Pennsylvania
Philadelphia bouncer charged with 3rd degree murder for punching gay man
Video shows bouncer hitting D.C. resident outside Philly gay bar
A bouncer working at a Philadelphia gay bar who was captured on video punching a gay D.C. resident in the head outside the bar on April 16, resulting in the man’s death one week later, has been charged with third degree murder in connection with the incident.
Philadelphia police on April 27 issued a warrant for the arrest of Kenneth Frye, 24, after police homicide investigators determined that Eric Pope, 41, a longtime D.C. resident who also had a home Philadelphia, died from a fatal head injury he suffered after Frye allegedly punched him in the head, knocking him down and causing his head to hit the pavement.
Police said the fatal assault took place shortly after Frye escorted Pope out of the Tabu Lounge and Sports Bar in the heart of a gay neighborhood in Center City Philadelphia on grounds, according to the bar, that Pope allegedly was intoxicated.
A surveillance video of the incident broadcast by Philadelphia TV news stations shows Pope appearing to be dancing in the street by himself in front of the bar seconds before Frye can be seen walking toward him, pulling back his arm and swinging a forceful punch to Pope’s head, knocking him down.
The video shows Pope lying unconscious on the street for a minute or two before Frye and another bouncer pull his limp body out of the street and onto the sidewalk in front of the bar. He is seen lying on the sidewalk for a few minutes before a small crowd of people gather around him. At that time the video ends.
A police statement says Pope was unconscious when emergency medical technicians arrived and took him by ambulance to a hospital in critical condition, where he died one week later on April 23.
A spokesperson for Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner sent the Washington Blade a statement that the District Attorney’s Office released at the time a warrant was issued for Frye’s arrest and one day before Frye turned himself into police on April 28.
“Following investigation by Philadelphia Police Homicide, the District Attorney’s Office is charging Kenneth Frye with Murder in the 3rd Degree for an incident that occurred in the early morning hours of April 16 outside Tabu Lounge & Sports Bar in the Gayborhood section of Center City,” the statement says.
“Frye is alleged to have punched a patron with such force that it knocked him to the ground,” the statement says. “The victim, Eric Pope, passed from his injuries, which included trauma to the brain, on Saturday, April 23,” says the statement, which adds, “A District Attorney’s Office Victim/Witness coordinator and member of the DAO LGBTQ+ Advisory Committee established contact with family members of the victim last week [days after he was hospitalized] and has been offering supportive services.”
Tim Craig, one of Pope’s friends from D.C., said that Pope bought a small house in Philadelphia shortly before the start of the COVID pandemic and had been going back and forth from D.C. to Philadelphia during the pandemic while continuing to work at his job with the D.C.-based U.S. Federal Reserve Board. Craig said he thought that Pope recently sold his D.C. house and may have been living full time in Philadelphia at the time of his death.
A Zoominfo profile of Pope’s career says he worked as a project coordinator at the Federal Reserve Board’s Monetary Affairs Division.
“Eric worked at the Federal Reserve Board for more than seven years and is remembered by his co-workers as an energetic, gentle, and empathetic person who was strongly motivated by his desire to help others,” a statement released by a Federal Reserve Board spokesperson says. “He was instrumental in helping to advance the Board’s diversity and inclusion goals and helped set up a mentoring program,” the statement says. “We are thankful for all of his positive contributions and will miss him,” the statement concludes.
“I count myself lucky to have known Eric and call him a friend,” said U.S. Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), in a statement his office sent to the Blade. “He was a kind and caring person who lived his life with purpose. My thoughts and prayers are with his family. This was a senseless, horrific act of violence and I hope the individual responsible for his death is brought to justice,” said Cicilline, who serves as co-chair of the Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus.
Craig and others who knew Pope have said they are skeptical over claims that Pope had to be escorted out of a bar for being intoxicated.
“Everyone who knew him is quite shocked,” Craig told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “Because he really wasn’t the type of person you would think would be kicked out of a bar. He didn’t get involved in fights,” the Inquirer quoted Craig as saying. “He wasn’t belligerent. He didn’t get involved in fights. It’s truly a shock to anyone that knew him.”
