Month: May 2019

Harrisburg Hilton at noon

Brandon Flood
Board of Pardons Secretary

Prior to his appointment as Secretary of the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons, Brandon Flood spent nearly a decade working for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, where he served in a multitude of professional capacities, which include positions with the House Democratic Caucus’ Legislative Policy & Research Office and Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus.

Following his tenure with the House, Brandon went on to serve as Legislative Director for the Service Employees International Union State Council.

Immediately preceding his appointment as Secretary, Brandon served as Policy & Reporting Specialist for the Pennsylvania Department of General Services’ Bureau of Diversity, Inclusion and Small Business Opportunities.

In addition, from 2015 through February of 2019, Brandon served as Chairman of the Pennsylvania NAACP’s Political Action Committee and in 2016 was appointed by the National NAACP to serve as its Civic Engagement Coordinator for Pennsylvania, where he played a contributory role in registering over 1 million new voters across the commonwealth.

Brandon currently resides in Steelton, Pennsylvania, where he also serves as Chairman of the Greater Harrisburg NAACP’s Legal Redress Committee and is a sitting member of the Steelton Borough Zoning Hearing Board.
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Tickets are $30 per person or $300 for reserved table of 10.  Payment is required in advance and can be made payable to the PA Press Club by check or Visa or MasterCard.  If you would like to attend, please RSVP to info@papressclub.org by April 25.

 

Harrisburg Hilton at noon

Mark Segal
Founder and Publisher
Philadelphia Gay News

Mark Segal founded Philadelphia Gay News as a monthly in 1976 and has been publisher of the now-weekly newspaper ever since. Today, PGN is one of the two oldest LGBT weekly publications in the United States, and the largest on the East Coast, with a weekly circulation of about 50,000.

Before starting PGN he was a gay activist. In 1972, after being thrown out of a dance competition for dancing with his male partner, Segal crashed the evening news broadcast of WPVI-TV, in what became known as a “zap.” By 1973, Segal, along with Harry Langhorne, calling themselves Gay Raiders, had zapped “The Tonight Show,” “Today,” “The Mike Douglas Show” and then the “CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.” Starting at Segal’s 1974 trial for zapping Cronkite, the CBS anchor asked Segal for details on the gay community’s media complaints. The “CBS Evening News” substantially increased its coverage of gay news and Cronkite became a supporter of gay rights.

In 1975, Segal went on a hunger strike and a “sit-in” at the Philadelphia City Council to call attention to the need for a gay-rights ordinance. In 1976, the PGN used Pennsylvania Department of Justice memos to show that state police were entrapping gay men seeking sex. In the late 1970s, PGN was publicizing how legislators voted on laws that concerned the gay community. By 1981, PGN published a series about drug and alcohol abuse within the gay community, and was mainstream enough to boast about its straight readership. In 1993, Philadelphia Magazine’s “Best of Philadelphia” award for “Clout” was given to Segal. Starting in 2004, Segal has been elected and re-elected as president of the National Gay Newspaper Guild. After numerous awards and accomplishments over more than 40 years, Segal is most proud, however, to still be called a “gay activist.”