|
|
|
Gay Stuff
This has been a busy week for gay rights legislation in Pennsylvania: inheritance rights, gay marriage and protection from discrimination. The general public--yes, even in Pennsylvania--supports gay rights legislation, including a remarkable fifty-percent that favor same-sex nuptials. But the Republicans who control the governor’s mansion and the entire state legislature disagree: they don’t like the gays.
Indeed, as I noted in July, far-right State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe is now a major power in Harrisburg, anchoring the right wing of a fantastically conservative GOP caucus:
He opposed Philly's program to market the city to gay tourists, saying that tax dollars should not be used to "promote immoral behaviors"; he tried to cut state funding to universities such as Temple because they offer domestic-partner benefits; he sued a gay New Hope couple for attempting (and failing) to get a marriage license; and he opposed Domestic Violence Awareness Month, calling it part of "the homosexual agenda" to support a "sinful lifestyle" because it recognized male victims of rape.
But as State Senator Daylin Leach told Will Bunch in a recent Daily News article, the political shift is generational--and thus inevitable.
“Every day a supporter of equality is born,” he said, “and an opponent of equality goes to heaven.”
So while this legislation is unlikely to pass right now, it’s worth taking a look at what sort of protections a future legislation is likely to enact.
To recap:
- Rep. Dan Frankel of Pittsburgh has re-introduced legislation that would add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity or expression” to the state’s non-discrimination law.
Rep. Metcalfe, objected, telling the Inquirer that “Rep. Frankel's obsession with putting sexual behavior into law is offensive to people.” Metcalfe, of course, harbored no such obsessions when he introduced a constitutional amendment to bar gay marriage. He doesn’t even really think about gay dudes, really.
- State Rep. Babette Josephs, the progressive firebrand who represents parts of Center City that include the Gayborhood, has introduced legislation that would include domestic partners along with married couples on the list of people exempt from paying state inheritance taxes.
- Josephs’ bill would be somewhat moot, however, if gay marriage were legalized (I say “somewhat” because it would be nice if non-married families of all sexual orientations could maintain legal rights). So Rep. Josephs also introduced legislation to legalize gay marriage.
In other news, our former senator and current presidential candidate Rick Santorum is complaining about his “Google problem” again: sex columnist Dan Savage repurposed “Santorum” to be a word for the frothy byproduct of anal sex to punish Rick for his relentless homophobia.
Santorum says that he bets Google would have solved the “problem” if it were happening to Joe Biden. Santorum is not Joe Biden, the crucial difference being this: unlike Santorum, Biden is well known for a number of things that are not homophobia or butt sex. That Google algorithm has its ear to the ground. Don’t shoot the messenger.
First, the video, helpfully posted on CNSNEWS.com (stands for Cybercast News Service, formerly Conservative News Service):
And now why not check out reporter Nicholas Ballasy's Wikipedia page, which appears to have been written by his mom, who is very proud of every blip he's made on the right wing radar. Sheesh. A lot of people who've done more than catch Jessica Alba saying something dumb have way shorter entries than that.
(h/t Gawker)
[...] Photoshop Video Tutorials Huge niche ***Fast converting video tutorials. Photoshop Video Tutorials Also you can read this related blog page: http://citypaper.net/blogs/clog/2010/12/22/barney-frank-schools-some-philly-born-future-fox-correspo... [...]
Two panels for you queers and queer-friendlies to hit up this evening, followed by a welcome party at Q Lounge at 10, which will assuredly be fun and debaucherous and all that. But first, the learning:
GLBT Rights and Challenges in Africa, Arts Bank, 7 pm: Moderated by Council for Global Equality founder Mark Bromley, this panel which includes International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission executive director Cary Alan Johnson and Rona Penigal of the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch will delve into the recent unpleasantness in Uganda and other parts of Africa, where gays and lesbians can face lengthy prison sentences or even death.