One of the owners of the Tabu bar told local news media outlets that Frye was not employed by Tabu but worked for a private security company that the bar retained to provide bouncers. “When it was reported to them, they immediately called 911 and are cooperating with the police investigation,” Philadelphia’s Fox 29 TV news station reported the Tabu owner as saying.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported in an April 26 story that the security company retained by Tabu Lounge & Sport Bar, Mainline Private Security, has been sued a dozen times since 2020, “frequently over bouncers’ alleged use of force or failure to summon medics in response to injuries.”
The Inquirer reports that officials with the company that the newspaper tried to reach did not respond to requests for comment. But in response to some of the lawsuits, the company has disputed claims that its employees acted improperly, according to the Inquirer.
Pennsylvania
White House freezes $175 million in funding for UPenn over trans athletes
Decision centers on decision to ‘allow’ Lia Thomas to compete on women’s swim team
The University of Pennsylvania learned Wednesday from Fox News and social media that the Trump-Vance administration is pausing $175 million in federal funding because of its nondiscrimination policy that allows transgender student athletes to compete as their authentic selves.
A reporter from Fox Business was first to break the news, describing the decision as a “pro-active punishment” for UPenn’s policy which she said violated Trump’s executive order, signed last month, banning “men from competing in women’s sports.”
BREAKING: The Trump Administration has “paused $175 million in federal funding from the University of Pennsylvania” over its policies forcing women to compete with men in sports.
Promises made, promises kept. pic.twitter.com/o4yiiqtH9d
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 19, 2025
The reporter went on to say an ongoing Title IX investigation puts the university “at risk of losing all its federal funding” because Lia Thomas, a former UPenn student athlete, made history three years ago this week by competing with other women.
That investigation, according to Fox, centers on the school’s decision to “allow transgender and biological male Lia Thomas to compete on the women’s swim team, use women’s locker rooms while exposing his male genitalia to his fellow female athletes.”
A spokesperson for the university told Fox it had not received any “official notification” of the decision on funding by the Trump administration. UPenn said the university was and is in “full compliance” with NCAA and Ivy League policies:
“We are aware of media reports suggesting a suspension of $175 million in federal funding to Penn, but have not yet received any official notification or any details. It is important to note, however, that Penn has always followed NCAA and Ivy League policies regarding student participation on athletic teams. We have been in the past, and remain today, in full compliance with the regulations that apply to not only Penn, but all of our NCAA and Ivy League peer institutions.”
As the Washington Blade reported on March 17, 2022, Thomas was a UPenn senior when she became the NCAA’s first openly trans Division 1 national champion at the Women’s Swimming and Diving Championship held in Atlanta that day. She won the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:33:24, one second faster than her closest competitor.
Thomas graduated in 2022 and started her pursuit of a law degree and the chance to compete in last summer’s Olympic Games in Paris. The Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld a worldwide ban on trans women athletes in June 2024, ending her dream of swimming at the Olympics or any other women’s competition, as the Blade reported.
Thomas did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday evening. Last summer, the aspiring attorney commented on the decision that smashed her hopes of competing again.
“Blanket bans preventing trans women from competing are discriminatory and deprive us of valuable athletic opportunities that are central to our identities,” said Thomas.
Openly trans athlete and activist Chris Mosier noted in a video posted on Instagram that Thomas and the university were in total compliance with rules of that time, and that the funding is being frozen despite the fact Trump was not even in office when Thomas competed.
View this post on Instagram
Also speaking out Wednesday was Riley Gaines, who tied with Thomas for fifth place at the 2022 championships and has gone to become a paid spokesperson for anti-inclusion women’s sports organizations.
“The Trump administration has yet again taken swift action to uphold common sense and preserve women’s opportunities by pausing $175 million in federal funding to the University of Pennsylvania,” Gaines told Fox News.
UPenn’s policy appears online, stating: “The Policy of Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action and Nondiscrimination at the University of Pennsylvania states “the University of Pennsylvania prohibits unlawful discrimination based on race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, creed, national or ethnic origin, citizenship status, age, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected class.”
“The federal Title IX Policy extends to trans students; it states “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”
Pennsylvania
Transgender Honduran woman canvasses for Harris in Pa.
Monserrath Aleman is CASA in Action volunteer
A transgender woman from Honduras has traveled to Pennsylvania several times in recent weeks to campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democratic candidates.
Monserrath Aleman traveled to York on Aug. 31 and Lancaster on Sept. 21 with a group of other volunteers from CASA in Action.
