Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1998 16:30:49 -0800 From: PLGTF (by way of Jean Richter ) Subject: 11/10/98 P.E.R.S.O.N. Project news, pt. 2 1. PA: Update on civil rights initiative =============================================================== public SOS.17/17 rev Immediate Release * Contacts – Partial List Update 17 of 17 (Underscore equals a change since July 1998) November 1998 Rita Addessa, Executive Director, PLGTF and Convenor 215-772-2001 direct and 215-724-8244 before 9 am Mary Louise Cervone, CPA, VP, Dignity USA. 215-923-4936 Vivian Cooperman, President, PFLAG. 215-604-0202 Elise DeLong, Esq. Pittsburgh. 412- 885-0615 Kathryn Furano and Larry Gross, Ph.D. PLGTF CoChairs 215-557-4463 and 215-898-5620, respectively Andrew Grenier, Cry Out ! Act Up/Pittsburgh. 412-661-6264 Linda Martin, President, NOW/Lancaster Area. 717-393-2883 Pastor Eva O'Diam, MCC/Harrisburg. 717-236-7387 Dan Miller, CPA, Harrisburg, PA 717-234-2250 Richard Hoke, Unitarian Church, Harrisburg. 717-737-3973 Randy Fisher, Founder, Laurel Highlands GALA, Johnstown. 814-539-0147 James Roberts (fka, E.D. MAPP) 215-848-6505 Pennsylvania Civil Rights Initiative Moves Forward... International Gay and Human Rights Commission...Gay and Lesbian Parents International...Pennsylvania State Education Association...Planned Parenthood Pennsylvania Advocates...Dignity/Northeast Pennsylvania... Jewish Labor Committee...Philadelphia NAACP...Project Home…Join Initiative Supporters ......The Initiative is a movement of thirty-two diverse organization partners, twenty-four organization supporters, and 3600 Pennsylvanians who have signed Petitions to encourage lawmakers to support the introduction and adoption of twin civil rights bills to prohibit discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations, and in education on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. National organizations sending statements of support include: International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, Gay and Lesbian Parents International, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, the National Black Lesbian and Gay Leadership Council, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and the National Lesbian and Gay Health Alternatives. Education union supporters include the Pennsylvania State Education Association and the Pennsylvania Federation of Teachers. Local non-gay supporters include: Philadelphia NAACP, Jewish Labor Committee, and Project Home (if not attached, call for a full listing). Promised Senate (5) cosponsors include Philadelphia Democrats: Vincent Hughes; Shirley Kitchen; Allyson Schwartz, and Hardy Williams and in the House, Representatives (13) Louise Bishop, Andrew Carn, Lita Cohen (R-Montgomery County), Mark Cohen, Dwight Evans, Harold James, Thaddeus Kirkland (D-Delaware County), Benjamin Ramos, James Roebuck, W. Curtis Thomas, Rosita Youngblood, LeANNA Washington, and Anthony Hardy Williams, Philadelphia Democrats. Senator Allen Kukovich (D-Westmoreland) is not willing to serve as prime sponsor, nor any promised co-sponsor. (In November 1998, Anthony Hardy Williams assumed his father's seat in the Senate. Electoral political groups have endorsed representatives regardless of their position on the Pennsylvania Civil Rights Initiative.) p. 2 In tandem with the publication of the Philadelphia Lesbian and Gay Task Force's 1996 statewide study of discrimination and violence, the Task Force launched the Pennsylvania Civil Rights Initiative in August 1996. The Initiative is focused on community building and on organizing around the introduction and adoption of amendments to (1) the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act and (2) the Pennsylvania Fair Educational Opportunities Act grounded in specific core principles to forge unity and solidarity, to support public accountability and reporting, to avoid political "backroom deals," and to eschew homophobic restrictions or caveats in adopted civil rights laws. Proposed amendments to the Human Relations Act which prohibits discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations, would (1) expand established areas of protection to include "education," (2) expand protected categories to include "sexual orientation" and "gender identity," and (3) create a definition of the term "sex" as adopted by