Pgh Lesbian Correspondents

St. Patrick’s Day edition.

First, let me wish my younger brother Jim a happy birthday. He’s 41 – 17 months younger than me. In my head he’s still 8. LOL. 

One of most significant stories this past week involved a conversation about how we prevent rape. Gun proponents argue that women need guns to shoot their rapists. Advocates argue that as most rapes takes place with someone the victim knows and who also has access to that very gun, it is not helpful at all. Zerlina Maxwell went onto the Sean Hannity show and said that we need to teach men not to rape – period. After enduring rape and death threats among much awful cyberabuse, Maxwell continued to stick with her message and provide five suggestions on how to do this.

Reducing violence against women is a very critical issue for the LGBTQ community. A sexually violent rape culture hurts all of us.

This piece from BuzzFeed drew a lot of interest on my Twitter account – knowing a gay person more than doubles support for marriage equality. During this week, US Republican Senator Rob Portman revealed that he now supports marriage equality, a change of heart he attributes to his son’s coming out. Portman has been lauded and criticized for the politics of individuality. I think that’s fair but shortsighted. Portman is the only Republican in the Senate to support marriage equality. He doesn’t need a ticker tape parade, but a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, right? The real takeaway is our decisions to live authentic lives knowing that the welfare of the entire community can depend upon it.

Another very popular tweet was linked to a story about 10 bisexual women of color.

NOM publicly described Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts’ adoption of his kids as the “second best” way to be a family. Oh my.

In poverty new, Pennsylvania wage earners are not bringing home enough to pay average rents. This coupled with the lack of housing discrimination protections for LGBTQ folks is deeply troubling.

A health club in Columbus, Ohio has been fined for discrimination against a transwomen employee.

An 11 year old boy resigned from Boy Scouts over their failure to lift the ban on LGBTQ scouts and leaders. His letter to the editor explaining his decision is very powerful.

A Dutch lesbian couple has had to go into hiding with their 11 year old foster son who is of Turkish ancestry after his birth family insists his placement violates Turkish law.

Finally, this letter written by a father to assure his son that coming out was okay has made the rounds (and brought the tears.)