From the Center for Lesbian & Gay Civil Rights

The Value All Families Coalition is sponsoring buses from Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and the Lehigh Valley for the March 14th Anti-Amendment rally in Harrisburg. If you are interested in taking a bus from: Philadelphia contact the Center at 215-731-1447 ext. 10 or c4crinfo@center4civilrights.org; Pittsburgh contact Dana at 412-858-3057 or equalitynow@msn.com; or the Lehigh Valley contact PA-GALA at 610-863-4961 or smblack@epix.net. The following organizations are sponsoring the buses: Human Rights Campaign, Center for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights, Philadelphia Family Pride, Mountain Meadow, PA-GALA, GLOW at PP&L, MCC of the Lehigh Valley and Lehigh Valley PFLAG, among others.

The Center for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights is coordinating the rally opposing the anti-family state constitutional amendments. The rally will occur in the Capitol Rotunda at 2:00. Lobby training will be held a block away from the Capitol building at 11:00 at St. Michael Lutheran Church,118 State St., Harrisburg. The coalition encourages people to visit legislators that day in Harrisburg from 12:00 to 1:45.

Fom Monday's Tribune Review.

This is an excellent article about a local Presbyterian minister facing scrutiny for performing a wedding for two women. 

I was honored to be a guest at this wedding.  Perhaps it is the latent Catholic in me, but the wedding was sacramental and reverential and real.  It was important to me in at least a million ways.  Again, I am not particularly artful today.  I hope you'll read the article in the Trib and tune in to John McIntire's upcoming interview with Janet Edwards on KDKA. 

Sue

From www.365gay.com comes this great news ...

(Santa Rosa, California) A longtime Presbyterian minister who was the first of her faith to be tried for officiating at the unions of gay couples was acquitted Friday of violating her denomination's position on same-sex marriage.

A regional judicial commission of the Presbyterian Church (USA) ruled 6-1 that the Rev. Jane Spahr of San Rafael acted within her rights as an ordained minister when she married two lesbian couples in 2004 and 2005.

Because the section of the faith's constitution that reserves marriage for a man and a woman "is a definition, not a directive," Spahr was "acting within her right of conscience in performing marriage ceremonies for same-sex couples," the tribunal said in a written ruling.

The tribunal stated that Reverend Spahr acted within the "normative standards" of her region. The ruling may mean that all ordained clergy are permitted to preside at same-sex weddings. Read the full story at http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/03/030306pastor.htm

Spahr was charged with using the term 'wedding' not for actually performing the ceremony. Click here for the backstory
http://www.pghlesbian.com/blog/_archives/2006/3/3/1794706.html

A tearful Spahr, 63, a longtime activist who could have faced sanctions ranging from a rebuke to removal from the ministry, rejoiced at the verdict. Flanked by her lawyers and the two couples she married, Spahr said she would continue performing same-sex weddings.

"The church said God loved everyone, and for years I believed it," she said. "Today, for just one moment, to hear this is remarkable."

In another example of homopersecution, the Presbyterian Church is at it again.  This time, the Reverend Jane Spahr is facing a trial for conducting wedding for same sex couples in 2004 and 2005.  Spahr is a native of Pittsburgh's Northside.

Spahr choose to use the term wedding at the couples' request in order to honor their union and avoid deeming it second class.  The Presbyterian church is arguing that this is not a larger debate over the status of gay weddings but merely a determination of whether Spahr violated the Church constitution. 

Spahr's attorney disagrees, likening the issue to the ordination of women for which there is a need for larger dialogue.

The Presbyterian Church (USA) is among several Protestant denominations embroiled in a bitter debate between liberals and conservatives over what role gays should have in their churches. Under a ruling by the national church's highest court in 2000, Presbyterian churches may bless same-sex unions as long as they do not equate the relationships with marriage.

Ms. Spahr is one of a half-dozen Presbyterian ministers across the nation facing disciplinary action for marrying same-sex couples, although her case is the first to come to trial, Mr. Cahn said. The others include the Rev. Janet Edwards in Pittsburgh.

Click here for the details on situation facing Pittsburgh's Janet Edwards. 

It appears that our community must gird for continuous battle on every front in order to secure our civil rights.  Gay Christians in particular are under siege and hurrah for heroes like Janet and Jane for standing up on behalf of us all. 

I've been noticing more and more references to second class citizenship around gay civil rights issues. The wingnut have done an incredibly good job of setting gay marriage up to foil heterosexual marriage.  But when I  describe the consequences of second class citizenship, I notice a profound difference in the tenor of the conversation.  Separate but equal is not good enough.  We've been down that path and continue to experience the fallout even today. 

I pray for the members of the Presbyterian church as they struggle through this moral dilemna. 

Another story from today's Post-Gazette  According to a policy paper from the National Sexuality Resource Center at San Francisco State University,denying us marraige can lead to mental health problems. 

Well, duh!

The stress of being a second class citizen will do that you.  Having to rush to your partner's hospital bedside while realizing you left the power of attorney documents at home and hoping you can get in to see her?  Stressful.  Worrying about dividing up property after one partner dies?  Stressful. 

Being gay is not stressful.  Being in an intimate committed relationship is no more stressful than for heterosexuals.  Being in a committed gay relationship in a society which deems you second class, which denies your most basic civil rights ... now that's stressful.

Monday's Post-Gazette featured Buchanan Ingersoll PC's Nontraditional Couples and Families practice group which specializes in LGBT legal work. 

[Maureen] Cohon, the wife of Carnegie Mellon University President Jared Cohon, said her firm's nontraditional couples practice began quietly when a friend in a gay relationship asked her about guardianship for a child and drafting a will.

After eight months of talking to people in the gay and lesbian community to make sure there was a demand for such services, Buchanan Ingersoll launched the practice in 2002.

There were just four clients that first year. Two years later, there were about 40, "and it just goes up every year," Mrs. Cohon said.

According to the article, the U.S. Census counted 594,391 same-sex couples nationwide in 2000, including 3,693 in the six-county Pittsburgh region. 

3, 693 in this region!  That's a lot of queer families and kudos to Buchanon Ingersoll for recognizing an important legal service area. 

Without the protection of marriage, it is critical that LGBT couples seek as much protection under law as possible.  It is also expensive and not perfect which is why the struggle for true equality under the law must continue.