO THE GAYBORHOOD?
• SLUR VIO EXPOS RACIAL RIFTS INIC GAY ENCLAVE
• GAYBORHOODS AREN'T AD. IN FACT, THERE ARE MORE OF THEM THAN YOU THK.
• CELEBRATE PRI MONTH THE 5 U.S. GAYBORHOODS
• GAYBORHOOD
• THERE GO THE GAYBORHOOD

'GO THE F*** HOME!': WOMAN REPEATEDLY SCREAMS BLOODY MURR, DROPS F-BOMBS ON ANTI-ABORTN STREET PREACHER SEATTLE 'GAYBORHOOD'

The woman turned up the heat on the street preacher a ltle more, as she explaed to him ont of a rabow-lored siwalk an even higher-pched squeal that "this is the Gayborhood, and you are not wele!

Growg up North Jersey the 1970s, beg lled “faggot” was par for the urse for a gay kid the much anyone who wasn’t a straight, whe Prottant du was the butt of ethnic and relig slurs the sleepy, blue-llar bedroom muni jt outsi of Manhattan. Crowd jams hearg full of allegatns about racism Philly's LGBT munyCyndi Lper, McGty, Renll to attend Gayborhood bar crawlBorn to a nservative Italian Catholic fay a few years before the Stonewall Rt would redraw the directn of gay rights a dive bar jt across the Hudson River, Darryl DePiano didn’t fd the urage to e out of the closet until he was his 40s.

His worst fear was that his parents would fd out he was gay and that he would be monized the straight nightlife and nstctn bs that he had built om nothg. PhillyGayCalendar/via YouTubeDarryl DePianoSurroundg the club owner are two large flat-screen TVs wh more than two dozen vios streamg om meras posned and around the club. Natalie Hope McDonald/via Instagram Protters gather outsi of the iCandy nightclub the Gayborhood after the vio surfaced.

EXCLUSIVE: ICANDY OWNER BREAKS SILENCE ON VIO THAT LNCHED RACIAL FIRTORM THE GAYBORHOOD

At the very least, the vio has given this plex discsn a tangible startg pot, even though many of the issu go back more than 30 years, back to when the Gayborhood first beme what would be today. A surprisg revelatn, perhaps, is that DePiano, the man known now for his racist ments, had been workg wh the Office of LGBT Affairs – and Nellie Fzpatrick, s executive director – to addrs issu of race the Gayborhood long before the vio surfaced.

DePiano submted both a missn statement and tails about the club, cludg the makp of the staff, which, fairns, clus a variety of straight, gay, lbian and transgenr people of all lor. Select promoters the Gayborhood have pulled events om the club recent weeks, while others have stayed loyal, cludg many drag acts. After what n only be scribed as a very long and tense few months for iCandy and other bs that have been lled out for everythg om door polici to drs s, the vio, the protts, and the subsequent apologi seem to have put some much-need ntext on an issue that certaly isn’t limed to the Gayborhood or Philalphia.

IS REAL EQUALY FALLY COMG TO THE GAYBORHOOD?

” The chant roared through a bullhorn on September 23, 2016, as a group of 15 mostly black and Latx LGBTQ people took to the Gayborhood, rryg signs while chalkg the rabow-flagged streets. ” The revelatn set off an vtigatn and a public hearg by the Philalphia Commissn on Human Relatns that would force cy ernment — and the Gayborhood’s entrenched whe power stcture — to fally acknowledge the tth: Racism Philalphia’s LGBTQ muny was real and urgently need to be the past two years, I’ve had a ont-row seat at what’s been happeng the Gayborhood, first as a member of the muny, then as a wrer voicg my opn on what was wrong, and fally as a journalist.

Bayard Rt, the late black gay civil rights lear om Wt Chter, once said, “We need every muny a group of angelic troublemakers. •Gayborhood racism was first officially reported back May 1986 wh the publitn of “Racial Discrimatn Lbian and Gay Bars Philalphia: A Report on Admissn and Employment Polici and Practic.

