Tuesday, April 7, 2009

It's About Time

Today, Vermont joined the ranks of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Iowa to pass laws legalizing gay marriage in their states.

Now is the time for Allegheny County to get off their butts and pass their pending law making it illegal to discriminate against gays and lesbians in the county. This legislation has been pending in County Council since November. In March, State Representative Frankel re-introduced a state-wide bill to prevent discrimination against gays, lesbians and transgendered people. It'd be pretty sad if this passes while the Allegheny County ordinance languishes. This is not an issue that will just go away. You know the tide is turning when Iowa jumps on board.

Of course, I see this as yet one more reason to live in the city of Pittsburgh, a city which passed their anti-discrimination ordinance before I moved here. In addition, just last year the city created the domestic partnership registry, a benefit for both heterosexual and homosexual couples in the city.

So, what did the big tomato say to the little tomato falling behind? Ketchup! That's a metaphor that citizens of Allegheny County should understand.

3 comments:

Jenda said...

Well said! And if Allegheny County can do it, so can all of Pennsylvania. Let's show the country that the Commonwealth is/can be a progressive one.

Paz said...

Hey, first Barack Obama, now this, pretty soon they're going to be slapping progressives with the pejorative "Des Moines Liberals"!

But this is very exciting.

Bram Reichbaum said...

All this talk of "Allegheny County" is interesting -- but I've got to admit I'm more interested in Dan Onorato. He's trying to make earn a promotion -- no more municipal office, where some of us make allowances for political views that aren't relevant there. The question before us is, is he going to be a worthwhile Democrat?