Metro Philadelphia LGBTQ+ Power Players 2022

Robi Hager (he/him) is a Mexican-American Broadway actor, singer, and composer who appeared in the original cast of Spring Awakening, among others. He has been in residency at the Eugene O’Neill Center with his musical Little Duende, and will be returning this summer with his other musical, Siluetas. Robi is the creator and producer of the LGBTQ+ musical Basic Witches, for which he received a Barrymore Award nomination for Best Original Score. 

What LGBTQ+ icons or activists have inspired you? 
Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, and Stephen Sondheim.

How can businesses create more inclusive environments for their employees and patrons?
In my field, I think it is important for theaters and producers to helm and produce new queer stories on stage. We need more representation in the theater now more than ever given our political climate.

Cassie Haynes (she/her) is a leader in social impact, fundraising, and organizational strategy, having held executive leadership positions with the City of Philadelphia and in nonprofits and startups at the intersection of health and fitness. Frustrated by Philadelphia’s stagnant economic mobility and intrigued by journalism’s role in amplifying community voices, she co-founded Resolve Philly in 2018 alongside Jean Friedman-Rudovsky. In the years since, Haynes has become a national speaker and thought leader on diversity and belonging in newsrooms, sharing leadership, and building equitable organizational structures.

What is your favorite Pride month event or celebration?
June 10th–the anniversary of my legal marriage to my wife!

What LGBTQ+ icons or activists have inspired you?
Lorraine Hansberry, Chase Strangio, Bayard Rustin, Alvin Ailey, and Indya Moore.

What can people and corporations do to support the LGBTQ+ community year-round, not just during Pride month?
Stop contributing to or voting for candidates who won’t show up for LGBTQ+ communities, let alone those who are actively working against our families, our safety, and our humanity. If they won’t stand with the most vulnerable among us, don’t give them your money and don’t give them your vote.

How can businesses create more inclusive environments for their employees and patrons?
I would love to see more businesses de-gendering language in various communications, such as in forms, surveys, guides, and manuals. The singular “they” can make these types of communications so much more accessible.

Mel Heifetz (he/him) is a Philadelphia-based philanthropist and activist. He has developed real estate, hotels, and gay bars, including Sisters, Philadelphia’s only lesbian bar, and Alexander Inn, the city’s first gay hotel. Mel’s major donation to the William Way LGBT Community Center in 2005 paid off the center’s mortgage. He also donated $16 million to The Philadelphia Foundation’s GLBT Fund of America. He is the recipient of the Human Rights Campaign Equality Award, The Philadelphia Award, and the Delaware Valley Legacy Fund Lifetime Legacy Award.

Marcus Iannozzi (he/him) is the founder and principal of Message Agency, a digital agency and certified B Corporation that helps nonprofits and mission-driven organizations use technology to educate, engage, and enact change.  He is also a proud transgender business owner who has been advocating for trans civil rights and economic justice since his transition two decades ago. He is a board member of the Independence Business Alliance and the founder and co-chair of TransWork, a program of the IBA that connects trans and non-binary job seekers with supportive employers.

James Ijames (he/him) is a Philadelphia-based theater artist. His honors include the F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Artist, two Barrymore Awards for Supporting Actor in a Play, two Barrymore Awards for Direction of a Play, a Pew Fellowship, the Terrence McNally New Play Award, a Whiting Award, a Kesselring Prize, a 2020 Steinberg Prize, and the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Drama. James is an associate professor of Theatre at Villanova University and a co-artistic of the Wilma Theater. 

What is your favorite Pride month event or celebration?
I enjoy the parade but I generally just love seeing my community shine for a month. It feels like homecoming.

What LGBTQ+ icons or activists have inspired you?
I am really inspired and influenced by James Baldwin and Essex Hemphill. 

What can people and corporations do to support the LGBTQ+ community year-round, not just during Pride month?
They can put their money where their mouth is and support our community with how they interact with politicians and policy makers. They can push back against the growing list of horrendous legislation and policy that is endangering the lives of LGBTQ+ folks all over the country.

How can businesses create more inclusive environments for their employees and patrons?
I think the best path to a culture of inclusion is to think beyond your experience and what you know. The empathy required for inclusion is built inside of every person. We chose what we want to open ourselves up to. You have to be willing to see the world in a way you’ve never seen before. Then you can make space for people and make that space safe.

David Jefferys (he/him) is the founder and executive director of LGBT Meeting Professionals Association, the first and only association dedicated to connecting, educating and advancing LGBT professionals in the meetings industry. David is President Emeritus of Altus Agency, an NGLCC LGBTE certified business. Altus Agency specializes in digital content marketing and brand consulting. David is an expert in LGBTQ+ tourism marketing, and created and produced the first LGBTQ+ advertising campaign for the City of Philadelphia: “Get Your History Straight and Your Nightlife Gay”. This earned him the number one spot in the destination marketing world. David also brought “OUT” to New Orleans, Los Angeles, Chicago and Pittsburgh along with other major cities in the US. In addition to his experience in travel, David has led over 50 rebranding campaigns in the last 30 years. He published the Navigaytour for 10 years providing customized LGBTQ+ destination guides. David has served on various boards including, The Print Center, Independence Business Alliance, and Philadelphia Gay Caucus. Not satisfied with the lack of organized representation of the LGBTQ+ community in the meetings industry, he founded LGBT MPA in 2016.

