Anti-Bullying Bill Introduced!

Yesterday, June 8, 2010, House Bill 2569 was introduced in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives to fortify the state's current anti-bullying policies. The bill was introduced by Representatives Rick Taylor and Tim Briggs, both Democrats from Montgomery County, with 22 co-sponsors. This legislation amends the states current code regarding bullying which was enacted in March 1949. Changes enacted by this bill will entail:

• expanding existing language on bullying
• outlining to school officials what actions to take in order to give students opportunities to report occurrences of bullying, solutions for victims, and harassment and bullying prevention training
• requiring the Department of Education to regularly evaluate bullying policies and to report its findings to the General Assembly
• making schools' right to use state grants through the safe schools program dependent upon approval of their bullying policies and compliance with reporting procedures.

In this bill's definition of harassment, bullying, cyber bullying, and intimidation, students will be protected from "any written, verbal, or physical act, or any electronic communication including, but not limited to, one shown to be motivated by a student's actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry or ethnicity, sexual orientation, physical, mental, emotional or learning disability, gender, gender identity and expression or other distinguishing personal characteristic or based on association with any such characteristic."

The fact that this bill includes protection for students being bullied due to their actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression is extremely important. 88% of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered students report to being victims of verbal abuse and 19% of all students report harassment due to perceived sexual orientation.

By strengthening the current anti-bullying policies, Pennsylvania's schools policies will be more clearly defined and will create a safer and better learning environment for all students!

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.