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The anticipated vote on a municipal nondiscrimination ordinance in the City of Butler was postponed to give advocates more time to work on language. PFLAG Butler has put together a comprehensive explanation of the ordinance here. The Mayor of Butler, Tom Donaldson, opposed the ordinance and wants a vote now rather than later, calling the […]
This week, City Council in Butler, Pennsylvania will vote on an ordinance to create municipal level protections for residents based on protected classes (gender, race, religion, etc) including sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. For months, members of PFLAG Butler have been working tirelessly to educate members of council and the larger community about […]
It is such a fluke thing to be named the best of something that literally hundreds of other people do everyday right here in Pittsburgh. I don’t know what to say beyond thank you. Thank you for reading. Thank you for voting. Thank you for sharing our content. Thank you for supporting a blogosphere that values the voices of queer and fat and disabled female bloggers among many others.
Read all the blogs. You won’t regret it. (And read #AMPLIFY, too!)
We want to keep growing and we especially want to begin offering audio recording options to conduct interviews with community elders as well as others who have limited access to the Internet. We have connected with a lesbian owned transcription service based in Johnstown, PA, but it will still cost $125-250 per interview. That’s one reason we ask people to try to use the online form if possible.
During October, we are again crowdfunding for the project – we hope to raise $3,000 so we can schedule the audio sessions throughout the winter. The funds will be used to set up “AMPLIFY Info” sessions in the outlying counties so we can meet people & encourage them to participate as well as to set up the actual recording times. And, of course, pay for the transcription.
We’ve been invited to New Castle (Lawrence County), Johnstown (Cambria County), Bradford (McKean County), as well as Armstrong, Beaver, Butler and Clearfield counties. If you need a little encouragement, consider this story from Melanie (a Trump supporter) who lives in Washington County.
Kristene Chapa, then 18, and girlfriend Mollie Olgin, then 19, stopped by a park on their way to see a movie on June 23, 2012. A horrifying encounter with a stranger ended with both young women sexually assaulted and shot, left for dead in that park. Olgin died of her injuries, but Kristene Chapa survived and took the stand to testify against David Strickland more than four years later.
It took the jury less than six hours to return a guilty verdict. Four years, 3 months and six hours after their horrible ordeal, there was finally some justice for Mollie and Kristene and, hopefully, some closure for Kristene.
Part II I read a post at Absolutely Luvvie that was helpful (thank you, Luvvie) and worth sharing. The post is called “Another Day, Another Hashtag. White People, You Gotta Get to Work NOW” I strongly encourage you to click through and read her post. Listen Amplify Talk with Family and Friends Donate to Anti-Racism […]
I’m in a strange place in my head for reasons both personal and political so I’ve been struggling to blog coherently about recent events. Let me clarify – to blog about the experiences of actual black neighbors who have been killed by police officers and the experiences of people who have to witness and process […]
OMG people, calm down. No veteran was disrespected by a football player sitting through the National Anthem. That anthem is for ALL OF US, not veterans. It isn’t specially about them any more than its specially about farmers, teachers, children, car salesman, politicians, Christians, songwriters, etc. It is an anthem that represents all of us […]
This looks promising. RSVP to kwilkinson@equalitypa.org
This is a very important blog post about a very important decision taking place just a wee bit north of Downtown Pgh. Butler City Council is considering creating a Human Relations Authority that would be responsible for ensuring resident of the City are protected in areas of employment, housing and public accommodation from discrimination based […]
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