Western Pa. English Teacher Victimizes Two 18y.o. Males

"Hot English Teacher Victimizes Two 18-Year-Old Males
By Banging Them, Giving Them Beer"

from The Daily Caller - July 12, 2014:

A married, 26-year-old high school English teacher has been arrested for having sex with two 18-year-old male students and giving them some beer inside her home while her husband was out of town on business

The teacher, Tiffany Leiseth, was a long-term substitute teacher for the New Brighton Area School District in rural western Pennsylvania, reports Pittsburgh NBC affiliate WPXI.

According to police, Leiseth invited one of the two male high school seniors over to her house in Moon Township, Pa. on the last day of school. She gave him a beer. They had sex.

The very next day, police say, the second student went to went to her home. There was more sex and some more beer.

Prior to all the excitement, Leiseth had – of course – sent the two students nude photos of herself.

Under Pennsylvania law, Leiseth seems to have jumped the gun on the deadline for teacher-student sex by just a few days. She now faces charges of institutional sexual assault – a third-degree felony – because the students had not yet officially graduated.

The raft of charges against the teacher also includes furnishing alcohol to minors, notes CBS Pittsburgh.

“Regardless of your age, whether you’re an adult or not, if you’re a high school student, a teacher cannot have sexual relations with you,” Moon Township Police Chief Leo McCarthy told WPIX.

McCarthy added that the law originated in 2007 “to give people who are being supervised by others protection.”

Leiseth’s attorney, Mike Deriso, argues that the law doesn’t apply in this case.

“She was not their teacher at the time, and they were not her students,” Deriso told CBS Pittsburgh. “My client did not pursue those boys. They are adults. They make their own decisions.”

Police do admit that it was no crime when Leiseth sent nude images of herself to the high school students because they were 18 at the time they received the images.

According to the cops, one of the two teens said Leiseth warned him not to tell anyone about the illicit fling.

That plan apparently didn’t work out, though, because the school district superintendent Joseph A. Guarino called the cops after he had received a couple phone calls about the hanky-panky.

“They had a rumor that a school teacher was sending nude photographs of herself to two male students,” McCarthy explained to CBS Pittsburgh. “They followed up on that rumor and they found those students, and they found the nude photographs, and they identified the teacher.”

School district officials have sacked Leiseth since the alleged incidents came to light. She had been a district substitute for two years and was serving as a long-term sub in an English class this school year.

The school district issued a statement praising itself for providing “complete cooperation with all involved agencies” and declining further comment “in light of pending litigation.”

Local parents applauded the arrest.

“Set the example for any other teachers or administrators that have any thoughts of doing anything like that,” parent Howard Yellock told WPXI.

Traditional Marriage in Pennsylvania Includes Craigslist and Murder

No comment on this story yet from the American Family Association of Pennsylvania's champion of family values, Diane Gramley ...

Pennsylvania Newlyweds Killed Man for Thrills, Police Say

By Associated Press - Dec. 7, 2013:

SUNBURY, Pa. » A couple married for just three weeks lured a man to his death with a Craigslist ad because they wanted to kill someone together, police said.

Elytte Barbour told officers before his arrest Friday night that he and his wife, Miranda, had planned to kill before, but their plans never worked out until last month when Troy LaFerrara responded to an online posting that promised companionship in return for money, authorities said.

Elytte Barbour, 22, and Miranda Barbour, 18, face criminal homicide charges in LaFerrara's death. His body was found Nov. 12 in an alley in Sunbury, a small city about 100 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

According to Sunbury police, Elytte Barbour told investigators he hid in the backseat of the couple's SUV as his wife picked up LaFerrara at a mall Nov. 11. He told police that, on his wife's signal, he wrapped a cord around LaFerrara's neck, restraining him while Miranda Barbour stabbed him.

The 42-year-old Port Trevorton man was stabbed 20 times, police said.

Miranda Barbour was charged Wednesday. She initially denied knowing LaFerrara, but her story evolved as investigators gathered evidence, including the discovery that the last call received by the victim's cellphone was made from her number, according to a police affidavit.

The affidavit said Miranda Barbour acknowledged meeting the victim in Selinsgrove and driving with him to Sunbury, where they parked. She said LaFerrara groped her and she took a knife from between the front seats and stabbed him after he put his hand around her throat, according to the affidavit.

Police said Miranda Barbour had told them she purchased cleaning supplies at a department store after stabbing LaFerrara, then picked up her husband and took him to a strip club for his birthday. On Friday, police said, Elytte Barbour told them he was the one who had purchased the cleaning products, an account investigators said was backed up by surveillance footage.

