State of Disgrace

First up: Pennsylvania. In Southwestern PA, homeowners wake up to find scary, bomb-looking masses of wires and electronics on their front yards. When they contact the police/local officials, they are told by these officials that they cannot comment on the devices (which, as it turns out, were installed by a private Texas company to facilitate seismic mapping in the search for gas). Some of the devises are accompanied with threats of criminal investigations if anyone dare remove them. Meanwhile, the process of seismic mapping is actually damaging the homes in its path.

A forced birther lawmaker in Virginia refers to a pregnant woman as nothing more than a “child’s host” on Facebook. He later disappears the phrase. So if the woman is the "host" doesn't that make the fetus a, well, parasite? Hey! It's his analogy, not mine.

Finally, all eyes turn to Arizona Governor Jan Brewer to see if she believes--like the lawmakers in her state--that it's legally OK to deny LGBT folk public accommodation as long as Baby Jesus said so.

Politician or Porn-itician?

Rachel Maddow and Michael Strahan guessed whether photos shown to them by Andy Cohen were porn stars or a politicians last night on Bravo's Watch What Happens Live show. And while they correctly identified a photo of Brian Sims as a politician, Rachel could not have been more wrong on Sims' views. She said of Sims, "He looks like the guy who's the head of the anti gay marriage group."

Whoops! Wrong, Rachel. You owe Brian a big apology!

Sims is a Democratic member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in the 182nd district and was the first openly gay person elected to that body. He's very much pro same-sex marriage and an activist for LGBTQI rights. In fact, he introduced HB1686, the Pennsylvania Marriage Equality Act earlier this month. Moreover, he gained the ire of Daryl Metcalfe (always a good sign!) and got some national press with this:

In June 2013, after the Defense of Marriage Act had been ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, Sims tried to make a speech in the Pennsylvania House supporting the decision. Daryl Metcalfe, who was one of several representatives who blocked Sims from speaking, said ”I did not believe that as a member of that body that I should allow someone to make comments such as he was preparing to make that ultimately were just open rebellion against what the word of God has said, what God has said, and just open rebellion against God’s law.”

Sims was all over the Pittsburgh region in the last couple of days advocating for the end of discrimination against gays.

He's also appeared on Rachel's show in the past.

"Who Am I To Judge?"

I wanted to depart, today, from my usual tracking teh rightwing crazie/fact-checking Scaife's braintrust blog posts to take a deeper look at what The Pope said:

For generations, homosexuality has largely been a taboo topic for the Vatican, ignored altogether or treated as “an intrinsic moral evil,” in the words of the previous pope.

In that context, brief remarks by Pope Francis suggesting that he would not judge priests for their sexual orientation, made aboard the papal airplane on the way back from his first foreign trip, to Brazil, resonated through the church. Never veering from church doctrine opposing homosexuality, Francis did strike a more compassionate tone than that of his predecessors, some of whom had largely avoided even saying the more colloquial “gay.”

“If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” Francis told reporters, speaking in Italian but using the English word “gay.”

I don't want to belittle how big a change this is for The Vatican, especially considering the Times' next paragraph:

Francis’s words could not have been more different from those of Benedict XVI, who in 2005 wrote that homosexuality was “a strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil,” and an “objective disorder.” The church document said men with “deep-seated homosexual tendencies” should not become priests.

From "a strong tendency ordered toward intrinsic moral evil" to "who am I to judge" is a big step, no doubt about it but I wanted to look deeper into that rhetorical question as well as it's closely related "It's not my place to judge."

While it's entirely possible, I suppose, that when someone uses either phrase to some member in the LGBTQ community that person might mean it to say "there is nothing wrong with being gay (or "L" or "B" or "T" or "Q" and so on..." but if you take a look at the actual words, something else is being said entirely.

"Who am I to judge?" at the very least implies that there is a judgement to be made, doesn't it?  We rarely if ever hook that question onto something we approve of, only stuff we disapprove of.  For example, would anyone be caught saying "Just like me, Steve thinks the Beatles are better, much better, than the Stones.  But who am I to judge?"

