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Wednesday, May 07
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Source: Philadelphia Daily News , Bulletin , Associated Press via Philadelphia Inquirer , Patriot-News Advocates of marriage as a special right for heterosexual couples had hoped to debate a measure today in the Pennsylvania senate that would have started a long process to add discriminatory language to the commonwealth's constitution. Instead, supporters of the measure quietly withdrew it from consideration yesterday in the face of Senate opposition to parts of the measure and after it became clear to them that it would not be considered in the state House if it had passed out of the Senate...
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Wednesday, April 30
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Source: Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader , Citizens Voice WILKES-BARRE, Penn -- The estate of a gay porn producer stabbed to death in his Dallas Township home has won a civil lawsuit filed against the man’s suspected killers. Michael Kocis, the father of Bryan Kocis, filed suit in January against Harlow Cuadra and Joseph Kerekes. The two Virginia men are accused of killing Bryan Kocis, their rival in the gay porn industry, inside his home and then setting it on fire in January 2007. Kocis, 44, was found dead by firefighters. The suit filed in Common Pleas court claimed Cuadra and Kerekes entered Bryan...
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Wednesday, April 30
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Source: Pittsburgh Post Gazette , Allentown Morning Call , Harrisburg Patriot-News , Lancaster New Era , Philadelphia Inquirer , Harrisburg Intelligencer-Journal HARRISBURG, Penn. -- Lawyers, religious leaders and advocates for gays and lesbians faced off Tuesday in one of the most highly charged Senate Appropriations Committee hearings in recent memory. At issue was a proposal to strengthen the state's ban on marriage equality by placing it in the commonwealth's constitution along with a provision to prevent other kinds of same-sex unions that are "functionally equivalent to marriage...
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Saturday, April 19
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Source: GaySocialits.com , MSNBC , Washington Post Chelsea Clinton went on Friday night gay club crawl in Philadelphia photo: GaySocialites.com Chelsea Clinton stopped traffic Friday night as she wandered the streets of Philadelphia on a gay bar crawl, winning rave reviews for both her politics and her appearance. Led around the neighborhood by Gov. Ed Rendell, Chelsea was mobbed by local gays and lesbians, as she walked from one club to the next. They ran up to hug her, posed for pictures and certainly invaded her personal space. “I grabbed her ass,” one young woman exclaimed to her friends after...
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Friday, April 04
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Source: Philadelphia Gay News , Associated Press , press release Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said she would defend gay rights as president and eliminate disparities for same-sex couples in federal law, including immigration and tax policy. Clinton said states such as New Jersey and Massachusetts are extending rights to gay couples "and the federal government should recognize that and should extend the same access to federal benefits across the board. I will very much work to achieve that." Clinton's comments came in an interview with the Philadelphia Gay News that was posted...
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Thursday, April 03
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Source: Editor and Publisher CHICAGO -- Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are battling it out for the Democratic Party presidential nomination at debates, luncheon speeches, bowling alleys -- and now, in the pages of gay and lesbian newspapers. Although Howard Dean in 2004 bought an ad in The Advocate, the national gay-oriented news magazine, Obama was the first to turn to the gay press in the current campaign, and -- according to his lead volunteer in outreach to the LGBT community -- the first presidential candidate ever to buy a campaign ad in a local gay paper. The ads, which ran in four papers...
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Sunday, March 30
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Source: Altoona Mirror State College, Penn. -- As he recited vows of commitment Saturday, Frank Vasquez stopped speaking, overcome with emotion. He got past the snag only after partner Paul Datti leaned over their double-clasped hands and kissed him, setting off sympathetic laughter from the crowd at Alumni Hall in the HUB-Robeson Center at Penn State. Vasquez and Datti were one of four couples in what Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission Chairman Steve Glassman guessed was the largest-ever same-sex commitment ceremony held in public in Pennsylvania. The vows were not legally binding, but couples...
