State pols join push to amend hate-crime law

MORE THAN a week later, the story of two gay men savagely beaten in Center City continues to spread.

Yesterday, as police sources said detectives were nearing the end of their investigation, word reached Harrisburg, where state legislators are calling their colleagues to action.

"The gay guy in me and the Philly guy in me are pissed," said state Rep. Brian Sims, "but I'm a legislator, and my job is to change policy.

"If we can do anything to draw enough attention to this to give the hate-crime bill some buoyancy, we need to do it."

Sims, a Democrat whose district includes the site of the attack, is organizing a rally Thursday in LOVE Park, at which officials and members of the city's LGBT community will push for change in Pennsylvania's hate-crime law.

He's joined in his efforts by state Sen. Larry Farnese - a Democrat whose district serves parts of North Philly, Center City and South Philly - who will hold a news conference inside the Capitol on Tuesday.

"It upsets me that it takes something like this, a horrific assault, to cast light on the fact that Pennsylvania is woefully behind in protecting its people," Farnese said last night.

"We should not have to hold press conferences on equality in 2014."

Currently, state hate-crime law does not cover sexual orientation, but Farnese and Sims hope that the Sept. 11 incident on 16th Street near Chancellor - in which a gay couple were allegedly assaulted by a group of 12 twentysomethings - will galvanize change.

"This is not an LGBT thing, this not a hate-crime advocates thing. This affects everyone," Sims said.

Last night, police sources said detectives were wrapping up their investigation, hoping to finalize their report in the next two days.

The next step, according to those sources, is for the police to pass the information they've compiled from witnesses and persons of interest to the District Attorney's Office, which could make a decision in the case as early as Monday.

And they have the support of Adam Stehle, a victim of a similar assault.

"I'm angry. It's shameful that hate-crime law is still so lacking," he said. "We need to mobilize people."

Last week's attack struck a nerve with Stehle, who was injured in an incident on New Year's Day 2013, one that took place a few blocks away from the Sept. 11 attack.

According to the police report Stehle filed, he and his partner were holding hands and walking on 13th Street near Chestnut about 1 a.m. when a group of drunken revelers crossed their path.

One member, a tipsy woman wearing a "New Year's Eve tiara," approached the couple and started to taunt them, according to Stehle. She capped her verbal abuse by hitting Stehle's partner with her purse.

In response, Stehle pushed her away. Then, in a flash, the group of men accompanying the woman "pounced on us," Stehle said.

He was thrown to the ground and kicked repeatedly in the ribs while his attackers spat homophobic slurs, he said.

The assault, which he estimates lasted about a minute, was broken up by a passer-by, and the couple fled.

Stehle has put the attack behind him, and has since moved out of Pennsylvania, partly because of the gaps in the state's hate-crime law.

Lt. John Stanford, a police spokesman, confirmed that the gay couple filed a police report in the incident, but that no arrests had been made in the investigation, which remains active.

According to Stehle, that lack of closure comes from a lack of evidence - detectives told him that they couldn't find clear surveillance footage of the New Year's Day attack.

But now, nearly two years later, he wants to share the lesson he's learned from his ordeal with the victims of the attack on 16th Street.

"Don't let anger consume you," Stehle said. "Reach out to other members of the community, because we're here to support you."

The victims, whose names the Daily News is withholding at their request, will get that opportunity on Oct. 2, according to Sims, who has invited them to testify at a public hearing he's organizing on LGBT rights at the Kimmel Center.