Local LGBT activists celebrate

THE DAZZLING paint on the new rainbow-colored crosswalks at 13th and Locust streets in the heart of the city's Gayborhood had just barely dried. Preparations for the city's 50th Anniversary celebration of LGBT civil rights, just days away, were in full swing.

And then yesterday, in the midst of this flurry of LGBT town pride, civil-rights leaders all across the City of Brotherly Love - perhaps the nation's most LGBT-friendly city - had something more to celebrate. Something not only big, but a long time coming:

The United States Supreme Court upheld same-sex marriage. In yesterday's landmark ruling, Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the 5-to-4 majority, said that marriage is a fundamental and constitutional right for all couples.

"No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice and family," Justice Kennedy said. "They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right."

Mark Segal, publisher of the Philadelphia Gay News and a pioneer of the gay-rights movement, said he could barely contain his jubilation.

"I'm elated. I'm emotional. It's an out-of-body experience," Segal said yesterday.

The Supreme Court decision came little more than a year after same-sex marriage became legally recognized in Pennsylvania.

Segal, 64, said he didn't fully appreciate the enormity of what it means to be married until he said "I do" to his partner, Jason Zillemez, 34, at their wedding ceremony last July.

"Jason and I had been together for 10 years before we were legally allowed to get married in our state," Segal said. "I didn't appreciate what marriage was. I thought, up until our marriage, that the only difference would be signing a paper, but that night, the way he looked at me, was totally different than I've ever seen before. At that moment, I knew it was different and I knew what we were fighting for."

With yesterday's ruling, Segal and Zillemez's marriage will be legally recognized not only in Pennsylvania, but across the nation.

It also means that any federal, state or local laws that apply to married couples now apply to same-sex married couples.

"Now, same-sex couples can marry and get those same benefits," said Molly Tack-Hooper, a staff lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania. "And it's not just benefits. There are obligations to being married. For instance, the obligation to pay child support if you divorce or pay alimony."

Next week, LGBT activists will mark the 50th anniversary of an historic July 4, 1965 demonstration for gay rights at Independence Hall. While the public protest was relatively small, many LGBT activists say they believe the demonstration, bold for its time, provided a building block to 1969's Stonewall riots in New York City, a turning point in gay rights.

Malcolm Lazin, 71, marveled at the "monumental change" he has seen in his lifetime. "It took me until age 35 to come out," he said. "It's really a joy for me to see young people being able to be out in their teens and early 20s."

Lazin, executive director of Equality Forum and a lead organizer of the 50th Anniversary LGBT civil rights celebration, called the Supreme Court ruling a "stupendous" step forward.

"To think that 50 years ago, gays were marginalized and despised - they were classified as mentally ill - and that 50 years later we now have marriage equality, it speaks volumes about this country in fulfilling the promise of equality," Lazin said.

At 2:15 p.m. on Thursday as part of the 50th Anniversary celebration, Jim Obergefell, the plaintiff in the Supreme Court decision handed down yesterday, will lay a wreath at the Gay Pioneers Historical Marker at 6th and Chestnut Streets, according to Lazin.

Though elated by the ruling, some civil-rights leaders yesterday said there is still a lot of progress to be made in Pennsylvania. According to Ted Martin, executive director of Equality Pennsylvania, the state is the only one in the northeast where antidiscrimination laws don't apply to LGBT people.

"We still remain the only state in the northeast where we can fire someone for being gay, we can deny them an apartment or evict them," Martin said.

However, 34 municipalities, including Philadelphia, have enacted local protections against discrimination for LGBT residents, Martin said.

Archbishop Charles Chaput, who traveled to Rome this week with Mayor Nutter to plan for the Pope Francis' visit to Philadelphia in September, said he wasn't surprised by the high court's decision, which he characterized as a mistake.

"The surprise will come as ordinary people begin to experience, firsthand and painfully, the impact of today's action on everything they thought they knew about marriage, family life, our laws and our social institutions," the archbishop wrote in a statement. "The mistakes of the court change nothing about the nature of men and women, and the truth of God's Word. The task now for believers is to form our own families even more deeply in the love of God, and to rebuild a healthy marriage culture, one marriage at a time, from the debris of today's decision."

Early this week, Chaput said homosexuals can attend the World Meeting of Families, which is held every three years in different cities and is designed to promote traditional family values, but gay Catholics will not be permitted to use the event as a platform to attack the Catholic Church's stance on homosexuality.

Rev. Kathleen Spicer, an ordained Christian minister who lives in Montgomery County, said, "I'm not surprised at which of the justices didn't support it," referring to the four dissenting votes. "But we are so happy about it. Love is love, and if you are in love with someone, that's a gift."

Spicer and her husband, Rev. Philip Sciscione, have performed about 50 same-sex marriage ceremonies in the Philadelphia region since May 2014, when a federal district judge upheld gay marriage in Pennsylvania.

"We've married people who have been together for 30 or 40 years and have kids together and grandkids," Spicer said.

Mayor Nutter, in a statement issued yesterday, hailed the ruling and described the Constitution as truly "a living, evolving document," agreeing with President Obama, who said, "We can say in no uncertain terms that we have made our union a little more perfect."

Nutter added, "Today's decision by the Supreme Court underscores the work in which the City of Philadelphia has been engaged for decades: assuring equal access and protection for the LGBT community. While our work is not yet done because barriers to equality still exist, this is a huge leap forward for LGBT rights and our entire Nation."

- Staff writer Becky Batcha contributed to this story.