District attorney names lesbian prosecutor as liaison to Phila.'s LGBT community

With Center City's "Gayborhood" and such community institutions as the Giovanni's Room bookstore, Philadelphia Gay News and the Equality Forum that annually draws tens of thousands to issue-events affecting sexual minorities, some might feel crimes based on sexual orientation are part of the past.

Helen "Nellie" Fitzpatrick says otherwise.

"It hasn't been my whole lifetime that it's been OK to be gay," said Fitzpatrick, 31, a prosecutor in the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office named last month as liaison to the city's LGBT - lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender - community.

"I know that for me in law school, my sexual orientation was a huge concern in my applying for jobs: whether or not it would be OK to be an open lesbian state attorney in Florida . . . whether I'd be able to compete for jobs as an open lesbian."

The chance to work and live openly in a city with a significant LGBT population brought the native Floridian to Philadelphia in 2008 after graduating from Florida Coastal School of Law.

"I moved here for the opportunity to work in the District Attorney's Office," Fitzpatrick said, "and I immediately fell in love with this city and everything it offers to somebody who is a member of our community."

It's also what motivated Fitzpatrick to apply when District Attorney Seth Williams posted an opening for liaison to the LGBT community last year.

LGBT liaison will not be the only part of Fitzpatrick's portfolio. She said she will also coordinate prosecution of all "hate crimes" and handle her full caseload in the Family Violence and Sexual Assault Unit.

Just last week, for example, Fitzpatrick prosecuted the case against Courtney Wilson, 56, charged with sexually assaulting five women - now in their 20s - when they were girls at a Cedarbrook church where he was a member. Wilson was held for trial.

The FBI's 2010 report on hate crimes - the most recent data - said 6,624 hate crimes involving 8,199 victims and 6,001 offenders were reported nationwide.

That total included 1,347 in Pennsylvania, 509 in New Jersey, and 56 in Delaware.

The FBI's data analysis showed that 48.2 percent of victims were targeted because of race, 18.9 percent for religion, 18.6 percent for sexual orientation, 13.7 percent for ethnicity or national origin, and 0.6 percent for disability.