May 10, 2016
Matt Rourke, File/AP
“I get emotional all of the time, I’m always crying about something. But my parents being there is very special for me. I’m very, very happy and thankful that they are still alive to see this," Jim Kenney says of his election and inauguration as mayor. "My mom was 19 when I was born. She’s 75 now. My father is 80 and will be 81 in July. To have them both is very special."
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney took a moment of his time Tuesday to offer a word of support for Aniya Wolf, the Bishop McDevitt High School junior who was kicked out of her prom in Harrisburg for wearing a tuxedo.
Wolf explained after last Friday's incident that she is a lesbian who prefers not to wear women's clothing. Before the event, the high school sent Aniya and her mother a letter citing a prom dress code that barred her from wearing a suit to the dance. When Wolf decided to attend the event anyway, she was told she had to leave or the police would be called.
“You know, a lot of girls’ dresses, I mean I’m not saying that all of them are this way, but they do show a lot of skin," Aniya told local news station WHTM-TV. “I think I’m dressed pretty modestly.”
Kenney, who today expanded a ban on city-funded travel to places with anti-LGBT legislation, told Wolf on Facebook that she should just continue to be herself.
Kenney supports Bishop McDevitt student.
"I will reconsider this ban if the states of North Carolina, Mississippi, Tennessee and the city of Oxford, Alabama, choose to repeal their discriminatory legislation," Kenney said Tuesday afternoon in a follow-up post on Facebook.
Philadelphia is one of nine cities and states that have imposed travel bans to locations with discriminatory legislation.