Following his wife's arrest, Elytte Barbour told The Daily Item of Sunbury that Miranda Barbour, whom he married Oct. 22, regularly hired herself out as a "companion" to men she met on various websites, a business venture he said he supported because it didn't involve sexual contact.

Barbour said his wife made anywhere from $50 to $850 by meeting with men for such activities as having dinner together or walking around a mall. The ads she placed on websites including Craigslist all said upfront that sex was not part of the deal, he said.

"She is not a prostitute," he said. "What she does is meet men who have broken marriages or have no one in their lives, and she meets with them and has delightful conversation."

Elytte Barbour didn't have an attorney at his arraignment Friday night. A phone message left for his wife's public defender early today was not immediately returned.

Sunbury police Chief Steve Mazzeo told The Daily Item that investigators will also be looking into the death of a man with whom Miranda Barbour had a 1-year-old child. He would not elaborate.

Episcopal Bishop, Right Rev. Sean W. Rowe, Has A Change Of Heart On Anti-LGBT Bigotry & Discrimination

The Right Reverend Sean W. Rowe, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania, recently published an article in the Erie Times-News about the enlightening of attitudes toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.

While this advancement in Rowe's thinking is welcome, it must be noted that when he was Rector of St. John's Episcopal Church in Franklin, Pa., he was also a member of the Franklin Area School District Board, the same school board that sat in silence, cast a blind-eye, even protected a high school administrator who was well-known in the community for the racist and homophobic ways in which he targeted and abused students.

Rowe has yet to account for his silence, let alone make amends for the suffering that he and his school board colleagues enabled in the Franklin Area School District.

Here is his current "reflection" on the issues:

Welcome LGBT People as Children of God

Right Rev. Sean W. Rowe - Erie Times-News - July 20, 2013:

Last week, Attorney General Kathleen Kane announced that she will not defend the state in a suit that challenges the constitutionality of Pennsylvania's ban on same-sex marriage.

Her decision, resulting from the recent Supreme Court decision that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional, is just the latest indication that our society's thinking about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their unions is changing rapidly.

Thirteen states and the District of Columbia recognize same-sex marriage, and more than a quarter of Americans live in those jurisdictions. According to a June ABC News/Washington Post poll, 58 percent of Americans support marriage equality. That number climbs to 70 percent when Americans born after 1980 are surveyed, according to the Pew Research Center.

Civil marriage and religious marriage are distinct institutions, but our attitudes toward one influence our thinking about the other. So for many people of faith, these headlines about civil same-sex marriage equality require us to look at sacred traditions and texts with fresh eyes.

Many of us remember when issues of human sexuality were off-limits for discussion in our congregations. And sadly, far too many of us are familiar with the discrimination, fear and violence that LGBT people have suffered while people of faith turned a blind eye or, worse yet, acted as perpetrators.

Today it is possible for us to view same-sex relationships differently. Across our communities, we see the goodness and holiness of same-sex couples in committed, lifelong relationships. Same-sex couples and their families are blessings to their communities, their churches, mosques, synagogues and temples, and to their neighbors and friends. Just like opposite-sex couples, their love for one another draws them more clearly into fidelity and service to the world and allows all of us who know them to see the boundless love of God more clearly.

We can also see that our civic life benefits when same-sex couples have the dignity and legal protection that opposite-sex couples have always enjoyed. Same-sex couples, just like their opposite-sex friends and neighbors, work hard, raise children, volunteer for good causes and pay taxes. Erie would be poorer without its LGBT residents, and we need to stand against discrimination that makes their lives less safe or secure.

For too long, same-sex couples have had to live without the acknowledgment -- from their civic communities or religious congregations -- that they are both productive citizens and signs of the goodness of God's creation and love for the world. Now the growing civil acceptance of marriage equality can help people of faith to tear the scales from our eyes, testify to what we see, and fully welcome LGBT people as children of God and sisters and brothers in faith.

Reflections is a column by religious leaders in the region. The Right Rev. Sean W. Rowe is bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania, 145 W. Sixth St.

Meet Pennsylvania's Village Idiot: Rep. Daryl Metcalfe

"Metcalfe Is Now The Official State Embarrassment"

from The Times Online - Beaver, Pa.:

It’s not often you see the perfect mix of stupidity and hate on display as we did Wednesday on the floor of our own esteemed state House. To nobody’s surprise, though, Cranberry Township’s village idiot, GOP state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, was proudly at the center of it.

OK. OK. That was unfair ... to village idiots.