” The report was produced by the Coaln on Lbian-Gay Bar Polici, a llectn of lol LGBTQ social jtice anizatns that was seekg muny terventn a racial problem that persisted, ironilly, even as gay liberatn was advancg. The aln had been formed 1984 after several muny patrons observed the racial segregatn at popular Gayborhood bars and the practic that abetted . While the aln ma remendatns light of the report, they were never, the Gayborhood is more than jt a space for bars and pri paras.

SLUR VIO EXPOS RACIAL RIFTS INIC GAY ENCLAVE

) The Gayborhood now has ordated polil actn groups, an openly gay state reprentative (Brian Sims), and the Mayor’s Office of LGBT Affairs. When I moved to Philalphia the summer of 2010 to attend the Universy of Pennsylvania, I imaged the Gayborhood as a kd of mec which I uld explore my full self. Even though our cy had a lbian mayor, Annise Parker, I was still told by those around me that “whe people n afford to be gay.

In May 2015, a year after graduatg om Penn, I wrote a gut op-ed for Metro tled “Black Not Fetch Enough for Woody’s?, ” about Gayborhood racism.

I was then a new eelance wrer and didn’t realize that my article was the first time s that a Gayborhood bar had been lled out that way. •Coverg Gayborhood racism revealed to me that my personal experienc the muny were typil of those of LGBTQ people of lor.

GAYBORHOODS AREN'T AD. IN FACT, THERE ARE MORE OF THEM THAN YOU THK.

I saw the tratn the ey of Marc Berry, a young black gay club-goer who told me he “felt as though [the bouncer] was implyg that the boots ma my outf ghetto, or not classy enough, ” when he was rejected om ICandy for wearg Timberland boots. Ortiz-Fonse, a longtime Latx muny advote I terviewed durg the ntroversy surroundg the Gayborhood’s “Philly4Pulse” fund-raiser for victims of the Orlando nightclub shootgs; he said the lack of Latx anizers for the event ma those the muny feel like “an afterthought.

CELEBRATE PRI MONTH THE 5 U.S. GAYBORHOODS

” I shared the betrayal exprsed by Kemar Jewel, a popular Gayborhood performer who believed that his beg turned away at Woody’s for wearg sweatpants was “vert racism. ”When the Black and Brown Workers Collective (BBWC), an tersectnal LGBTQ social activist group, formed Febary of 2016, beme the fire that propelled the fight agast Gayborhood racism.

Unapologetilly steadfast advotg for the liberatn of both their racial inty and their queerns, this aln of unassumg civilians reprented a segment of the Gayborhood that had had enough of backroom negotiatns and toothls town-hall apologi.

BBWC -founrs Shani Akilah and Abdul-Aliy Muhammad, former employe of Gayborhood nonprofs Philalphia FIGHT and the Mazzoni Center, had experienced what they saw as stutnal racism the muny and felt was time for actn. Muhammad said that for the muny to pretend there wasn’t “obstctn om ernmental bodi wh regard to addrsg cints of racial bias the Gayborhood” spoke to “the anti-blackns wh stutns of power.

GAYBORHOOD

In the 21-send vio, which now has more than 65, 000 views onle, DePiano, a whe gay man, repeated the racial slur several tim while vokg a stereotype that black patrons seek ee drk pass. The social media era we now live was as val to exposg s-long racism the Gayborhood as were the new activists leadg the movement.

THERE GO THE GAYBORHOOD

•Today, PCHR is makg sure that bars and nonprofs the muny ply wh the bias trag remend s recent Gayborhood racism report. While the suatn at bars and clubs has improved, activists of lor are still batg the discrimatn they face wh the Gayborhood’s nonprof sector — a fight that’s not easily won, given that the overarchg polil terts volved are often stutnal. Dpe the Gayborhood’s rabow-pated streets and ftive persona, recent history has shown that we, too, need angelic troublemakers — even if ’s jt a small re of them.

PHILADELPHIA — Long-simmerg racial tensns one of the untry's inic gay neighborhoods have reached a boil after the release of a vio clip which a club owner repeatedly utters a racial slur, leadg to lls for actn, cludg the replacement of Philalphia's liaison to LGBT gays and lbians the cy say they are rd at clubs the area known as the Gayborhood while they watch whe patrons stroll .