Lancaster Paper Rejects Paid Same Sex Marriage Announcement

Lancaster Paper Rejects Paid Same Sex Marriage Announcement

Jeffrey Klouser and Brent Weaver have been together 7 years and plan to marry out of state. To commemorate a momentous occasion they, like man couples, took out an ad in the local newspaper’s Celebrations section. Unfortunately, the paper’s management decided that such a simple affirmation of a relationship was not in line with community […]

Right Wing Talking Points on ENDA – Linking “Right to Work” With Attacks on Unions

Esteemed law professor from the University of Pennsylvania Tobias Barrington Wolff was recently a guest on WHYY (NPR.) Clarke Cooper of the Log Cabin Republicans was the other guest.  Tobias had this to say: When we discussed ENDA, Clarke sought to link the issue of workplace discrimination protections to the anti-union laws that Republicans are […]

State Rep Pushes to Modify Tax Code, Eliminate Discriminatory Inheritance Tax

State Rep Pushes to Modify Tax Code, Eliminate Discriminatory Inheritance Tax

State Representative Babette Josephs wants to eliminate a 15% inheritance tax for domestic partners, LGBTQ and straight, and is urging her colleagues to take action on legislation she introduced in 2011.  Erie Gay News has the story. Josephs’ legislation (H.B. 1828) would define a domestic partnership as a relationship not defined by marriage or a […]

Western PA Bloggers Team Up To Promote LGBT Equality

My colleague Tom Waters drafted this explanation of a joint initiative we are launching … Two prominent western PA bloggers are joining forces to host a first ever LGBTQA bloggers and social media summit. Sue Kerr, primary blogger at Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents and Thomas C Waters of thomascwaters.com are planning a get together that they hope will be informative, interesting […]

Why is OFA PA Making It So Hard

Why is OFA PA Making It So Hard

OMG. Of course, we want to support the first sitting President to endorse marriage equality. I even made a campaign donation to put my money where my mouth was on that one. But the Obama for America Team PA folks are not making it easy. There’s no clear line of communication. Last week, I was […]

Equal Rights in Pennsylvania

Last week, I shared a graphic from The Guardiandepicting the fact that Pennsylvania as a Commonwealth has extended zero benefits to its LGBTQ residents (and tax payers.) I’ve been challenged – on the fact that a State Surpreme Court determined that as PA permits single persons to adopt, they cannot use sexual orientation of the […]

Post-Gazette Columnist Dailey Wants To Have Her (Gay Wedding) Cake and Eat It, Too

Post-Gazette Columnist Dailey Wants To Have Her (Gay Wedding) Cake and Eat It, Too

The fundamental problem with Ruth Ann Dailey is that she wants to support marriage equality AND support using tax payer dollars to fund religious programs. And her own political beliefs don’t bend that way, no matter how much history she cites. Here’s the basic argument Ruth Ann agrees that same sex couples should have access […]

Marriage Equality in PA

Marriage Equality in PA

Don’t count on it. I know we are all pretty excited about the statements from Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama. As we should be. But I had a recent twitter discussion with someone who challenged me on the fact that Pennsylvania has enacted no statewide LGBT rights in legislative statute. No adoption […]

Pgh Public Radio News Show Talks Marriage Equality With Tony Norman

I’m still puzzled by the lack of local LGBT voices in the media coverage. Clearly, that’s an issue we need to address as a community. But I was quite intrigued to learn that a man I greatly admire, Tony Norman, would be appearing on today’s Essential Pittsburgh to discuss the President’s statement on marriage equality. […]

Barney Frank AND Chris Matthews Relentless on Religious Values with Tony Perkins

Barney Frank AND Chris Matthews Relentless on Religious Values with Tony Perkins

This is pretty awesome. Congressman Barney Frank and commentator Chris Matthews really push back on Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins religious defense of his bigotry.   You may know this already but GLAAD has an interesting project called CAP – Commentator Accountability Project. They essentially make sure the media is aware of the bias and […]