In case you’re unaware, openly gay Democratic state Rep. Brian Sims, Philadelphia, tried Wednesday to speak on the House floor about the U.S. Supreme Court’s rulings on gay marriage only to have Metcalfe and another GOPer stop him.

How? Well, apparently, there’s something called “unanimous consent” where just one legislator can withhold permission — anonymously — to let another speak. A courageous rule there.

So if it’s anonymous, how do we know about Metcalfe? Because Daryl never met a microphone, camera or notepad he didn’t like if it helps solidify his virulent right-wing street cred with the neo-con media and voters back home.

Metcalfe told WHYY-FM radio station that Sims’ comments would have been “open rebellion against God’s law.”

He then told The Associated Press that, “For me to allow him to say things that I believe are open rebellion against God are for me to participate in his open rebellion.”

So, Metcalfe has appointed himself the arbiter of not only House remarks, but God’s enforcer, too. Heavy is the empty head that wears the crown, Daryl.

Sims’ comments would have been “ultimately offensive to the majority of my constituents, and myself,” Metcalfe said. Guess what, Daryl? There’s no law against being offended.

The rest of us are all too aware of that because your warped, sick brand of theocratic bigotry and its role in our state government offends us everyday.

It Gets Better, Even in Pennsylvania as Sen. Casey Comes Out in Support of Marriage Equality

By Tracie Mauriello - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - April 1, 2013:


WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen. Bob Casey today took his support for gay relationships a step further when he announced he now backs the right to same-sex marriage.

The Pennsylvania Democrat previously expressed support for civil union but had stopped short of saying same-sex commitments deserved the same designation and accompanying rights of traditional marriages.

"If two people of the same sex fall in love and want to marry, why would our government stand in their way? At a time when many Americans lament a lack of commitment in our society between married men and women, why would we want less commitment and fewer strong marriages," Mr. Casey said in a written statement today.

He pledged to work toward repealing the Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 law that prevents the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages.

That law was at the center of a case argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Mr. Casey said he decided to stand up for gay marriage after receiving numerous letters and phone calls from constituents, including some gay couples who said they pay thousands of dollars a year more in taxes than they would if they were in heterosexual marriages.

Some of those letters and calls were part of Equality Pennsylvania's organized effort to bombard Mr. Casey's Washington and district offices with pleas for support.

"I just want my family to be treated equally and with respect by my state and federal government," one constituent wrote in a letter that particularly touched the senator.

Mr. Casey said he could no longer "in good conscience take a position that denies her and her family the full measure of quality and respect."

New Poll Shows Support for LGBT Rights in Pennsylvania

 by Cathy Clark for PaMatters.com - 2/13/13:

The Pennsylvania legislature’s growing LGBT Equality Caucus has unveiled a new poll as members call for legislation to protect members of the community. The membership in the caucus has doubled and is bicameral and bipartisan.

Representative Dan Frankel (D-Allegheny) says the growth of the caucus represents the changing will and mood of the people of Pennsylvania when it comes to simple fairness for LGBT people.

The poll conducted for Equality Pennsylvania finds 62% of the state’s residents believes gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender citizens should be entitled to the same civil rights and protections as other minority groups. 69% agree that LGBT workers should be protected from being fired. 73% agree that it should be illegal to refuse service to someone based on their sexual orientation, gender identity or expression. The poll was conducted by CivicScience of Pittsburgh.

State Senator Daylin Leach (D-Montgomery) says Pennsylvania does not have laws to offer those protections. He says we don’t even have anti-discrimination legislation that has been passed. He says the hate crimes bill was struck down on technical grounds and not replaced.

Bills being reintroduced in this session would ban discrimination in employment, housing, credit and public accommodations.

Representative Brian Sims (D-Phila), the first openly gay person elected to the legislature, says he’s seeing signs that more colleagues in the state Capitol are finally beginning to recognize that common sense protections are long overdue.

Representative Mark Painter (D-Mont), whose wife is a Methodist pastor, says he believes firmly that discrimination, bullying and hatred are not Christian values.

Like "Ex-Gay" Therapy in California, the American Family Association of Pennsylvania Will Be Relegated to the Dustbin of Quackery

California Is First State to Ban Gay ‘Cure’ for Minors

from the New York Times:

California has become the first state to ban the use for minors of disputed therapies to “overcome” homosexuality, a step hailed by gay rights groups across the country that say the therapies have caused dangerous emotional harm to gay and lesbian teenagers.

“This bill bans nonscientific ‘therapies’ that have driven young people to depression and suicide,” Gov. Jerry Brown said in a statement on Saturday after he signed the bill into law. “These practices have no basis in science or medicine, and they will now be relegated to the dustbin of quackery.”

