The Week in LGBT News

Happy Friday, everyone! This week brought much success to the LGBT trenches with over 50 LGBT candidates elected to public office across the country. Here in Pennsylvania, all six LGBT candidates up for election were elected to office.

Philadelphia's Common Pleas Court candidate Dan Anders, the first openly gay judge appointed by Governor Ed Rendell in 2007, was elected to the court for the first time last night. Also in Philadelphia, Municipal Court Judge candidate Dawn Segal won. And finally, Harrisburg City Councilman Dan Miller was elected Harrisburg City Controller, Sharyn Keiser was elected New Hope Councilmember, Karl Marking was elected to the Coatesville City Council, and Lori Schreiber was elected to the Abington Township Commission last night.

Click here for a complete listing of LGBT candidates and their election results across the country.

In national news, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions held hearings this week on the Federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would prohibit discrimination in employment on the basis of actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity or expression. The committee posted the full text of their hearings.

Find your local Senator here, and tell them to SUPPORT the federal ENDA.

Also, Governor Patterson of New York has put gay marriage on the agenda for the Empire State's special legislative session.

While most commentators and pundits will be talking about the gay marriage setback in Maine in the days and weeks to come, we must never forget that marriage equality is not the ONLY problem facing LGBT Americans and Pennsylvanians. Employment discrimination, health care, schoolyard bullying, hate crimes, and equal protection in public accomodations are all areas in which LGBT Pennsylvanians have a vested interest.

Remember: the Maine legislature passed LGBT non-discrimination FOUR times before the voters let it stand. We'll be back in Maine, and we will win.

As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once wrote, "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it curves toward justice."

We need to continue our efforts to make sure that it does.

Letter from the Executive Director

Friends,

I want to let all of you know about an exciting new development at Equality Advocates Pennsylvania (“EAP”). In the course of restructuring EAP, about which Board President Brian Sims has written to you before, EAP’s Board determined it was necessary to make some fundamental decisions and changes.

The first decision was to expand the Board into a truly state-wide and diversified Board, an ongoing process that has so far added members from Pittsburgh, Lackawanna County and Bloomsburg and anticipates doubling in size over the next three months. The second decision was to bring this organization into alignment with other states’ equality organizations that have as their missions education, advocacy, and policy reform to achieve state equality goals. That means focusing EAP on education and creating Equality Pennsylvania as the advocacy and legislative lobbying entity in Pennsylvania. That also means establishing offices in Pittsburgh and Harrisburg to do the state-wide work with field officers and lobbying efforts. Equality Pennsylvania has been formed and an announcement about new offices will be made shortly.

The third decision and the reason for this letter is that EAP’s Board decided it is time for the direct legal services that EAP has delivered to the LGBT population to be housed at and delivered by a another organization. After much exploration, it became clear that Mazzoni Center, which serves the health needs of the LGBT population, is the logical place to offer legal services to the population it already serves. Mazzoni Center has agreed to expand its services and mission to include a Legal Services Department, utilizing the same personnel as now utilized by EAP, thereby ensuring the continuous availability to the LGBT community of the highest quality legal services that has always characterized EAP’s Legal Services Department. Legal service needs outside of the greater Philadelphia area will be handled by the Mazzoni Center in the same manner as EAP did, mostly by utilizing its referral base of cooperating attorneys.

Both organizations will work toward a smooth transition over the next several months.

In speaking with local foundations and funders and national funding sources, I have been heartened by their favorable reception of the decision to relocate legal services delivery as well as the other organizational changes being made here.

Naturally, expansion and contraction of organizations present both challenges and opportunities. It is an exciting time to be immersed in equality work in Pennsylvania and I am honored to be entrusted with operating the preeminent Pennsylvania equality organization as we move into its next phase. We need your moral, financial and volunteer support as never before and be assured that we will be contacting you for all three in the near future.


Sincerely yours,

Lynn G. Zeitlin, Esq.

Executive Director
Equality Advocates Pennsylvania

Dead Heat in Maine!

There appears to be some good news about the Maine Peoples' Veto--a ballot initiative attempting to overturn the marriage equality law that passed earlier this year. According to a poll reported in Bay Windows, New Englands' largest LGBT newspaper, 51.8% of "likely" voters say they will vote "No" on measure 1, with just under 43% saying they will vote "Yes." Great news for those of us following the "No on 1" campaign to protect marriage equality in Maine!

With general polls in Maine opening on November 3 (early voting begins October 26), however, blogger "Joe. My. God." cites a poll conducted by Public Policy Polling that shows a 48-48% tie with 4% undecided.

Regardless of which poll is accurate, the only poll that matters is the one taken on Nov. 3. So if you live in Maine and aren't already, get involved, get out the vote, and help support marriage equality!

In more local news, if you live or will be in Philly tomorrow night at 6:00pm, don't forget to come by EQPA's October Philadelphia Volunteer Night, Part 2! at our offices in Center City at 1211 Chestnut St., Suite 605. As usual, FREE food, great company, and bumpin' music will be provided! Hope to see you there!