Of the six main candidates tuning for Pennsylvania governor, Anthony williams, hasn’t received much attention in terms of LGBT issues. While various bloggers have been highlighting the progressiveness of Joe Hoeffel or trying to discredit Dan Onorato, the candidate who is currently polling in seconf place has received no real look at his LGBT credentials.

While I’ve seen nothing written specifically, we basically know where the two Republicans stand on LGBT issues. Hoeffel is generally speaking,  the progressive’s choice, because on every social issue he is unabashed in his support for everything socially far left. In fact, this unwavering stability is one of his biggest strengths. Wagner wishes to appear as a liberal Democrat, but demonstrated how conservative he is on an American Family Council questionnaire where he brags about voting for PA’s DOMA law than bans same-sex marriage. Dan Onotaro is the candidate who I’m supporting and there is plenty on my blog about why I see things that way. Which leaves Anthony Williams. Where does he really stand in terms of the LGBT community?
Where is Williams in terms of issues important to LGBT voters? Williams did not complete a questionnaire for the Steel City Stonewall Dems, as he entered the race too late in the process but his communications director sent me the questionnaires he completed for the Liberty City Democrats and the Capital Region Stonewall Dems, and I’ve posted them to scribd. (Links below) What can be gleaned from them? It is easy to pass over the questionnaires, assuming that the candidate simply said what they felt the audience wanted to hear. But sometimes on there somewhere, are some clues.

There are a few posts on my blog about williams, generally speaking. So check them out. Here I want to focus on just he connection to LGBT issues. I’m leaning towards characterizing Williams as similar to Wagner as your basic conservative Democrat. His answers appear somewhat socially liberal but not too liberal. A few things stand out, such as he doesn’t support same-sex marriage. I don’t know how enthusiastic he supports civil unions or domestic partnerships, but he considers “full civil marriage” to be:

This is a religious consideration and should be left to individual houses of worship

For me, this represents a real problem. I’m OK with the idea that he wants to leave “Marriage” up to the churches, but civil marriage? Really?  Civil marriage isn’t religious at all, and if it is, why is our government involved in Religion?  I think this is an example of him trying to say the right thing, without having a real grasp on what he is saying. In the Liberty City questionnaire, is this gem of a statement:

Marriage is a religious rite, and decisions about for whom and to whom vows are extended should remain in that purview. Overall, I’d rather be a governor in office who would advocate for the rights and concerns of the LGBT community than a martyr unable to advance the goals of equality.

Civil marriage- the ability to receive a government sanctioned marriage license, and ability to enter the legal contract of marriage is not a religious rite. What do you think he is saying here? That by being against same-sex marriage, he feels he can do good work for LGBT Pennsylvanians, but being for same-sex marriage would end his career?

Even Dan Onorato agreed at the Steel City Stonewall Democrats endorsement meeting, to review PA’s DOMA law. I have pointed out on numerous occasions that same-sex marriage shouldn’t be a deciding factor in this election because the governor won’t have the ability to enact it on his own, but if a candidate is going to offer more explanation, I would like to see them have a better grasp of the issue.

In the section (Capital Region questionnaire) where he was asked if he actively supports the LGBT community, he provides 3 examples.

• He gets state money for the GL Community Center in Philadelphia. This seems to be program-based funding, and he doesn’t say how much or for how long he has done that.
• He “heled to kill SB 707.” This one I find quite intriguing. SB 707 was tabled in committee and never made it to the full Senate. Williams wasn’t on the committee, so it is unclear what he did or could have done that would have helped. Is he taking credit for the hard work by folks like Daylin Leach, who were actually active in killing SB 707?
• He “pushed SEPTA (The Philly transportation authority) to change their discriminatory gender-based ID card system.” I have more questions about this. I was aware of this issue, and know that Equality Advocates had posted stuff about it sometime ago. But I wasn’t aware of how the issue was resolved. I did a quick search of the PGN, but wasn’t able to find anything that says the problem was resolved and how it came to the resolution. I’m doing some more research on this one.

My take on Williams is that he is all about Philadelphia, and 2 of these 3 claims speak to that, but is he really all about the LGBT community?

The Liberty City questionnaire is a longer , more detailed questionnaire, and provides more information. For example, when asked about who advises him on LGBT issues he list Mark Segal, the publisher of the PGN. Mark is well respected and a great guy, but is that it? He includes a comment about staffers, but then, when asked if he employees members of the LGBT community, he gives a vague answer. I want to see a governor who actively seeks to surround himself with varied members of the LGBT community, and is proud to talk about it and who they are.

But probably the most interesting answer to me is where he is asked about  LGBT senior citizens. He responds:

Sadly enough, this is one of the few issues facing the LGBT community that has not been addressed sufficiently in Pennsylvania, as has been in other states.

Is he suggesting the majority of LGBT issues have been adequately addressed, but this is one of the few that haven’t been sufficiently addressed? That is how it reads to me. I’d be interested too, to hear how he feels other states have handled this issue.

There is really no LGBT issue that our state has sufficiently addressed. Not one.There are a number of issues, where there is some legislation out there, in some limbo state, but not a single issue fully and adequately addressed.

Check out his questionnaires and let me know what you think. I’ll update this post with notes about the Philadelphia SEPTA issue when I have more info.

Liberty City LGBT Democrats Questionnaire

Capital Region Stonewall Democrats Questionnaire