The law, which is to take effect on Jan. 1, states that no “mental health provider” shall provide minors with therapy intended to change their sexual orientation, including efforts to “change behaviors or gender expressions, or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same sex.”

The law was sponsored by State Senator Ted W. Lieu and supported by a long list of medical and psychological societies, as well by state and national advocates for gay rights. Also speaking up for the ban were former patients who described emotional scars they said they were left with after being pushed into the therapy by their parents and finding that they could not change their sexual orientation or did not want to.

But some therapists and conservative religious leaders who promote methods that they say can reduce homosexual desire have condemned the new law as a violation of free choice. They say that it will harm young people who want to fight homosexual attractions on religious or other grounds and warn that it will lead more people to seek help from untrained amateurs.

The use of harsh aversion techniques, like electric shock or nausea-inducing drugs, to combat homosexual desires has largely disappeared. But during the last three decades, some psychologists have refined a theory of “reparative therapy,” which ties homosexual desires to emotional wounds in early childhood and, in some cases, to early sexual abuse.

These therapists say that with proper treatment, thousands of patients have succeeded in reducing their homosexual attraction and in enhancing heterosexual desire, though most therapists acknowledge that total “cures” are rare. But their methods have come under growing attack from gays who say the therapy has led to guilt, hopelessness and anger.

Reparative therapists, a small minority within the mental health profession, united in 1992 in the National Association for Research and Therapy on Homosexuality, based in Encino, Calif. The group did not immediately comment on the new California law, but its leaders have previously attacked the legislation as based on politics, not science, and said they would consider challenging it in court as an unjustified intrusion into professional practice.

One licensed family therapist and member of the association, David H. Pickup of Glendale, Calif., said in a recent interview that the ban would cause harm to many who want and need the therapy.

“If boys have been sexually abused and homosexual feelings that are not authentic later come up, we have to tell them no, we can’t help you,” Mr. Pickup said.

Gay and lesbian leaders, along with major scientific groups, reject such theories outright and say there is no scientific evidence that inner sexual attractions can be altered.

“Reparative therapy is junk science being used to justify religious beliefs,” said Wayne Besen, the director of Truth Wins Out, a gay advocacy group.

The California law is a milestone, but only a first step, Mr. Besen said, because the ideas in reparative therapy have been widely adopted by church ministries and others promoting the idea that homosexual urges can be banished.

Legislators in New Jersey and a few other states have discussed introducing similar bills to ban the use of the therapy for minors, Mr. Besen said.

Study Says: Homophobes May Secretly Be Gay Themselves

People, In A Homophobic Society, At War With Themselves

by Caroline May for The Daily Caller:


Denial can be a powerful defense mechanism. Apparently, homophobia is too — at least according to a new study from researchers from the University of Rochester, the University of Essex, England, and the University of California in Santa Barbara.

Their research concluded that the intense fear and repulsion college-age homophobes feel toward gays and lesbians is likely due to the fact that they see similarities in themselves.

“Individuals who identify as straight but in psychological tests show a strong attraction to the same sex may be threatened by gays and lesbians because homosexuals remind them of similar tendencies within themselves,” said lead author Netta Weinstein of the University of Essex, according to Science Daily.

The research, due to be published this month in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, took place in four different places in the United States and Germany, with an average of 160 college students in each location.

The researchers tested their subjects on their own sexuality and then measured the discrepancy between what the participants said about their own sexual orientation and how they reacted to timed tasks, including associating themselves with words and images they deemed as “gay” or “straight.”

Quickly associating himself or herself with a “gay” image and slowly associating with a “straight” one implied that an individual was gay.

The study also examined the participants’ upbringing and their own levels of so-called “homophobia.”

Those with discrepancies in how they defined their sexuality and how their sexuality was actually manifest in the study were more likely to be hostile to gays.

“In many cases these are people who are at war with themselves and they are turning this internal conflict outward,” said co-author Richard Ryan, professor of psychology at the University of Rochester.

The study also found that people who grew up in supportive households were more likely to be in touch with their own sexual orientations.

“In a predominantly heterosexual society, ‘know thyself’ can be a challenge for many gay individuals. But in controlling and homophobic homes, embracing a minority sexual orientation can be terrifying,” Weinstein added.

Pennsylvania Hate Group Prevents Progress

As if the economic downturn of the past few years has not been challenging enough, Pennsylvania must now overcome being seen as a conservative, intolerant backwater unwelcoming of diversity, and unable to retain or attract talented residents, as much of the rest of the country forges ahead on issues of equality, dignity and respect for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people – (see New York for the most recent example).


