Dueling marriage bills in Penn.

[WillParkinson]

Dueling marriage bills in Penn.
By 365gay Newscenter Staff
05.27.2009 3:48pm EDT

(Harrisburg, Pennsylvania) Pennsylvania has become the latest same-sex marriage battleground, with the legislature being pushed to pass both a marriage equality bill and one that would bar gays from marrying.

Sen. Daylin Leach (D) announced the marriage equality bill on Wednesday.

“There has never been a more propitious time for Pennsylvania to embrace equality and enshrine the civil right of all Pennsylvanians to marry,” Leach told reporters.

The bill would provide “full and equal marriage rights to same-sex couples in Pennsylvania,” said Leach. But it would not force churches to conduct ceremonies or recognize same-sex marriages against church doctrine.

http://www.365gay.com/news/dueling-marriage-bills-in-penn/

[Orrex]

1. Despite its recent Leftward-slant in recent Presidential elections, PA harbors a lot of bigotry

Here's hoping that Leach's bill gets passed!

K/R

[bluestateguy]

2. PA has a lot of old folks

which (for now) makes it inhospitable to gay marriage.

[customerserviceguy]

3. Good luck

I was turned down for a job in Pennsylvania because I admitted that the reason I moved to the East Coast was to be with my lady, and that we'd be fine seeing each other on weekends. I was explicitly told when they declined to hire me (I was ALREADY working for a branch of that company that was closing down!) that "we know how old that gets."

In either NY or NJ I might have had a lawsuit based on discrimination for "marital status", but upon checking into things further, I found out that it's perfectly legal to discriminate based on that status.

James Carville was right when he described Pennsylvania as being Pittsburgh on one end, Philadelphia on the other, and Alabama in the middle.

[t0dd]

4. I always use that quote

It's completely true. Racism is a problem in Westmoreland County (where I am from), so you can imagine how people feel about homosexuality. We had an Obama sign in our yard stolen many times, and my nephew was harassed when others saw that we were voting for that "you know what". I live right between three churches, and everyone is obsessed with hunting. I remember in all four years of high school, only one person came out, and he was tortured relentlessly for it. Even seemingly normal people spoke about it as if he wasn't a human being because of it. I always admired him for being courageous and doing that, but it had a horrible effect on me. Suffice it to say, I can't wait to move away from here.