A prominent trans activist based in Philadelphia is currently standing trial on charges of sexually assaulting two young boys. Attorneys for Kendall Stephens, born Jonathan, are seeking access to personal documents related to the young victims in a bid to exonerate their client.
Stephens, 39, identifies as transgender and was formerly a prominent LGBTQ+ advocate in Philadelphia. He was arrested on December 18, 2023, after charges involving multiple counts of child sexual abuse were filed against him by the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General.
Stephens allegedly engaged in oral sex with a boy, identified in court records as Z.B., and had inappropriate communication and interactions with another boy, S.B.
Eight counts related to the sexual abuse of children have been lodged against him, including indecent assault against a person less than 13 years old, rape, corruption of minors, unlawful contact with a minor, and endangering the welfare of children as a parent or guardian. The incidents are said to have occurred in 2022 and 2023.
Last month, Stephens’ legal representation filed a “Motion to Compel Discovery” with Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Anthony G. Kyriakakis. The attorneys requested that Judge Kyriakakis order the prosecution to produce documents relating to the boys’ personal lives that they believe could help to exonerate their client. The alleged victims, Z.B. and S.B., are currently ten and fifteen years old, respectively.
Attorneys for Stephens are reportedly seeking to move forward with an accusation that one of the boys, S.B., is a sexual predator himself. The defense intends to argue that S.B., who was 13 at the time of the abuse, fabricated the allegations against Stephens to deflect from his own wrongdoing and sexual impropriety.
Defense attorneys also requested any potential mental health records from the family of the second child, Z.B. Should the family refuse to comply with their demand, Stephens’ legal representation argues that the judge should consider the 10 year-old boy incompetent to testify.
The motion further attempts to argue that the boys’ grandmother, L.B., “coached her grandchildren into making these accusations to obtain a financial windfall, distract from the sexual abuse allegations made against [S.B.] and to obscure her ongoing fraud with the foster care system.” L.B. is alleged to have exploited the welfare system by collecting payments from the state to take care of the boys while they resided with their uncle.
Attorneys are further requesting the judge order the boys’ grandmother to hand over her phone for a forensic investigation.
However, Stephens has a questionable background of his own, having been named in a 2021 investigation into the former Executive Director of the Mayor’s Office of LGBT Affairs, a trans-identified male who goes by Celena Morrison. The Philadelphia Board of Ethics had charged Morrison with a violation of the Ethics Code for “receiving a gift in the form of a loan” from Stephens.
Celena Morrison is the first openly trans identifying person to head any city office or department. She was appointed executive director of the @PhillyLGBTgov in January. Previously, Morrison worked at @WayGay and @MazzoniCenter #WomensHistoryMonth pic.twitter.com/Yt8eZ3tM16
— Councilmember Katherine Gilmore Richardson (@CouncilwomanKGR) March 11, 2021
The two men were described as “long-time personal friends,” with Executive Director Morrison, who acted as a liaison to city government and police, having stayed at Stephens’ home for a period in 2020.
Stephens, who has advocated for the abolition of prisons, was involved in a prison advocacy organization, Hearts on a Wire, which claims to “address the needs of transgender people” in Pennsylvania’s prisons.
Stephens reached out to Morrison, requesting that the latter use his role within the government to procure taxpayer funding for Hearts on a Wire. Their conversation fizzled by August 19, 2020. Five days later, Stephens was physically assaulted in what he described as a hate incident. Shortly after, Stephens set up a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for medical and other expenses which ultimately racked up more than $35,000 in donations.
Following news of the assault, Morrison texted Stephens, saying, “I just want you to know that I love you as a sister and I have your back as my sister and as a member of this community. I have your back in my professional position as well and we will not take this lying down.”
Morrison then acted as a liaison between Stephens and city police department officials and the District Attorney’s Office and played a significant role in drawing the attention of the media and authorities to the matter. In September, Stephens sent a check for $4,000 to Morrison, which the city official described as a “gift.”
Morrison also testified to the Ethics Board that Stephens had showed him envelopes containing cash and claimed that he had $200,000 hidden in his closet.
According to police records, Stephens was in a “supervisory role” when he “engaged in deviate sexual intercourse by forcible compulsion or threat” with Z.B., who was nine years old at the time. He then told the boy not to disclose the abuse so that Stephens would not be “locked up.”
Stephens had recently been working in a leadership position at a children’s home for vulnerable youth. Over the past three years, he had been involved with Bethany Children’s Home in Berks County, where he sat on the Board of Directors.
According to the foster home’s website, Stephens, who resided at Bethany as a teen, was chosen for the role due to his experience as a “civil rights activist,” and because he was pursuing a degree in Public Health, Social Work, Communication and Activism from Temple University.
In addition to being in a leadership role among at-risk youth, Stephens has been influential in local politics.
Beginning in 2022, he worked for the District Attorney Office’s (DAO) LGBTQ Advisory Board and the Philadelphia Police Department’s LGBTQIA+ Liaison Committee. In January of last year, the DAO issued a press release announcing the committee, created in response to a “nationwide increase in reported violence toward transgender women of color.”
The LGBTQIA+ Advisory Board was designed to work with “criminal justice partners to address shortcomings that historically have made queer Philadelphians both more vulnerable to violence and to over-policing and prosecution.”
Stephens was also mentioned favorably during a June 2021 session of Pennsylvania’s Congress by Representative Mary Gay Scanlon, who was speaking in support of a proposal to enshrine gender identity in law as a protected characteristic via the Equality Act.
“I rise today in recognition of Pride month and to celebrate the rich history of LGBTQ activism in the greater Philadelphia area,” Scanlon said. “Today, activism within Philadelphia’s LGBTQ community continues through… people like my friend, Kendall Stephens, who’s pushing for Pennsylvania to update it’s hate crime statute to finally include LGBTQ people as a protected class.”
Stephens actively supported prison abolition, as evidenced by a video shared by Philly Trans March, where he can be seen speaking in public with a megaphone. In the now-deleted video, Stephens argues that “people are dying at an accelerated rate,” and that politicians are not “supporting and protecting all of the people who are LGBTQ+ identified.”
In the surrounding area, a hand-written list of demands can be seen. “Free all incarcerated trans people,” reads one, and another, “abolish the police.”
Additional demands include the full decriminalization of the sex industry, “comprehensive sex ed” in schools, and an executive order establishing Pennsylvania as a “sanctuary state,” where minors can be given puberty-halting drugs.
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