Details about a fundraiser and recognition for Bill Peduto, a Pittsburgh councilperso every LGBTQ Pittsburgher ought to care about. And the top three things I love about Bill Peduto.
Allowing inter-racial marriage didn’t do anything negative to anyone else’s marriage, nor will accepting same-sex marriage. Straight people will continue to get married, and families will be multi-faceted as they are today.
This hurts everyone however given how crucial his messages are for anyone who looks for progress on Civil Justice issues. Additionally, this action also imesearuably harms the Black community further by making more invisible another great leader and Civil Rights advocate, Bayard Rustin. These are two offenses done by Alveda King and I will write about each to be as clear as I can be. I believe anyone who cares about Social Justice should be speaking out with outrage against Alveda King comments and here is why.
One point I want to make really clear- the importance of this coming from the EEOC and being accepted by the DOJ. So often activists and advocates get caught up in how politicians will make change and legislation makes change, and both of those things may be true. But that said, sometimes real and meaningful change occurs because hard working people use existing laws and existing standards and policies and make things as they ought to be.It isn’t the glam world of activism or marches or rallies or protests. It is mundane gritty, day to day slogging, using existing systems, policies, etc.
Closet-ness, and the desire to make our sexual experimentations and lives private is not a new event. Tyler Clemente is far from the first person who has had his privacy violated, and many lives have been ruined over time. This doesn’t diminish the horror of his situation, but it also places it into a longer context that the simple generic notion of gay bullying. The problem doesn’t go away simply by the way we treat one character, Ravi. The real solution is far bigger than that.
As I have tried to see LGBTQ from a larger perspective than what my life in the relatively big city of Pittsburgh is all about, I have come to have an even more profound appreciation for PFLAG groups. Their work is immeasurable and essential to supporting LGBTQ persons everywhere. Butler is not what one might call a bastion of liberal thinking, and s for this group, like a number across Western PA to keep doing such important work is all important.
A “summit” may sound a bit intimidating, but it isn’t meant to be. Rather, this isn’t just getting together for coffee and chitchat. Our goal is to start a process where individuals who often work in isolation, now feel they have a network or more support, ad as a group, we own the role we can play in communication and activism.
You! Imagine your son or your daughter, or your brother or sister or someone you know. Close you eyes and thimnk about a group of kids stalking that person, and overpowering them and holding that person down kicking andf screaming, and cutting off their hair. Imagine the moments after that kid is realeased from being held down and their hair is severed, and violated and there is no way to step back. What Romney did was a truly violent act of invasion of another’s body. No invasion is worse except for rape.
At the heart of this, isn’t only the place of the religious community component within ther African American community- although that is one element of it. The other is the distinction between Marriage as a Civil Imnstitution where a marriage license is issued by the State, and a judge, or other officiant facilitates, and Marriage as a Religious Ritual or Rite of passage.
Received this via email: Pittsburgh, PA- May 16, 2012- The City of Pittsburgh’s Mayor’s LGBT Advisory council will be hosting it’s first annual diversity job fair on Wednesday, May 23, 2012 at PNC Bank’s Firstside Center located at 500 Firstside Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15219. The job fair is intended to offer potential candidates a forum to meet with representatives from various corporations throughout the city of Pittsburgh to discuss employment opportunities. The participating corporations all[Read More…]