This debacle is the result of a vicious, and public, anti-gay campaign being waged by the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Family Association, an extremist organization recently added to the Southern Poverty Law Center's designated “hate group” watch list.

While the Venango County-based organization has long spewed demonizing homophobic and transphobic propaganda, it has ratcheted up its attacks in recent months as several municipalities across the state have organized to do locally what the legislature has failed to accomplish for state residents: add sexual orientation and gender identity and expression as protected groups in non-discrimination laws.

In the crosshairs of the American Family Association of PA's campaign-of-hate is the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, the agency charged with eliminating discrimination against the state's most vulnerable populations.

Until just a few weeks ago, the commission was headed by Stephen Glassman, a champion of civil rights for all Pennsylvanians who had been providing expert analysis and support to these important and successful municipal efforts to prevent discrimination.

While Glassman decided to step down from his role as commission chairman when the state's new conservative Republican governor, Tom Corbett, took office early this year, the American Family Association of PA intensified its attacks against the agency, perhaps with the aim of intimidating any and all state or elected officials who do not adhere to its archaic and exclusionary doctrine of religion-based bigotry and discrimination.

If Pennsylvania is to remain a keystone of the American ideals of liberty and justice for all, it is going to have to find ways to rise above the ugliness of the hate groups that continue to call it home.

You can help by letting Governor Corbett, and all of your elected representatives, know that you support full equality for all people in Pennsylvania, including the state's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents.

And, you can support the important civil rights work of groups like the ACLU of Pennsylvania, Equality Pennsylvania, Equality Partners of Western Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Diversity Network, and Keystone Progress, among others.

Is Homophobia a Diagnosable Psychological Condition?

Intolerance and Psychopathology:
Toward a General Diagnosis for Racism, Sexism, and Homophobia

Article by: Mary H. Guindon PhD^, Alan G. Green PhD^, Fred J. Hanna PhD

Published in the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry - April 2003


Racism, sexism, and homophobia do not fit into any current diagnostic category. The authors propose that those who engage in such behaviors display a form of psychopathology deserving of its own category. The common denominator seems to be intolerance. The authors explore the possibility of an intolerant personality disorder, outline likely symptoms, and suggest some possible treatment considerations.

A few excerpts on the subject on ProCon.org:

Mary H. Guindon, PhD, Chair of the Department of Counseling and Human Services at Johns Hopkins University, et al., wrote in a Apr. 2003 article, "Intolerance and Psychopathology: Toward a General Diagnosis for Racism, Sexism and Homophobia," published by the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry that: (pictured below, Diane Gramley, President of the Venango County-based HATE GROUP American Family Association of Pennsylvania)


"[W]e explore the characteristics of persons who perpetrate pain and injustice on others through racism, sexism, or homophobia. We propose that those who engage in such harmful behaviors are in fact displaying a type of psychopathology that deserves its own particular category... In other words, behind racism, sexism, and homophobia, there seems to be a common core of intolerance that supports and contributes to these attitudes or mindsets in their various manifestations. The traits associated with this form of intolerance, when taken as a whole, seem to be descriptive of a personality disorder.

This is a disorder that deserves full acknowledgment as a psychological problem unto itself. It is not enough to merely note the harm or lament the damage. Researchers and therapists need to develop treatment approaches that have the capacity to alleviate it." -- Apr. 2003 - Mary H. Guindon, PhD

Shama B. Chaiken, PhD, Divisional Chief Psychologist for the California Department of Corrections, was quoted as having made the following statements in the Dec. 10, 2005 Washington Post article titled "Psychiatry Ponders Whether Extreme Bias Can Be an Illness:"

"We treat racism and homophobia as delusional disorders... Treatment with antipsychotics does work to reduce these prejudices." -- Dec. 10, 2005 - Shama B. Chaiken, PhD

Elaine C. Spaulding, PhD, faculty member of Walden University, wrote the following information in her article "Unconsciousness - Raising: Hidden Dimensions of Heterosexism in Theory and Practice with Lesbians" published in the 1999 book Lesbians and Lesbian Families, and edited by Joan Laird:

"Homophobia is a psychological event not analogous to sexism and racism, which are organized sociocultural phenomena. Homophobia can also be viewed as a psychological condition arising as the anticipated result of an unconscious social process, namely, the prolonged, successful, and systematic effort to exclude homosexuals from access to scarce or valued economic and social resources, including that of self-esteem." -- 1999 - Elaine C. Spaulding, PhD