They door-knocked in areas where large numbers of African Americans, Black, and Latino voters live. Aleman and the other CASA in Action volunteers urged them to support Harris, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), and other down ballot Democratic candidates.
Aleman will be in Harrisburg on Nov. 2, and in York on Election Day.
“We achieved the goal that we had in mind and that we wanted to achieve,” she told the Washington Blade on Oct. 22 during a Zoom interview from Baltimore. “We knocked on doors, passed out flyers.”
Aleman cited Project 2025 — which the Congressional Equality Caucus on Thursday sharply criticized — when she spoke with the Blade.
“We know that there is a Project 2025 plan that would affect us: The entire immigrant Latino community, the LGBTI community, everyone,” said Aleman. “So that’s why I’m more motivated to go knocking on doors, to ask for help, for support from everyone who can vote, who can exercise their vote.”
She told the Blade that she and her fellow volunteers “did not have any bad response.”
Aleman grew up in Yoro, a city that is roughly 130 miles north of the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa.
She left Honduras on Nov. 25, 2021.
Aleman entered Mexico in Palenque, a city in the country’s Chiapas state that is close to the border with Guatemala. The Mexican government granted her a humanitarian visa that allowed her to legally travel through the country.
Aleman told the Blade she walked and took buses to Ciudad Juárez, a Mexican border city that is across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas.
She scheduled her appointment with U.S. Customs and Border Protection while living at a shelter in Ciudad Juárez. Aleman now lives in Baltimore.
“Discrimination against the LGBTI community exists everywhere, but in Honduras it is more critical,” said Aleman.
Aleman added she feels “more free to express herself, to speak with someone” in the U.S. She also said she remains optimistic that Harris will defeat former President Donald Trump on Election Day.
“There is no other option,” said Aleman.
Pennsylvania
Pa. House passes bill to repeal state’s same-sex marriage ban
Measure now goes to Republican-controlled state Senate
The Democratic-controlled Pennsylvania House of Representatives on July 2 passed a bill that would repeal the state’s same-sex marriage ban.
The marriage bill passed by a 133-68 vote margin, with all but one Democrat voting for it. Thirty-two Republicans backed the measure.
The bill’s next hurdle is to pass in the Republican-controlled Pennsylvania Senate.
State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D-Philadelphia), a gay man who is running for state auditor, noted to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review the bill would eliminate a clause in Pennsylvania’s marriage law that defines marriage as “between one man and one woman.” The measure would also change the legal definition of marriage in the state to “a civil contract between two individuals.”
Kenyatta did not return the Washington Blade’s requests for comment.
The U.S. Supreme Court in 2015 in Obergefell v. Hodges extended marriage rights to same-sex couples across the country.
Justice Clarence Thomas in the 2022 decision that struck down Roe v. Wade said the Supreme Court should reconsider the Obergefell decision and the Lawrence v. Texas ruling that said laws that criminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations are unconstitutional. President Joe Biden at the end of that year signed the Respect for Marriage Act, which requires the federal government and all U.S. states and territories to recognize same-sex and interracial marriages.
Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin earlier this year signed a bill that codified marriage rights for same-sex couples in state law. Pennsylvania lawmakers say the marriage codification bill is necessary in case the Supreme Court overturns marriage rights for same-sex couples in their state and across the country.
Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington to celebrate Spring Affair honorees
Goodlander endorses Pappas’s Senate bid
Local attorney, LGBTQ rights advocate Dale Sanders dies at 75
Gay couple claims Puerto Vallarta wedding venue discriminated against them
Calendar: April 18-24
Final push to raise funds, fill D.C. hotels as WorldPride nears
Gay Venezuelan makeup artist remains in El Salvador mega prison
Reenactment of 1965 gay rights protest at White House set for April 17
FreeState Justice: Transgender activist ‘hijacked’ Moore’s Transgender Day of Visibility event
Hungarian MPs amend constitution to ban public LGBTQ events
-
District of Columbia4 days agoFinal push to raise funds, fill D.C. hotels as WorldPride nears
-
El Salvador2 days agoGay Venezuelan makeup artist remains in El Salvador mega prison
-
District of Columbia4 days agoReenactment of 1965 gay rights protest at White House set for April 17
-
Maryland4 days agoFreeState Justice: Transgender activist ‘hijacked’ Moore’s Transgender Day of Visibility event