REGIONAL PGN
Temple hosts first LGBT youth conference By Angela Thomas angela@epgn.com Temple University Beasley School of Law will host the LGBT Youth Conference next week — the first of its kind at the university. The conference, which runs from 9 a.m.6:30 p.m. Oct. 19 at Klein Hall, 1719 N. Broad St., will focus on the issues surrounding LGBT youth and explore topics such as homelessness, out-of-home placements, safe-school initiatives, rejecting families, the school-to-prison pipeline and best practices for attorneys, judges and juvenile-justice personnel. The conference is open to the public and geared towards lawyers, advocates, policymakers, social workers, educators and those interested in LGBT youth work. Martha Albertson Fineman, director of the Vulnerability and the Human Condition Initiative, will serve as keynote speaker. Conference organizer and Temple Law professor Nancy J. Knauer said attendees can benefit from hearing about Fineman’s vulnerability theory and how she applies it to LGBT youth. “We are thrilled to have her as the keynote speaker,” Knauer said. “Her vulnerability theory is revolutionizing the way we think of ourselves and our relationship to society and law.” Knauer said plans for the conference
News Briefing Milano’s killer appeals to state Supreme Court Richard R. Laird, who murdered gay artist Anthony Milano in 1987, has appealed to the state Supreme Court for a new trial. Laird claims jurors in 2007 didn’t receive enough information about his father’s alleged abusiveness and about head injuries he sustained as a youth. On Aug. 8, Bucks County Common Pleas Judge Rea B. Boylan rejected Laird’s claims and denied his request for a new trial. But on Sept. 3, Laird appealed her ruling to the state Supreme Court. Laird and Frank R. Chester slashed Milano to death in December 1987 after escorting him out of a Tullytown tavern. Both men were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. Laird was granted a retrial in 2007, and another Bucks County jury convicted him of first-degree murder and sentenced him to death. This week, Stephen B. Harris, chief of appeals for the Bucks County District
started a year ago, with organizers hoping to shed light on an often-underserved segment of the LGBT community. “With all the conversations about marriage equality and the advancements in recent years, it was important to not forget and double our efforts to reach out to the most vulnerable of the LGBT community,” she said. Family Acceptance Project director Caitlin Ryan will host a showing of the project’s documentary, “Families Are Forever,” which tells the story of a Mormon family whose son came out as gay and documents the family’s process of acceptance. “What we find is that LGBTQ youth who come from rejecting families have high-risk factors for all manners of bad things, and what [Ryan] has found in her research is reducing rejecting behavior slightly makes high-risk behavior drop dramatically,” Knauer said. “We want to make sure that folks who will represent LGBT youth know about this.” Tickets for the conference are $150 for attorneys, $50 for non-attorneys, $40 for non-Temple Law students and free for Temple Law students (lunch not included), faculty and staff. Seven CLE credits, including one ethics CLE credit, will be available. For more information on the conference, visit www7.law.temple.edu/events/lgbtyouth. ■ Attorney’s Office, said Laird received a proper retrial in 2007. “As far we’re concerned, both Richard Laird and Frank Chester were properly given the death penalty, and it should be carried out,” Harris told PGN. “There are no active plea negotiations for either man.” Billy H. Nolas, an attorney for Laird, had no comment. Laird, 50, remains on death row at the state prison in Greene County. Chester, 44, remains on death row at the state prison in Graterford. His appeal for a new trial remains pending in federal court.
Couple marries after 41 years together Gordon Pessano and David Donaldson were married Sept. 9, 2013, in Manhattan at the office of the New York Ciy Clerk. The marriage took place 41 years and one day after they met in Pittsburgh in 1972. Pessano, 63, is a retired law-office a d m i n i s t r a t o r. Donaldson, 65, is a retired attorney who teaches legal skills part-time. The couple resides in Center City. ■ — Timothy Cwiek
Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com Oct. 11-17, 2013
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