Martin J. Kantor, MD, author specializing in psychology and gay men's issues, wrote the following information in his 1998 book Homophobia: Description, Development, and Dynamics of Gay Bashing:


"[T]here are aspects of homophobia that are symptomatic, which closely resemble aspects of emotional disorders, so that homophobia is in many ways as much like a mental illness as some homophobics say homosexuality is like one. For example, many homophobes reason like patients with paranoia... Too, homophobes feel that gays and lesbians are out to seduce them like paranoids feel that enemies are singling them out and persecuting them. And like these paranoids, homophobes stay perfectly calm and unflustered until their 'favorite subject' comes up - persecution in the case of paranoids, homosexuality in the case of homophobes, at which time all concerned become equally overwrought, hysterical, panicky, and defensive...

Many homophobes experience the same feelings of weltuntergang (delusion of world decay) that severe depressives and schizophrenics experience, with all concerned suffering from the false belief... that the world... is 'going to hell in a hand basket,' and all because of what gays and lesbians do in bed, or because gays and lesbians want to get married legally." -- 1998 - Martin J. Kantor, MD

Sign The Petition For Marriage Equality In Pennsylvania

from Keystone Progress:

Senator Daylin Leach recently introduced legislation that would make Pennsylvania the 7th state to legalize marriage equality.

At the same time, 13 Pennsylvania State Senators, including 2 Democrats, have signed on to John Eichelberger's bill to ban marriage equality.

Both bills, the bill for equality and the bill for discrimination, are seeking more co-sponsors. We've created a petition asking our State Senators to do two things:

1) Ask Senators to co-sponsor The Marriage Equality Bill (SB 935), and

2) Ask Senators to "just say no" to discrimination and bigotry by refusing to co-sponsor the bill to ban marriage equality.

Please join the movement toward full civil rights for all Pennsylvanians and sign the petition HERE.

This Is What True Political Leadership Looks Like

Gays Deserve Equality

by Pennsylvania State Senator Daylin Leach:

I recently drafted and am shortly introducing legislation that would legalize same-sex marriage in Pennsylvania. I do so now for several reasons.

First, because many other states are moving to consider this issue, including Maine, Vermont and Washington, D.C., which have recently passed legislation. New York, New Hampshire and New Jersey soon will.

Further, a bill banning same-sex marriage was recently introduced in the Pennsylvania Senate, and it is important to provide the Legislature with a timely pro-civil rights, pro-family alternative.

But mostly, each day in which gay Pennsylvanians are denied their fundamental human rights is a profound injustice.

The case for same-sex or gay marriage is simple. The state and federal government confer hundreds of benefits upon married couples that are unavailable to single people. This is done to facilitate and encourage marriage, which benefits our entire society.

We should be doing with gay couples what we do with straight couples; encouraging them to enter permanent, monogamous, stable and legally recognized unions. The arguments against gay marriage are much more complicated.

First, we are told that we need to protect traditional marriage. But from what? What bad thing has happened to straight couples in states where gay couples can marry? Studies show straight-marriage rates remain the same in those states. So do divorce rates, birth rates and rates of domestic violence. There is no change whatsoever in the status, behavior or happiness of married heterosexual couples when a married gay couple moves in down the street.

We hear that some organizations that disapprove of gay marriage might act out if such marriages are allowed. For example, in Massachusetts a Catholic adoption agency didn't want to adopt to gay couples and closed down. This argument is akin to the "Heckler's Veto" concept.

In First Amendment law, some have tried to ban certain speech by saying it would upset the listener who would then heckle or otherwise cause a disturbance. For example, if civil rights workers were allowed to march in the South, that would upset local racists and they might throw rocks.

The courts have consistently rejected the argument that threats based on disapproval were a justification to ban speech. Similarly, there is not a justification to stop people from marrying the person they love.

We also hear the frankly strange argument that if we legalize gay marriage we will somehow have no choice but to legalize polygamy, incest and inter-species marriage. Not so. We draw reasonable lines all the time in all areas of the law. You can drive 65, but not 95. You can keep a gun, but not a truck bomb. Similarly, you can marry one partner, but not an aardvark.

Any law involves line drawing. It seems reasonable that the line should be drawn where it allows each person the opportunity to have a life partner.

The fact is that there is no reasonable alternative to recognized same-sex marriage. Same-sex couples exist and always will. Many of them are raising children.