the Pittsburgh Human Relations Commission. Amendments to the Fair Education Opportunities Act, which focuses on postsecondary education, similarly, will expand existent protected categories to include sexual orientation and gender identity. Local Contact: Name 1:______________________________________________________________ Name 2:______________________________________________________________ Organization:_________________________________________________________ Address:______________________________________________________________ City/State/Zip:__________________________________________________________ Phone (d)_____________________(e)___________________(fax)________________ Email:____________________________and Web Site:__________________________ Attached: Core Principles and a Current List of Initiative Partners and Organization Partners. Source: Philadelphia Lesbian and Gay Task Force. 1616 Walnut Street. Room 1005. Philadelphia, PA 19103-5310.215-772-2000 and plgtf@op.net p. 3 The core principles which guide this effort hold that: please publish frequently We are committed to organizing, educating, and negotiating with integrity for a Pennsylvania wide civil rights bill, inclusive of sexual orientation and gender identity. We will be grounded in and guided by the principles that we deserve our full rights. We will support the achievement of civil rights protections, minimally, in employment, housing, public accommodations, and in education. We will not suffer any restriction of our rights (e.g. parental rights, domestic partnership rights, the recognition of marriage) nor homophobic insults (e.g. the presumption of criminality or immorality) in a Pennsylvania civil rights law. We will assure the strengthening of civil rights laws on behalf of all women and all minorities. Initiative Coalition Partners (Att. 6) include: David Acosta, Executive Director, GALAEI Project, Philadelphia, PA * Rita Addessa, Executive Director, Philadelphia Lesbian and Gay Task Force (Convenor) Dave Attkin and Mark Heckathorn, Susquehanna Valley Bears, Lebanon, PA * Becky Belloff, Activities Coordinator; Marc Ford, Secretary; and Kenneth Grimley, Open Door Club, Bucks County Community College Gabrielle Bonet, York, PA activist Christopher Caraballo, TRIGON (Penn State Erie Lesbian, Bisexual, and Gay Coalition) Mary Louise Cervone, Vice President, Dignity/USA Inja Coates, individually [affiliated with Grassroot Queers] Robert Cogan, Ph.D., President, ACLU/Northwest Chapter * (who is deferring to other individuals post 9-98) Vivian Cooperman, President, PFLAG, Philadelphia, PA. (Sue Cassidy, current president) Elise DeLong, Esq, legal activist, Pittsburgh, PA Barbara DiTullio, President, Pennsylvania NOW * Randy Fisher and Tim Fetters, Jr., founders, Laurel Highlands Gay and Lesbian Alliance [Somerset, Cambria, Blair, and West Moreland Counties, PA] Angela Gardner, Executive Director, Renaissance Transgender Association, Inc. Lynda Goldstein, Ph.D., academic activist, Wilkes-Barre, PA Andrew Grenier and Billy Hileman, Cry Out! Act-UP, Pittsburgh, PA Sandy Henise and Jeffrey Slater, Co-Chairs, Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA) Gay and Lesbian Gay Caucus Kristine W. Holt, Esq.[Wilkes Barre and author Reevaluating Holloway (Temple Law Review) ] Joseph Melillo, President with Richard Hoke and Becky Wenger, Unitarian Church of Harrisburg Jim Fischer Keller, Treasurer & Board Member, Gay and Lesbian Community/Pittsburgh Bonnie Jouhari, Chair, Berks Hate Crimes Task Force * Rabbi Mordechai Liebling, Executive Director, Jewish Reconstructionist Federation Reverend Dwight Lundgren, Minister, First Baptist Church, Philadelphia, PA Linda Martin, President, Pennsylvania NOW/Lancaster Chapter p. 4 Partners continued Joyce Masquelier, member, Erie PFLAG Dan Miller, CPA [Harrisburg, PA and convenor of the then-Pennsylvania Justice Campaign) Chris Niebrzydowski, past-President, Pennsylvania NOW, 1988-1993 Eva O'Diam, Pastor, Metropolitan Church of the Spirit, Harrisburg, PA Susan Rankin and Steve Glassman, Co-Chairs, SPARC * James Roberts, (fka Executive Director, MAPP/Philadelphia) Eugene Root, Political Action Chair, Men of All Colors Together (now Robert Barends) Deborah Sieger, Ph.D., past-President, Pennsylvania NOW, 1986-1988 Rich Schulze, Ph.D., Williamsport, PA [Lycoming County] Deni