Reverend Jeffrey H. Jordan (he/him) is an activist, community organizer, and the senior pastor of Whosoever Metropolitan Community Church, a congregation with a ministry for the LGBTQ+ community. Known for raising a sacred voice of defiance, Pastor Jeff has literally stood with the oppressed, the grieving, and the marginalized. He recently co-led the development and implementation of the Power Academy, a series of workshops which equips participants to advocate for themselves, their families, and their communities. Reverend Jordan resides with his husband David E. Pickett, and their adorable Bichon Poo, Justice.

What is your favorite Pride month event or celebration?
I discovered the church that I pastor when I stumbled upon my first Pride Parade in 1993. I remember joyously standing on the side when I for the first time saw floats, bands, and marchers displaying Pride. Then I cried when a church marched by with the message, “God Loves You”. This was my introduction to Pride and my introduction to the Metropolitan Community Church of Philadelphia. A year later, I returned to ministry as pastor of this church.

What LGBTQ+ icons or activists have inspired you?
The Reverend Elder Troy Perry is my LGBTQ+ icon. A year before Stonewall, he founded Metropolitan Community Church in Los Angeles, California. Since that time, the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (UFMCC) grew under his leadership to 44,000+ people in over 300 congregations in 21 countries around the world. Elder Perry, however, also has a record of being a leading advocate for the queer community. Elder Perry co-founded the Christopher Street West Annual Pride Parade. Elder Perry’s ministry has focused on worshiping God while serving humanity.

What can people and corporations do to support the LGBTQ+ community year-round, not just during Pride month?
In the state of Pennsylvania, we need a non-discrimination bill that is inclusive of queer people. We also need to protect our children from any form of conversion therapy. It is imperative that corporations, nonprofits, community leaders, and allies in the state of Pennsylvania work to bring about these two things.

Adam Joseph (he/him) has been a meteorologist for 6ABC’s Action News since 2005. He fills in on ABC’s Good Morning America when needed, and in 2009 he was voted Philadelphia’s Best Meteorologist by Philadelphia Magazine. He made history in 2014 when he became Philadelphia’s first major on-news personality to come out publicly, and in 2015, he was honored on the OUT100 list.

Representative Malcolm Kenyatta (he/him) currently serves as vice chair of the Philadelphia Delegation, as a member of Governor Wolf’s Taskforce of Suicide Prevention, and as a host of committee leadership positions. He received a bachelor’s degree from Temple University, a master’s degree from Drexel University, and completed the Harvard Kennedy School’s Executives in State and Local Government Program. As the first openly LGBTQ+ person of color and one of the youngest members elected to the Pennsylvania General Assembly, he is deeply committed to creating an equitable and inclusive society. 

As a legislator, he has championed proposals to address generational poverty, raise the minimum wage, protect workers’ rights, increase access to mental healthcare, common-sense measures to address gun violence, and protect our digital infrastructure. In 2016 and in 2020, he was elected as delegate to the Democratic Convention, both times garnering the second-highest vote total of any delegate in the Commonwealth. He has also appeared on local and national media outlets to discuss systemic poverty, affordable education and childcare, and government more accountable to citizens. He was the subject of an award-winning short documentary about his election run called Going Forward. Produced by Seven Knot Productions, it premiered on The Atlantic Magazine Selects in 2018. In 2020, he was chosen by vice president Joe Biden to give the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention along with a group of other rising stars. He was one of 20 Electoral College votes cast for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in Harrisburg on December 14, 2020. He lives in North Philadelphia with his partner Dr. Matthew Miller.

Kira Kinsman (she/her) is an architect, a trans woman, and the president and co-founder of Williams Kinsman Lewis Architecture in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Her advocacy for transgender rights and visibility includes past board service at the former Equality PA. She currently serves as co-chair at the William Way LGBT Community Center in Philadelphia, as a board member at the Rainbow Alliance in the Wyoming Valley, and at the Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business and Industry. Kira lives in both Philadelphia and Northeast Pennsylvania. 

What is your favorite Pride month event or celebration?
I love a parade, and the solidarity of that kind of energy, so a Pride March is my thing, and I’m always excited to wear the trans colors! The first time I walked was in 2015 in Philadelphia, which sometimes seems so long ago. The memory of vitality and optimism of that day has never left me. I’ll take a good Pride celebration where I can dance, too–there’s no dance floor like a queer dance floor.

What LGBTQ+ icons or activists have inspired you? 
In my youth I knew about Coccinelle, Candy Darling, Renee Richards, and Wendy Carlos. They gave me hope. Today we all understand the courage and leadership of Marsha P. Johnson and Silvia Rivera in New York, and I would also say of Gloria Casarez in Philadelphia, who broke through to city government in real ways. Trans feminine actresses like Angelica Moss, Laverne Cox, MJ Rodriguez, Trace Lysette, Jamie Clayton, and Jen Richards are helping increase visibility. Closer to home, I’m inspired every day by activists in my real life circles across the entire queer spectrum.

What can people and corporations do to support the LGBTQ+ community year-round, not just during Pride month?
The pathologizing of trans identities and the marginalizing of trans women and trans men will only stop if people understand that gender identity is a real human trait; innocuous, harmless, and simply ordinarily different. I think it’s clear that it serves a patriarchal idea of rigid gender binary to dismiss gender identity as being valid. Corporations have the resources to make it clear that protecting free expression and the idea of self-determination–that is, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness–means evolving towards a contemporary acceptance of what it means to be human.

How can businesses create more inclusive environments for their employees and patrons?
Policy is the start, but also a commitment to respecting differences. I was startled in 2016 to find that my partner was a committed conservative. We almost lost our firm that week because we were so pissed at each other. In 2017, I told him I was transitioning. He never blinked. He’s been supportive at every single turn. So, a clear commitment to respect for difference, no matter what. I see that as the essential beginning.