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Wednesday, March 26
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Source: Medical News Today The odds of substance use for lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) youth are on average 190 percent higher than for heterosexual youth, according to a study by University of Pittsburgh researchers published in the current issue of Addiction. What's more, for some sub-populations of LGB youth, the odds were substantially higher, including 340 percent for bisexual youth and 400 percent for lesbians, researchers found. "Homophobia, discrimination and victimization are largely what are responsible for these substance use disparities in young gay people," said Michael...
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Wednesday, March 19
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Source: Philadelphia Inquirer , CityPaper The three candidates seeking a Pennsylvania state senate seat in next month's primary are hoping to win the gay vote through a mix of personal connections and support for gay-friendly initiatives. Their efforts, in turn, underscore the political influence of the gay community in the diverse First District, which stretches from Port Richmond to Philadelphia International Airport and includes Center City. Two of the candidates -- Anne Dicker and Larry Farnese -- support gay marriage. John J. Dougherty says he is in favor of civil unions but would back...
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Tuesday, March 18
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Source: Public Radio Capitol News , AP via Philadelphia Inquirer A state Senate committee has passed a proposal to amend the state Constitution to ban gay marriage and civil unions. The Senate Judiciary Committee today held a lively public hearing on the proposal before approving it, 10-4. Pennsylvania already has a law prohibiting same-sex marriage -- the Defense of Marriage Act. Opponents sought more hearings on the bill, saying the wording of the proposal that bans civil unions is so poorly defined that it could endanger the rights that gay and lesbian couples have now. Supporters say the wording...
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Friday, March 14
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Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette , ABC News , Tulsa World , Dallas Voice Kern's anti-gay rant Pittsburgh Council President Doug Shields late yesterday fired off an angry e-mail demanding an apology from, and the resignation of, an Oklahoma state representative who made recent comments criticizing homosexual elected officials and including Pittsburgh in a list of cities gays are "infiltrating." "I was thoroughly disgusted by what you had to say and astonished that someone who presumably took an oath of office to uphold the U.S. Constitution and the laws of this nation would espouse...
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Thursday, February 28
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Source: New York Daily News , Associated Press via Newsday , New York Times Hot-tempered Philadelphia ex-anchor Alycia Lane got some good news Monday when prosecutors let her off the hook for smacking a cop. The out-of-work anchorwoman from the City of Brotherly Love no longer faces felony assault charges for a December run-in with a female cop she called a "[expletive] dyke." "I'm just so glad it's over," a smiling Lane said outside Manhattan Criminal Court. An organization for gay police officers isn't nearly so happy about the legal wrangling. The New York City...
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Wednesday, February 27
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Source: Philadelphia Daily News Keyontyli and Taleon Goffney have appeared in net porn videos as Keyon and Teyon photo via hotflashes.blogspot [not safe for work] Fleshbot, as usual, has an explicit gallery of very NSFW images of the pre-jailed twins Philadelphia -- TWINS Keyontyli and Taleon Goffney have been arrested for allegedly breaking into area businesses by cutting rooftop holes to gain entry. Turns out, they were also just as skilled at breaking into their second, more respectable careers -- as hardcore gay-porn stars. The 25-year-old Goffney twins, both of New Jersey, were arrested Feb...
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Sunday, January 13
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Source: PhillyBurbs.com Newtown Township, Penn. (Bucks County Courier Times) On a Sunday afternoon in October, the Rev. David Wagner made an announcement that rocked his congregation. But even the standing ovation he received and the groundswell of support from his flock wasn't enough to keep him at the pulpit from which he had preached for 10 years. Wagner, now the former pastor of the Lutheran Church of God's Love in Newtown Township, said he's still reeling from the ordeal that began after he confessed that he was gay and had been living with a companion for five years. His announcement...
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Sunday, January 06
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Source: Allentown Morning Call Allentown, Penn. -- A controversial gay-themed children's book which just weeks ago was unavailable at most local public libraries is now more widely accessible after a couple's attempt to have the book removed from the Lower Macungie Library backfired. [see Qnews summary ] Following news coverage of the library's denial of the request, a local gay activist group sent it a $50 donation and purchased the controversial book ''King & King'' for four area public libraries that didn't carry it. At least three of the libraries in Allentown...