Many opponents of gay marriage preach that children should not be raised out of wedlock, but the one sure way to raise the number of children being raised out of wedlock is to deny their parents the chance to marry. They also urge young people to delay sexual relationships until marriage. But if gay people can't marry, what would they tell a gay teen about when it is appropriate for them to have a sexual relationship?

Gay couples are denied many of the basic rights and services straight couples take for granted. This includes everything from Social Security survivor benefits to mandatory leave to care for a sick partner. Further, they and their children are forced to live under a legal framework that treats their families as somehow not legitimate. There are literally thousands of such unjust burdens placed upon people who want nothing more than to start a family. Simple decency demands an end to this.

I am under no illusions that this bill will become law in the short term. However, I also have no doubt that 15 years from now same-sex marriage will be legal in all 50 states, and people will be as ashamed that we ever banned it as they are now that we ever banned inter-racial marriage. My hope is that by introducing this bill now, we will start the discussion we need to have and bring the day of equality a little closer.

Good News: Sen. Daylin Leach to Introduce Bill Providing For Full, Equal Marriage Rights to Pennsylvania's Same-Sex Couples

Take Action Below: It's Time Venango County Joins the Movement for Fairness and Equality for All.

HARRISBURG, May 27, 2009 – Sen. Daylin Leach, D-Delaware/Montgomery, today announced plans to introduce a bill that would offer full and equal marriage rights to same-sex couples in Pennsylvania. Under the new legislation, Pennsylvania would also recognize same-sex marriages conducted in other states.

Leach noted that after the recent passing of same-sex marriage legislation in New Hampshire and Maine, and the rapidly expanding list of states considering the approval of same-sex marriage, it is time for Pennsylvania to act.

“In the past few weeks, several states have legalized same-sex marriage, and many will soon follow suit,” Leach said. “There has never been a more propitious time for Pennsylvania to embrace equality and enshrine the civil right of all Pennsylvanians to marry.”

While the bill would not require religious institutions to perform any marriage ceremonies or recognize any marriages that they do not wish to sanction, Leach said his legislation would dissolve all of the barriers to building families that gay and lesbian couples currently face, both at the state and federal level.

“The alternative to legalizing same-sex marriage is retaining our current, archaic protocol which treats an entire group of citizens as second-class,” Leach said. “This protocol denies the reality of same-sex families, many of whom have children. It provides no vehicle by which society can encourage gay couples to do what it encourages straight couples to do: namely to form permanent, monogamous and committed life-long partnerships.”

Leach’s bill is currently circulating for co-sponsorship.

Please contact our local State Senator Mary Jo White to let her know we support this bill and expect her to become a co-sponsor.

Capitol Address
286 Capitol Building, Senate Box 203041
Harrisburg, PA 17120
Phone: 717-787-8724
TTYD: 800-364-1581
Fax: 717-772-1589
Email: mwhite@pasen.gov

District Address
1140 Liberty Street
Franklin, PA 16323-1140
Phone: 814-432-4345

Equality in Middle America - It's Not Only Possible, It's Unanimous!

"It shows that a Republican appointee writing for a unanimous court in a not decidedly liberal state takes the view that there are basic constitutional guarantees that are especially important for the judiciary to enforce." - David B. Cruz, USC constitutional law professor -

Come On Pennsylvania!!

By Jessica Garrison and Maura Dolan for the LA Times:

April 4, 2009


The Iowa Supreme Court, citing California's historic marriage decision, overturned a ban Friday on same-sex marriage in a ruling that emphasized the need for courts to protect minorities even when public sentiment is against them.

The unanimous decision makes Iowa the first Midwestern state to legalize gay marriage, which is also permitted in Massachusetts and Connecticut.

The decision came as the California Supreme Court considers whether to overturn Proposition 8, the November ballot measure that banned gay marriages after the court's groundbreaking ruling May 15 that allowed them.

Gay rights activists and a legal scholar said Friday's ruling could provide ammunition for overturning Proposition 8, either in court or at the ballot box. During a hearing last month, a majority of the California court appeared ready to uphold the ballot measure.

In the Iowa decision, Justice Mark Cady wrote: "We are firmly convinced the exclusion of gay and lesbian people from the institution of civil marriage does not substantially further any important governmental objective. The Legislature has excluded a historically disfavored class of persons from a supremely important civil institution without a constitutionally sufficient justification."

Gay rights advocates were jubilant.


"It's a red-letter day for us here in Iowa," said Matt McCoy, a gay member of the state Senate who cheered the decision from the courthouse steps in Des Moines.

Foes vowed to fight it. Bryan English, spokesman for the Iowa Family Policy Center, said the decision was like "a death in the family."

