State Senate tables bill against gay marriageHARRISBURG -- The state Senate this evening voted to table a bill that would have amended the state constitution to ban gay marriage.The main sponsor, Sen. Michael Brubaker, R-Lancaster, said it had become clear to him that the bill would not pass in the House and he therefore saw no point to a lengthy debate in the Senate.The bill might have passed the Senate, which is controlled by Republicans 29-21.Up to 14 amendments were planned on the bill, which would have meant a long night.One of the amendments was by Sen. Vincent ...

Good news for Pennsylvania’s lavender set. The state’s Senate yesterday tabled a bill that would have banned gay marriage: The state Senate this evening voted to table a bill that would have amended the state constitution to ban gay marriage. The main sponsor, Sen. Michael Brubaker, R-Lancaster, said it had become clear to him that the bill would not pass in the House and he therefore saw no point to a lengthy debate in the Senate. The bill might have passed the Senate, which is controlled by Republicans 29-21. Up to 14 amendments were planned on the bill, which would have meant ...

Pennsylvania politico Vincent Fumo certainly got cheeky today. In an attempt to squash a gay marriage amendment, which went to the state’s Senate yesterday, Fumo hopes to add on his own stipulation: [Fumo’s] amendment would “outlaw the dissolution of most marriages in Pennsylvania,” he said in a news release. That would mean there would be few legal ways for the divorce of a married couple, a man and a woman. Mr. Fumo, who leaves the Senate on Nov. 30, said the stated goal of Senate Bill 1250 is to “protect the sanctity of the marital institution” by defining a legal ...

Yesterday, a Pennsylvania Senate committee voted 18-8 to send Senate Bill 1250, which would place a measure on the ballot banning same-sex marriage, to the full Senate for a vote. The measure must be approved in two consecutive legislative sessions for it to be placed on the ballot. Following the vote, lawmakers attended a boisterous rally against the ban in the Capitol: "Senate Bill 1250, which is meant to bolster the state's 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which already prohibits same-sex marriage, "is disheartening and discriminatory," said Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Highland Park. 'It's marriage mischief -- an attempt ...

365Gay.com Newscenter(Harrisburg, Pennsylvania) A proposed constitutional amendment that would bar same-sex marriage and civil unions in Pennsylvania passed a key committee on Monday and is now headed for a full vote on the Senate floor. The Senate Appropriations Committee voted 18 - 8 to send the bill to the Senate. If it passes it would then need approval of the House and then a second round of approvals in the next session of the legislature. The earliest it could be placed on the ballot would be in 2009. Pennsylvania already limits marriage to opposite-sex couples but supporters of the amendment ...

Liberal democracy just took another hit! Pennsylvania’s Senatorial Appropriations Committee today voted 18-8 to put a gay marriage amendment to a vote, which will likely happen tomorrow. Many of you are probably thinking, “Wait, doesn’t Pennsylvania already have a law banning same-sex marriage?” Well, yes; yes, it does, but conservative politicians think that an amendment’s needed to ensure nothing like civil unions can be legalized. Because even pseudo-queer-equality’s yucky! The amendment reads thus: “No union other than a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as marriage or the functional equivalent of marriage by the ...

News came to me this week of a couple of political appointments in two different US cities that warmed my heart.First was Gloria A. Casarez (right) who I remember meeting years ago in Philly when she had just taken over David Acosta as Executive Director of the Gay and Lesbian Latino AIDS Education Initiative (GALAEI) in 1,999.She still holds the post but on Tuesday came word that Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter had named Casarez as the mayor's LGBT Liaison Officer ("Nutty appoints city LGBT liaison," The Philadelphia Enquirer, April 29, 2008).Local Spanish-language newspaper Al Dia reports that ...