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Saturday, January 05
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Source: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Associated Press via Pittsburgh Post-Gazette PITTSBURGH -- A Pittsburgh area church that voted to leave the Presbyterian Church (USA) has filed a lawsuit seeking to bar any threat of seizure of its property by the local presbytery as it joins a more conservative denomination. Memorial Park Presbyterian Church in McCandless filed a complaint Friday in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court asking a judge to declare the church property -- 7.5 acres of land and several buildings -- solely its own, and that the Pittsburgh Presbytery and its parent, Presbyterian Church...
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Friday, January 04
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Source: Gay City News A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Philadelphia, ruled on December 20 that a gay Egyptian man should receive a further hearing from the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), which earlier rejected his bid to stay in the US. The man, referred to in the opinion as John Doe, argued that he met the standard for remaining here under both the Immigration and Nationality Act and the international Convention Against Torture. Writing for the court, Circuit Judge Dolores Sloviter rejected the petitioner's argument that the BIA's decision...
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Thursday, December 06
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Source: New York Times PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 4 — For three years the Philadelphia council of the Boy Scouts of America held its ground. It resisted the city’s request to change its discriminatory policy toward gay people despite threats that if it did not do so, the city would evict the group from a municipal building where the Scouts have resided practically rent free since 1928. Hailed as the birthplace of the Boy Scouts, the Beaux Arts building is the seat of the seventh-largest chapter of the organization and the first of the more than 300 council service centers built by the Scouts around the...
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Monday, December 03
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Source: The Times Leader WILKES-BARRE, Penn -- Attorneys for homicide suspect Harlow Cuadra want his trial postponed. The attorneys, William Ruzzo and John Donovan, are members of the Luzerne County Public Defender’s Office. They said they need more time to prepare. They also want more time to file pre-trial motions. The attorneys made the requests in court papers filed Monday. They said they are waiting to receive additional paperwork from prosecutors and an electronic reproduction of more than six hours of taped conversation involving Cuadra. They need to review those items before preparing the...
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Monday, December 03
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Source: Washington Post The Boy Scouts in Philadelphia are refusing to break camp. The city has given the local chapter until today to renounce its policy of excluding gays or forfeit the lease on the grand, Beaux-Arts building it has rented from the city for $1 a year since 1928. "We're ignoring the deadline," said Mark Chilutti, a member of the Cradle of Liberty Council executive board, which operates the local Scouts chapter. "It was the least bad option we have." The decision is likely to intensify a four-year standoff with city officials who have been trying to enforce...
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Friday, November 30
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Source: Allentown Morning Call Allentown, Penn -- Storytime ceased abruptly when the picture book Eileen Issa was reading her 2 1/2-year-old son surprisingly ended with two men marrying and smooching. The tale about a disgruntled queen who demanded that her son marry a princess looked like the average children's book to the mother of two when she scooped it up along with about nine others at the Lower Macungie Library. She had no idea the book has been the subject of a federal lawsuit and controversy in other parts of the country. ''I saw them at the altar and I said, 'This can't...
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Monday, November 19
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Source: Philadelphia Inquirer Eight years ago, it would have been unimaginable. But over brunch on a warm Sunday morning last fall, Micah Mahjoubian leaned over and asked his boss a question. "I told him Ryan and I got engaged to be married, and I'd like him to consider whether he would officiate our ceremony." John Street, once regarded as Public Enemy No. 1 of the gay community, did not flinch. Yes, he said. So on Saturday, as the clock winds down on his time as mayor, Street will preside over his first same-sex commitment ceremony, in City Hall. With 125 guests expected, it will...
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Thursday, November 15
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Source: Associated Press via Philly.com HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) A state court Thursday threw out language that expanded Pennsylvania's hate-crimes law to include crimes committed on the basis of the victim's sexual orientation or physical disabilities, because the restrictions were inserted into a bill that originally dealt with agricultural crimes. Commonwealth Court's 4-1 ruling handed a victory to a conservative Christian group called Repent America, which filed a lawsuit in 2005 challenging the amendment of the state hate-crimes law three years earlier. Repent America founder and leader...