See how that works?

Additionally, when someone says "It's not my place to judge" they're also implying that they know what the outcome of whatever that judgement is, whenever it'll be made by whomever would be making it, even if it's not them.  They're just not gonna say what they already know in their heart it already is.

In effect, however tolerant sounding the phrase might be (and again however Cardinal Dolan wishes to redefine it, it's still a huge leap forward for The Vatican), it still means:

I know that God will judge it negatively.

And so on.

Roll Back Those Lazy-Crazy-Hazy-Days Of Summer

It's the summer of 1963, err, 2013 in the Good Ol' U.S. of A and everything is A-okay!

Any 'War on Poverty' Is Thankfully Still Just A Dream
Poverty? What poverty? This is the greatest nation on the face of the Earth!

(80 Percent Of U.S. Adults Face Near-Poverty, Unemployment: Survey)

We Will Arrest Those Who Practice The Love
That Dare Not Speak Its Name
Really, what do they expect?

(Gays in Baton Rouge arrested under invalid sodomy law)

The Little Lady Knows Her Place (As She Should)
We're working hard to ensure that the only abortions will be back alley ones!
(As abortion limits sweep US, even 'purple' states join the crackdown)

Negroes Know Their Place Too
Because they know death lies only a whistle at a white woman (or a hoodie) away!

(George Zimmerman Found Not Guilty And Goes Free)

And For the Ones Who Are Still Too Uppity...
We'll make it as hard as legally possible to vote!

(North Carolina Passes the Country's Worst Voter Suppression Law)

Yes siree, Bob! We wish that summer would always be here!

SCOTUS Kills DOMA & Dismisses Prop 8: PA, It's Your Move Now!

 

PennLive takes a look at how today's ruling could make Pennsylvania "less appealing to progressive-minded businesses and their gay employees."

 

Via WTAE: "A spokesman for Republican Gov. Tom Corbett says he supports a state constitutional ban on gay marriage in Pennsylvania."

 

The celebration in Pittsburgh: Post-Gazette, The Trib & City Paper.

 

UPDATE: LGBTQPGH "City-county consolidation"

"Riot or Rejoice" Act Up?/Celebrate? Supreme Court Decision This Morning in Pittsburgh

 

Via Facebook:

TODAY: 9:30am until 11:00am.  

Liberty Avenue between 9th & 10th Streets in Downtown Pittsburgh 15222  

Join us on Wednesday, June 26 at 9:30 AM on Liberty Avenue as we "RIOT or REJOICE" when the Supreme Court announces its decision on Prop 8 and the DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act).  

This event will happen ON THE STREET live with a large outdoor television, speakers and a time for us to ACT UP or CELEBRATE this historic decision.  

The time is NOW for our Government to STOP discriminating against its LGBT citizens and treat everyone EQUALLY!  

This event is being produced by the Delta Foundation of Pittsburgh in conjunction with the ACLU of Pennsylvania, Equality Pennsylvania, Marriage Equality for Pennsylvania, New Voices Pittsburgh, One Pittsburgh, Persad Center, SEIU Healthcare PA, SEIU Local 668, SEIU Local 32BJ, Shepherd Wellness Center, Steel City Stonewall Democrats, and Dreams of Hope. If your organization is interested in becoming involved please email info@pittsburghpride.org.  

This event has been issued a permit by the City of Pittsburgh - Special Events Office. Street closures will be handled by City of Pittsburgh - Bureau of Police personnel.

NOTE: Via the P-G: Liberty Avenue to close in Downtown Pittsburgh for Supreme Court same-sex marriage announcements

Pittsburgh Pride!

As we still await the Supreme Court's decision on DOMA and Prop 8, just a reminder that there are lots of ways to celebrate Pittsburgh Pride this month including Pride in the Street, Pride March and PrideFest.

You can also help support the Gay and Lesbian Community Center.

