Give it up for Diane Gramley, prez and proponent of the American Family Association of Pennsylvania.  She works hard to get her message of hate and intolerance out into the Pennsylvania heartland , be it letter to the editor or press release. She's everywhere the homos should be.

Are you?

Gramley sent out this snarky little press release about H.B. 1400 which would extend protected class status to include sexual orientation, gender identity and gender presentation.  It is a significant piece of legislation that would give us statewide protections at our workplaces and in our housing situations.  So you couldn't be fired because you are a lesbian or because you are a lesbian who dresses in a masculine manner.  Here's how Gramley spins it:

H.B. 1400 will force all PA businesses with four or more employees to hire homosexuals, bisexuals and transgenders i.e. men who think they are women and demand to use the women's restroom.  Upon closer examination you will see that there is no exemption for churches, Christian schools or daycares.

This is a clear example of why the local lesbian community needs to get a real grip on our internalized transphobia and turn our collective attention to the many thousands of Pennsylvanias who lap up this anti-gay rhetoric. People buy into this completely distorted interpretation of the legislation and get on the phone with their legislators, terrified that they'll have skirt wearing men in their restrooms and lascivious lesbians in the daycares.

You, dear reader whomever you are, should do the same.  You should call your State Rep and let her/him know how you'v experienced discrimination.  Don't wait.  Do it now. 

Diane is hard at work tearing us down across the Commonwealth. 

Here's some good news from the Post-Gazette's wonderful L.A. Johnson < is L.A.a man or woman? does it matter other than for my pronoun selection?>

A majority of U.S. citizens support equal treatment for gay people, a recent Harris Interactive poll reports.

About 56 percent of straight Americans 18 and older believe people should be more supportive of gay equality, a number that rises to 60 percent for those polled between the ages of 18 and 44, the survey said.

Hurrah!  The survey also brings to light the value of heterosexual allies, especially those who speak out against incidents of discrimination and homophobia.

"People's minds are changed more ... by the person who isn't the minority," says Betty Hill, executive director of Persad Center (www.persadcenter.org), which offers counseling, education and advocacy for the Pittsburgh-area gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. "When a family member speaks up, it seems to be better listened to than when a regular old gay person like myself speaks up."

Now see that's exactly why Betty Hill is a lesbian who rocks -- "regular old gay person" indeed. 

Anyway, her point is very true.  And it is a point I made oh so eloquently at The Society with regard to my good friend John McIntire, one of the staunchest allies the LGBT community is lucky to have. 

Heteros like John and that guy down the street and the lady at church and my friend Amy make all the difference b/c they normalize homosexuality. 

That being said, I was pleased to have a chance to hang out with my friend Maria when she sat in for Lynn Cullen this morning.  It ties into this little theme very nicely b/c Maria asked me to talk about my *other* blogging gig -- the Pittsburgh Women's Blogging Society.  Sure, the lesbian flavor came up a time or two, but it was an opportunity to talk about other issues that matter to me.  I'm a multi-dimensional homo!

One thing that was frustrating was our limited ability to talk about some big news -- WDUQ- FM will not allow Planned Parenthood to underwrite news segments. Why?  Because Duquesne University pulled the puppet strings of so-called public radio.  Check out Maria's well crafted post on the topic and decide for yourselves -- should NPR's flagship station in Pittsburgh have a modicum of free speech or should it be all fetus, all the time? 

Geez oh man.  Anyway, because it was about a rival station and we are supposed to have the courtesy of not talking about other stations, we had to low key it because saying "another local station" without the whole MacDaddy Catholic Church thing was pointless. I hope we were successful and Maria gets to go back. 

I wrote some emails to Scott Hanley and the big kahuna Dr. Doughertry at Duquesne.  I even filed a complaint with the NPR ombudsman.  Do they seriously not realize how much of their local listening audience are liberal do-gooder yuppies who support organizations that promote women's health and try to keep kids from contracting the clap?  Seriously?

Here's something amusing -- take a look at the list of local companies that accept the membership Q-card.  Disclaimer or not, the station is willing to promote these folks in exchange for a little love to the members. Let's see who can identity the most companies that have some business practice which violates Catholic principles.  You go first ...all I'm gonna do is remind you of the entire Rolling Stones exhibit at the Andy Warhol Museum and call it a day.  :-)

All fetus, all the time. I just like the sound of that.

A few things you might find interesting ...

The vote to mark up the ENDA has been postponed due to mounting pressure from LGBTQ groups to reinstate protections based on gender identity. 

"The step taken today by the committee to delay action on the substitute bill is a clear demonstration of the strength of grassroots organizing as exemplified by our members and thousands of advocates across the country," said Jon Hoadley, the Executive Director of National Stonewall Democrats. 

"Our work isn't over until Congress passes, and the President signs, an Employment Non-Discrimination Act that protects all working Americans from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity," said Hoadley.  

On Monday Stonewall Democrats launched NoSubstitutes.org, an online organizing effort to mobilize people to save the the original version of ENDA. 

Here's some background courtesy of Pam's House Blend.

Republican heavyweights are skipping candidate forums' sponsored by people who don't look like them.  Bad choice according to the Post-Gazette editorial board.

[T]he absence of the frontrunners suggested their commitment to black and Hispanic concerns was only partial, too.

"[The missing candidates] told every black request and every brown request, there's a scheduling issue here," PBS moderator Tavis Smiley told an interviewer. "Is it really scheduling or is it a pattern?"

It looks like a pattern when debates and forums sponsored by the National Urban League, Logo (the gay cable network), Univision (a Spanish-language network) and the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials are factored in. Coincidence or contempt for vast voter constituencies?

The Supreme Court has refused to hear a church-state case in which religious social service organizations are required by New York State Law to pay for workers birth control health insurance benefits.  The law, like that in 23 other states, exempts religious institutions that hire and serve primarily those of the same faith.  The New York Court of Appeals ruled that since groups like Catholic Charities hire and serve people of different faith, they are essentially social service agencies and thus must follow the law.

Let's say that again ... Catholic Charities must follow the law.  Ah, how sweet! (h/t 365gay.com)