National Sports Panel, Arts Bank, 8:15 pm: It's no secret to anyone who's been around the sports world, especially in high schools (because teenagers are generally evil to start with), that they can rank among the least tolerant and most anti-gay places on earth. And there are, indeed, nary out gay athletes, at least that I'm aware of, in major American sports. This panel's moderator is Gail Shister, a former Inky scribe who was the first out woman sportswriter and includes Brian Sims, the first openly gay NCAA football captain (he went to Bloomsburg University).
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by philly news now. philly news now said: Today in Gay: Equality Forum, April 29: Two panels for you queers and queer-friendlies to hit up this evening, fol... http://bit.ly/awuqOS [...]
In this week's issue, you'll find a special two-page spread with some picks and movies related to Equality Forum, the big gay-rights ta-da happening in the city this week, along with my essay on the movement's heroes from the Mattachine Society to today. But, that issue won't hit the streets until tomorrow, and there's some hot shit happening tonight (technically, today is Day 3). Molly and the A&E team will be, I'm sure, hipping you to some of Forum-related fabulousness; over here on The Clog, I'll highlight a couple of policy-related events you might want to consider.
So, let's get started. (By the way, you can find all the info you need on Equality Forum on their website.
The Forum has two panels this evening, both at the Arts Bank (601 S. Broad) and free. This is followed by something called Women's Party: Battle of the DJs at Sisters, starting at 8:30 (I'd link to Sisters, but when I went to pull up the site just now, I got a "warning: this may damage your computer" thing. Better safe than sorry. Anyway, the address is 1320 Chancellor).
Panel No. 1: National Legal Panel, 7 pm: This panel will explore the role that courts play in gay rights policy formation. Brad Sears, the head of the Williams Institute, will moderate a group comprised of members of Lambda Legal, Equality Federation and the ACLUs LGBT and AIDS project, as well as American University law prof Nancy Polikoff.
Quick thought: There is often a lot of hullabaloo on the right about the way "activist judges" oppress the good and straight people of the world with their tyrannical pro-gay decisions, and indeed, the courts have undeniably played a role in the liberalization of gay-rights (especially gay marriage) policy in the US: in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Iowa, and California, court decisions led directly to gay marriage. And yet at the risk of getting too in-the-weeds wonky (and I can't link to academic journals, though you can try to look up a piece that ran in the American Political Science Review last year by Lax and Phillips) the research supports the notion that state policy on gay rights issues, no matter where it comes from, tends to adhere to popular opinion, and when it doesn't, it tends to skew in a conservative direction (meaning, voters are more willing to extend rights to gay people than are their courts or legislators). Counterintuitive, maybe, but true.
Panel No. 2: National History Panel, 8:30: This panel looks at the historical relationship between gays and lesbians and religious institutions. (Hint: It hasn't always been nice.) The moderator is Rabbi Rebecca Alpert, a Temple prof, and the panel is comprised of representatives of different strains of faith, including the executive director of New Ways Ministry, a group that tries to reconcile Catholics and gays.
Quick thought: It's hardly a revelation that there's a pretty consistent link between evangelicalism and fundamentalism and antigay sentiment (don't believe me? I have a 150-page thesis you can read, should you want to cure your insomnia someday). Gay rights have historically, and unsurprisingly, gone hand-in-glove with the secularization, education and urbanization of societies (this is sort of tied to a concept called postmaterialism). Objections to gay rights are almost exclusively religiously oriented (indirectly if not directly). Should make for an interesting chat.
[...] Today in Gay: Equality Forum, April 28 :: The Clog :: Blog Archive … The Diversity Projekt » Weekend Happenings: Walk for a Cure and …Polish President Killed by Mistake PilotCrime task force formed for Atlanta campuses | Washington ExaminerMaison Moschino Hotel, Italy by CubeMeMisunderstanding leads to partial hotel refund after volcanoHotel Costes Paris | The Springfield Web BlogArmani hotel opens in Dubai's Khalifa tower (AP) | www.bullfax.comSingle Best TownShare/NTFS permissions on NAS - Spiceworks CommunityEdCone.com: Town hall budget meeting View the Contact Powered by Staff [...]