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Wednesday, November 14
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Source: The Collegian Fliers on the student-center lawn tell stories of transgender victims of violence Photo: Meagan Kanagy, The Collegian State College, Penn. -- Alan Fitzgerald Walker, of Fayetteville, Ark., was beaten and strangled to death on Nov. 9, 1996. His home was vandalized and his tires slashed. His body was found three days later. Yesterday, his life was just one of the 370 memorialized at the HUB-Robeson Center with blue, purple and white fliers that stuck out of the lawn in celebration of the Transgender Day of Remembrance. Each individual flier memorialized a transgender person...
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Wednesday, November 07
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Source: Citizen Voice WILKES-BARRE, Penn. — Luzerne County District Attorney David Lupas’ office hopes to tell a jury about two Virginia Beach men’s involvement in a gay escort service to help prove they killed a Dallas Township man. Harlow Raymond Cuadra and Joseph Manuel Kerekes are accused of slashing and stabbing Bryan Kocis inside his Midland Drive home and then torching the house to cover up the crime. Prosecutors filed a number of motions in the case Tuesday seeking to enter evidence in the case and prevent the lovers and business partners from bringing up Kocis’ past crimes in trial. Cuadra...
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Saturday, November 03
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Source: New York Times JOHNSTOWN, Pa., -- By more than a two-to-one vote, members of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh voted Friday in favor of separating from the national church because of a theological rift that began with the consecration of an openly gay bishop in 2003. The vote sets the stage for what could become a protracted legal battle between the diocese and the Episcopal Church U.S.A., which had warned Pittsburgh’s bishop not to go forward with the vote. After passionate appeals from both sides of the debate, clergy members and lay people voted 227 to 82 to “realign” the conservative...
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Friday, November 02
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Source: Associated Press via Washington Blade PITTSBURGH (AP) Pittsburgh's bishop could face discipline if he continues to support efforts to split his diocese from the Episcopal Church, the presiding bishop of the national church warned in a letter. Representatives of the Pittsburgh Diocese are set to vote Friday during their annual convention in Johnstown on constitutional amendments that would start the process of splitting from the national church. Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan is among the leaders of a conservative U.S. movement that believes the Episcopal Church is abandoning the primary...
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Monday, October 29
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Source: Philadelphia Inquirer (includes material from a press release ) Philadelphia tourism professionals have released both a book with advice for those marketing tourism destinations to gay and lesbian customers, and an interactive program to train those who serve the customers. For gay and lesbian couples, checking in at the front desk can be the most uncomfortable part of a trip. (One bed or two?) For hotels, it can mean the difference between building loyalty and losing customers. The Philadelphia Gay Tourism Caucus hopes to encourage that loyalty with a sensitivity-training program believed...
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Thursday, October 18
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Source: Associated Press via Google PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The city has decided that the Boy Scouts chapter here must pay fair-market rent of $200,000 a year for its city-owned headquarters because it refuses to permit gay Scouts. The organization's Cradle of Liberty Council, which currently pays $1 a year in rent, must pay the increased amount to remain in its downtown building past May 31, Fairmount Park Commission president Robert N.C. Nix said Wednesday. City officials say they cannot legally rent taxpayer-owned property for a nominal sum to a private organization that discriminates. The city...
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Tuesday, October 16
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Source: PhillyBurbs.com DUBLIN, PA -- The beating Brett “Billy-Ray” Saylor suffered on the side of Route 313 in Bucks County, PA in the dark hours of a frost-bitten morning would have been bad enough if his attackers had robbed him. What made it more frightening and painful, however, was that the thugs didn't steal the Dublin man's wallet or jewelry; it appears they broke his hand and stomped him into the cold macadam simply because he is gay. Now, state police at Dublin are hunting for two men in a white Toyota pickup with a blue stripe who beat Saylor, who was attacked near the Dublin...
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