What are you doing on Tuesday, January 26, 2010 at 7 PM? 

You could be part of planning to make a big ole LGBTQ political whallop during Pride month ... remember when Pride was an activist event in and of itself?  Just the act of standing next to other queer identified people in a public venue was incredibly political (ask Uguanda and Nigeria).

If you'd like to see a Pride themed political rallyt which includes your point of view, doesn't it make sense to get involved in the planning so you have the best opportunity to shape the dialogue? 

You are can RSVP here.

Competing agendas will be at the table.  I don't just mean those who apologize/defend Onorato-Ravenstahl and those who don't (ha ha).  I mean those who think marriage is the goal and those who want to shore up hate crimes and those who need to remind us that AIDS is killing our brothers and sisters and underfunded.  The value of working together to organize an event is the ability to shape the event agenda to be as inclusive (and interesting) as possible. 

(I'm going to pass out "name dropping" bingo cards at the door just to keep the meeting interesting! Kidding)

937 Liberty Avenue, 3rd Floor Downtown 7-9 PM. 

Yes, I know you have children, commitments, work schedules, early busses, volleyball, etc.  But this is important.  The County Anti-Discrimination ordinance would not have passed without both a strong coalition of organizers and a strong community response.

It has been suggested to me that the Post-Gazette and other local media sources are weak on coverage of LGBTQ stories, suggested that this is conventional wisdom. I disagree.  While our local media needs improvement, the PG is particularly attentive to LGBTQ issues. I suspect the issue is that the local media doesn't act as a PR vehicle for LGBTQ events rather than coverage of LGBTQ issues. I don't see that as a problem.  There isn't a single local group that has effective PR resources (believe me, I am often promised press materials that never materialize).  It is a growing pain. 

They picked this up off the wire (or whatever serves to bring in national tidbits these days).

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Rhode Island lawmakers voted yesterday to allow same-sex and unmarried couples the right to plan the funerals of their late partners, overriding a veto by the governor, who warned it eroded traditional marriage.

The bill passed 67-3 in the House and 31-3 in the Senate, and enjoyed support from several Republican lawmakers, who in the same party as Gov. Don Carcieri, an adamant opponent of same-sex marriage in a state that does not recognize gay unions.

The new funeral planning rights also apply to unmarried heterosexual couples

Ah, the erosion of traditional marriages extends into eternity.  I wonder if Governor's Carcieri's version of religion passes out virgins to dead defenders of marriage?

Equality Advocates PA goes through another leadership change with the resignation of EX Lynn Zeitlin after one year.  Zeitlin isn't leaving for some specified opportunity and a replacement hasn't been identified so we can only imagine what has been going on.  The LGBTQ community has zero attention for organizing infrastructure when it comes to advocacy which really hurts us. Yet, it is hard to donate to an organization that is out of touch with Pittsburgh.  This literally leaves us at the mercy of those who play Western PA political/Democrat ball which is an unsettling place to be.  Even if their hearts are in the right places, the fact that it is January 6, 2010 and there are no domestic partner benefits for Allegheny County employees shows that they just don't quite have the muscle we need to be significant players.  I don't think we'd be well served by continuing to pay obeisance to that approach.

We need a dedicated organizer and to get that, we need to get behind an organization that can unite fractured organizations as well as truly represent the diversity that is the LGBTQ community Pittsburgh.

????

More from the PG on the Uguandan death penalty bill.

It is just hard to know where to focus.  KDKA on-air staff need GLAAD media training.  The Trib actually managing to pull off any positive coverage is just amazing.  Those national investments aren't going to come to Pittsburgh if we continue to struggle with the advocacy leadership vacuum.