Pgh Lesbian Correspondents

I am honored and so pleased that 20 of my fellow bloggers took the time on Tuesday, May 10, 2011 to contribute to this project.  Blog for Equality Pgh 2011 may be the most important of our blogswarms as we face increasingly well-funded and hostile opponents to LGBTQ equality. 

Why does this matter?  Well, I do monitor the ways people find their way to this blog and the previous years' posts have generated a fair amount of hits.  Sometimes I wonder who reads them?  Other bloggers?  Readers?  Teens?  Adults living far away from the bingos, bars and potlucks?  Foes wanting to get a glimpse into the opinion of our allies?  All of the above and more? 

I don't agree with everything that was written.  I fear some underestimate the damage that a protracted battle around the equality of LGBTQ persons can inflict, particularly on those already laboring under negative influences from their family, friends and neighbors.  I'm not sure we appreciate the “agenda” in which this is just one item. 

But I also appreciate that more coverage in mainstream blogs of the general topic is good.  And I appreciate the lots and lots and lots of words that lifted up and affirmed the LGBTQ community, as well as blowing holes right through the idea that marriage equality threatens anyone. 

The marriage amendment is a weapon, a symbol of a cruel, destructive agenda that shows compassion only for those who earn it by following/believing in a creed that in no way shape or form stems from God or the Jesus I was taught to know. 

The love with which 20 people embraced the Blog For Equality Pittsburgh stands in stark contrast to that agenda. Be it love of gay family or friends, the love of a compassionate Creator or the love of justice and fairness … love is the thread that binds the 20 posts together.  Here's hoping those posts, individually or collectively, generate the action we need to defeat this amendment and ensure that Pennsylvania remains a place dedicated to equality.  For all.