Following a few minutes of mourning on the courthouse steps after the decision was handed down, English said, he and other opponents walked across the street to the Legislature's offices and began lobbying lawmakers for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.

That would not be as easy as it was in California.

Lawmakers in the Democrat-controlled Legislature must first vote for an amendment in two consecutive sessions. Only then can a measure go on the ballot, where voters can approve it with a simple majority.

In California, Proposition 8, which voters approved by 52% to 48%, reached the ballot through a signature drive.

On the other hand, a ballot fight in Iowa, which has just 3 million people, would cost significantly less than the more than $70 million total spent by both sides in California.

Legal experts said the Iowa ruling, written by one of the two Republican appointees on the seven-member court, was striking in that it was the first unanimous decision backing same-sex marriage rights. Such decisions by the Connecticut, California and Massachusetts high courts were all split.

USC constitutional law professor David B. Cruz said the ruling could influence the California Supreme Court's decision on Prop. 8 "if there are justices who are still wavering one way or another."

"It shows them that a Republican appointee writing for a unanimous court in a not decidedly liberal state takes the view that there are basic constitutional guarantees that are especially important for the judiciary to enforce," Cruz said.

Iowa has long had a progressive streak. Its public schools were integrated nearly a century before 1954's Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka, and in 1869 it became the first to admit women to its state bar.

Iowa's ruling appeared to be "a response" to the kind of criticism the California Supreme Court received when a majority voted May 15 to end the marriage ban, Cruz said.

"The opinion is very, very careful to lay out its understanding of the role of the judiciary at some length and to defend that role," Cruz said, adding that the ruling dealt heavily with "the importance of an independent judiciary enforcing constitutional rights even if they might be unpopular with a large majority."

The Iowa court also cited California's marriage ruling to buttress its decision.

The decision grew out of a case filed by the gay rights group Lambda Legal in 2005 on behalf of six gay and lesbian couples. In 2007, Polk County Judge Robert Hanson ruled in the couples' favor, saying Iowa's Defense of Marriage Act violated the state constitutional rights of equal protection and due process.

Less than 24 hours later, a Polk County attorney filed an appeal to the Iowa Supreme Court.

In the nearly nine business hours that same-sex marriage was permitted, dozens of couples applied for licenses. Only one obtained a license and rushed through a ceremony before the stay was enacted.

According to the latest Census Bureau figures, Iowa has 6,425 same-sex couples. On Friday, at least one person said she could not wait to get married.

"We are just elated. . . . It's a great day to be an Iowan," said Kate Varnum, lead plaintiff in the case. "Trish and I have always said, if we were to get married, we would want to do it in our home state."

The court's decision will be final on April 24.

Some gay rights advocates said the decision showed that gay marriage was becoming increasingly accepted across all sectors of American society.

"Iowa is Middle America. It is the heartland," said Marc Solomon, marriage director for gay rights group Equality California. "I think this will be an 'a-ha' moment."

San Diego Pastor Jim Garlow, who led religious leaders across the state in organizing their congregations to pass Proposition 8, predicted the opposite reaction.

He said he thought the Iowa decision would spark a backlash against the state's high court and "activist judges" in general.

"This is hyperjudicial activism," he said.

Check Out Iowa Equality and Equality Iowa!

End Discrimination -- Take Action Today !

Dear Residents of Venango county,

In the three weeks since a state House committee passed House Bill 300, legislation to end discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Pennsylvanians, there has been a flurry of activity at the state capitol, including our enormously successful Rock the Dome lobby day and rally, which drew several hundred people to Harrisburg.


Of course, opponents of equality, based right there in your backyard, are not sitting back. Opponents to this necessary legislation have been hammering the offices of state representatives with phone calls and emails. Most representatives have received nearly 1,000 emails from a vocal minority of Pennsylvanians.

Unfortunately, those who think LGBT Pennsylvanians should be second-class citizens have had some success. Numerous representatives have been intimidated by this vocal minority, including some co-sponsors who have removed their name from the bill.

It’s time for those of us who oppose discrimination to make our own voices heard. If we expect to win in this important struggle, we need you to take action! Take just five minutes to call and e-mail your State Representative TODAY!

Discrimination is unjust, immoral, and impractical for our commonwealth. And we know from our polling that Pennsylvanians support anti-discrimination protections for the LGBT community. But state legislators have been easily swayed by the loud, vocal minority who oppose this bill.


Please take action TODAY by e-mailing and calling your legislators!

Thank you for standing up for LGBT people across the state, and taking a stand for equality and fairness in Pennsylvania.

Sincerely,

Equality Advocates