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by philly news now. philly news now said: Today in Gay: Equality Forum, April 28: In this weeks issue, youll find a special two-page spread with some ... http://bit.ly/d1maw2 [...]
- ActiVman
- adventures
- Arts
- Ask A Man-About-Town
- Award Tour
- Awards
- Bad Idea Factory
- Beer
- Below the Curve
- Bikes
- Booze
- Brian Hickey
- BRT
- Budget
- Budget Fuss
- Business
- Casinos
- City Council
- City Hall
- CouncilMANIC
- CP Abroad
- CP in the Community
- Criminal Justice System
- Day Tripper
- Death and Taxes
- Delaware River
- Design
- DROP
- Drugs
- Dubious Distinction
- Elections
- End of Days
- Environment
- Fashion
- Film Fest
- Financial Meltdown
- FrackTrack
- Free Library
- Gambling
- Gay Stuff
- Get Lit
- Greenstorming
- guns
- Hall Monitor
- Health
- Health Care
- Hello, Kitty
- Holidays
- Ice Cubes
- Iggles
- Immigration
- In Memoriam
- Labor
- Lawsuits
- Letters
- LGBTQ
- Maps
- Marcellus Shale
- Media
- MMA
- Mummers
- Music
- MUST READ
- Mysterious Mysteries
- Nation
- News
- Non Sequitur
- Opinion
- PA politics 2010
- Parking Wars
- Parks and Recreation
- People Send Us This Stuff
- Philadelphia Police
- Philadelphia Union
- Philaphemera
- Philly From Scratch
- philly madness
- Photos
- Poverty
- PPA
- President Obama
- Print Edition
- Prisons
- Protest
- Readers Write
- Real Estate
- Rock Bottom
- Schools
- Science
- Screwing Philly
- SEPTA
- snow
- So Lush
- Soccer
- Sporting Life
- Sports Complex
- State Politicians
- State Politics
- Street Art
- Strike
- Stuff We Like
- Taxes
- Taxi Drivers
- Tech Fetish
- television
- The Budget Crisis
- The City Paper
- The CLOG
- The Human Condition
- The Mayor
- The Phightin Phils
- The World
- Things that make you go hm
- Tinfoil Hats Off
- Under the Table
- Under the Tables
- Urban Development
- Urban Planning
- urban wildlife
- Video Poker
- We Call Shenanigans
- Weather
- Web Junk
- Weekend Omnibus
- White House
- What We've Found
- Women's Issues
- Flyered Up!
- How 'Bout That Weather?
- it's always sunny in philadelphia
- Stu!
- Shopping
- get out
- 10-track mind
- ArtsFlash
- Bloggity
- Bruce Being Bruce
- Colleges
- Comedy
- Gigantic Surprises
- Hello Canary
- Hello Puppy
- errata
- get lost
- Inside The Fishbowl
- Library Closings
- Local Support
- Movies
- Murder
- Night Moves
- Recycling
- radio
- Scientology
- Sex
- Sixers
- Skeeze Police
- State Politicians Screwing Philly
- That's a cool stencil!
- Theater
- Things We See
- This Week
- This Week in Oates
- University City
- WIN
- What we don't heart
- trailer!
- what we heart
- Feeling Guilty
- Askadelphia.
- Broke in Philly
- Contest
- Dance
- Dear Paper Doll
- Do A Good Thing
- Education
- Film Fest Schism
- G20-20 Vision
- Goodbye
- Gossip
- Great American Heroes
- PATCO
- Pearl Jam Week
- Puppy
- Stars of the Photostream
- sustainability
- Lower Merion Webcam-Gate
- The Cycle
- Equality Forum
- Bureaucrat of the Week
- Animals
- ElectionEar
- Photostream