There's the Pittsburgh Dyke And Trans March later this month.

And, Sue has been running 'LGBTQ&A' interviews all month at Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents.

Find your way to support equality for all!

(And, if you've been seeing the above graphic popping up on various Facebook posts, I'm proud to say I created for last year's Pride post and yes, that makes three 'flag' posts on Flag Day.)

LGBTQ In The News

My friend Sue over at Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents is running:

An occasional series where we pose some questions to local LGBTQ folks (and Allies) to learn more about their personal experiences with LGBTQ culture.

And she was nice enough to think that I'd make a good addition to the series.  I have to say that it's very nice to be included in such an illustrious list of people.  Others political type folks thusly profiled:

• Matt Merriman-Preston
• Natalia Rudniak
• Dan Gilman
• Doug Shields
• Tonya Payne
• Sherry Pasquarello
• Bill Peduto
• Bram Reichbaum
• Jeanne Clark

And that's just the names I recognize!

With the self-serving stuff out of the way, let's move on to this short-ish piece in the P-G:

A bipartisan group of state House and Senate lawmakers introduced measures Tuesday to ban discrimination statewide in employment, housing and public accommodations for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Pennsylvanians.

The P-G blurb doesn't say much about the legislation (bill numbers? sponsors? nuttin') but this piece from the Tribune-Democrat has a bit more info:

Forty percent of Pennsylvania’s state legislators, including two local senators, sponsored anti-discrimination bills introduced in Harrisburg on Tuesday.

Sens. John Wozniak, D-Westmont, and Richard Kasunic, D-Dunbar, co-sponsored Senate Bill 300, introduced by Sens. Pat Browne and Larry Farnese.

None of the area’s seven representatives co-sponsored House Bill 300, as put forth by Reps. Dan Frankel and Chris Ross.

Now, we're getting somewhere.  Although as of this writing - and this is probably due to the fact that these bills were only introduced yesterday - there was nothing at the Pennsylvania Legislature website for SB300 or HB300 for this legislative session (I'll update this blog post if/when they go "live.").

John Micek at Pennlive his more:

In the press conference, Rep. Dan Frankel, lead sponsor of HB 300, said, ”More and more people inside the Capitol – from both parties — agree with the vast majority of people outside the building on this. Being gay or transgender has nothing to do with your ability to do a good job or to be a good neighbor or tenant. This is just commonsense legislation. Many people think it’s the law already, and it should be.”

And at his legislative webpage, Rep. Frankel has this Sponsorship Memorandum where learn that it's a reintroduction of HB300 from the 2011-2012 legislative session

From Senator Pat Brown's legislative webpage, we find this Sponsorship Memorandum, where we learn that his bill is a reintroduction of SB1050 from the 2011-2012 legislative session.

Back to Micek for the inevitable:

In the House, the bill sponsored by Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Allegheny, is destined for the State Government Committee.

That matters because the panel is chaired by state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Butler, an outspoken social conservative who once opposed a push by Philadelphia officials to market the city to gay tourists because he didn’t believe tax dollars should be used to “promote immoral behaviors.”

In a phone interview Tuesday, Metcalfe scoffed at Frankel’s bill, charging his House colleague was “out of touch with reality.” Metcalfe said some Republicans on his panel had advised him to bring the bill to a vote just so it could be defeated.

Only if "out of touch with reality" means that when asked this question:

The state legislature is considering several proposals related to gay marriage and civil unions. Would you favor or oppose a constitutional amendmen t that would allow same sex couples to get legally married?

53% of Pennsylvanians polled in this recent Franklin and Marshall poll answered with either "Strongly favor" (37%) or "Somewhat favor" (16%).  Note to the possibly arithmatically challenged Daryl Metcalfe: 37 + 16 = 53 and 53% is a majority.

Remember, Metcalfe's the guy who declared that there's "significant voter fraud plaguing Pennsylvania's elections" even though there isn't any.

So facing facts probably isn't one of his strong points.