Scott, Founder, Transsexual Menace of Western Pennsylvania Tyrone Smith, Executive Director, Unity Inc. Marie Summers, President, Dignity/Philadelphia (Kevin Davies, current President) Jim Testerman, Co-Chair, National Education Association [NEA] Gay and Lesbian Caucus Paul Thomas, Ed.D., Staff Representative, Pennsylvania Federation of Teachers Carol Anne Villanova, individually [fka President, Allies, Kutztown University] Melina Waldo, Regional Director, PFLAG [Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays] PA, NY, and NJ Reverend Paul Washington, Rector Emeritus, Church of the Advocate/Philadelphia Delma and Peg Welch, York, PA civil rights activists Michael Valoris, President, Congregation Beth Ahavah. * (Rie Brosco, current president) R. Franklin Williams, President, York Area Lambda (Will Hubbard, current president) - * Denotes organizations that have joined the Initiative Partnership (Att. 6) since February 1998 National Organization Supporters (Attachment 5) Ray Drew, Executive Director, Gay and Lesbian Parents Coalition International Julie Dorf, Director, International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission Rebecca Isaacs, Political Director, National Gay and Lesbian Gay Task Force Kevin Cathcart, Esq. Executive Director, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund Jubi Headley, (then Executive Director, National Black Lesbian and Gay Leadership Council) Beverly Saunders Biddle, Executive Director, National Lesbian and Gay Health Association Organization Supporters: Pennsylvania and Non-Pennsylvania (Attachment 5) Eleisha Abrams-Massey, Vice President, Epsilon Phi Delta Sorority, Ursinus College Mark R. Banister, President, Dignity/Pittsburgh, PA Brigid Brooker and Marya Kaye, Creative Characters Carol Goertzel, Executive Director, Women's Association for Women's Alternatives, Swarthmore, PA continues p. 5 Organization Supporters (continued) David Gondak, President, Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA) Liz Hrenda-Roberts, Executive Director, Planned Parenthood PA Advocates Randal G. Forrester, Executive Director, PERSAD Center, Inc./ Pittsburgh, PA Carole J. Johnson, Executive Director and staff, Women Organized Against Rape/ Philadelphia, PA Carol Kirschner, President, PFLAG/Mechanicsburg, PA Kathy Miller, President, Philadelphia NOW Fran Molinaro, Chair, Dignity/Northeast Pennsylvania Tyreet King, Youth Coordinator, Unity, Inc./Transyouth Services Carol Kirschner, President, PFLAG/Harrisburg, PA Julie Konik, Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Student Services, West Chester University Mike Mahon, Dignity, Seattle, WA Brian Mc Neill, President, Dignity Twin Cities Felicio Park-Rogers, Director, COLAGE (Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere) (San Francisco, CA) Julie Parr, Executive Director, Prevention Point/Philadelphia J. Whyatt Mondesire, President, Philadelphia Branch NAACP Melanie A. Thompson, Coordinator, Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Helpline of Altoona, PA David M. Rosenblum, Esq., Chair, GALLOP (Leigh Jerner, Esq. is now chair) Laura M. Rutt, Executive Director, Alliance for Tolerance and Freedom, Lancaster, PA Sr. Mary Scullion, Executive Director, Project Home/Philadelphia, PA Individuals: The Pennsylvania Civil Rights Initiative Petition to Pennsylvania Lawmakers And, now more than 3600 Pennsylvanians who have added their voice to community organizations for civil, human, and education rights in Pennsylvania. Do you Want to Join and/or Support the Initiative? Statements of Support (attachment 5) are available to all organizations and individuals. Pennsylvanians are invited to obtain as well as Initiative Partnership forms (attachment 6) together with original Petition forms and/or Postcards for reproduction. Call your local organizing team or the Lesbian and Gay Task Force’s center city office at 1616 Walnut Street, 1005, Philadelphia, PA 19103-5310. 215-772-2000 or by fax 215-772-2004. plgtf@op.net and www.op.net/plgtf ########## In solidarity, sisters and brothers. =================================================================================== Jean Richter -- richter@eecs.berkeley.edu The P.E.R.S.O.N. Project (Public Education Regarding Sexual Orientation Nationally) CHECK OUT OUR INFO-LOADED WEB PAGE AT: http://www.youth.org/loco/PERSONProject/