Before I share my favorite excerpt from Doug's letter, I want to just say that the national gay blogosphere has eaten this up. The response that I've personally had has been great -- people are so pleased that an elected official had the courage to call Kerns on the carpet for her ugly words and the impact of hate speech on the whole community. Here's a few links:
Pam's House Blend
Page One Q
Queerty
So here's an excerpt ...
As the President of the Council of the City of Pittsburgh, I require an
apology from you for your senseless, mean spirited attack on one my
colleagues and the Council as a whole. I would think, should you
take the time to reflect upon your hateful, bigoted words. An apology
is also in order to the GLBT community, their families and their
friends. Short of a a miracle, I do not expect that you will. I
find persons of your ilk completely blind to your
ignorance.
Here's what I'm wondering ... why are the vast majority of the elected champions of the LGBT community men? Think about this for a moment. There's Shields and Peduto. Rich Fitzgerald on the County level. Ed Rendell has been an ally. And, of course, our Lancelot -- Dan Frankel.
For a brief few moments, we had Brenda Frazier. And now she's gone anyway.
But who else? I mean some of our elected women are decent. Tonya Payne and Darlene Harris both co-sponsored a resolution supporting the expansion of the human relations act on the state level. Chelsa Wagner is co-sponsoring the actual legislation and (hopefully) opposing attemps to amend the constitution by anti-gay bigots. Heather Arnet is a staunch ally on the school board and I do feel good about the welfare of LGBT children with her voice in their corner.
So is there any reason that men are leading these efforts and women are taking a slightly back seat? Any thoughts on why female elected officials aren't more assertive on LGBT issues? Is that reflective of the LGBT community here in Pgh where men continue to dominate positions of leadership and power? Is it a Pittsburgh thing more than a gay thing?
We'll see what happens when Ellen DeGeneres invites Doug to her show. Maybe he'll take me along! :-)
In all seriousness, I appreciate the significance of our heterosexual allies standing up to bigotry.
