While every wing nut individual and or organization continues to have conniption fits over the SCOTUS rulings, spewing stupidity, bile and outright lies about the LGBT community, Marriage Equality is taking another step forward, this time in Pennsylvania. The states only openly Gay legislator, Brian Sims is supporting a law suit challenge to Pennsylvania's state version of DOMA mounted by the ACLU. The lawsuit, Whitewood v Corbett, was filed by the ACLU on behalf of 10 same-sex couples and one widow against the
state of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane confirmed that she would not defend the state's ban on same-sex marriage against a court challenge, making the following statement: "I cannot ethically defend the constitutionality of Pennsylvania's (law banning
same-sex marriage), where I believe it to be wholly unconstitutional". Attorney General Kane made the statement at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia on Thursday.
Brian Sims in response to the pledge by the Attorney General made the following statement: “We are certainly living in historic times. Marriage equality will happen in Pennsylvania, the only question remaining is ‘when?’ When the U.S. Supreme Court declared the federal DOMA unconstitutional, the decisions thrust many states, Pennsylvania included, into the national spotlight. Attorney General Kane, Pennsylvania’s lead legal authority, has a keen legal mind and in her determination has decided that continuing to defend the Commonwealth’s DOMA has no legal merit. While this does not mean that marriage equality will become the law in Pennsylvania today, certainly AG Kane’s announcement is a step in the right direction to address the legal inequalities impacting LGBT Pennsylvanians. The truth of the matter is, our Commonwealth currently does not have a single LGBT civil right, and we remain the only state in the Northeast that does not recognize same-sex relationships. Non-discrimination, hate crimes, and anti-bullying laws all fall short in Pennsylvania in protecting LGBT Pennsylvanians. Right now, hundreds of thousands of LGBT Pennsylvanians can be fired from their jobs, denied housing and service at public establishments solely because of who they are.”
The law suit has been assigned to the docket of Judge John E. Jones, III, of the Harrisburg-based Middle District of U.S.
District Court who is no stranger to controversial cases. He previously ruled, in what is known as the Kitzmiller case, that a School District in Dover was not allowed to teach religiously-tinged
Intelligent Design Theory in public schools. He stated explicitly in his opinion that the district was attempting to "impose
a religious view of biological origins into the biology course," despite a ban
on state-sponsored religion in the Pennsylvania constitution. Judge Jones went on to say "Those who disagree with our holding will likely mark it as the product of an
activist judge...If so, they will have erred as this is manifestly not an
activist Court." and also "I take every case as it comes, but beyond that, anybody who is familiar with
the Kitzmiller case understands that I gave both sides ample opportunity to
present their cases, and I'll certainly do that in this case as well."
Ted Martin, executive director of Equality Pennsylvania, in a statement to the press "When fair-minded jurists really think about the facts, they see the hollow
nature of the facts against marriage equality...I know for a fact that he is a
smart, thorough, fair jurist and that's all we can ask for." To me it looks like the pro Equality forces have their duck in a row and will be presenting their case before a Judge who is not afraid to make the hard decisions or stand up against those who wish to enshrine bigotry in the law books. Now all that remains is time, as Mr Sims suggested, it is not "if" rather it is "when" we will be able to add Pennsylvania to the states that wholly value all of their citizens, not just the straight ones.
Your Friday Musical Moment features music by
Luigi Boccherini with three of his Quintets for Piano and Strings. Included in the play list are the Quintets Opus 56, Number 1 and Opus 57 Numbers 3 and 4. The performance today is by Roberto Panuzzo and the Strumentisti del Teatro alla Scala. Before I complete this post with today's selected photographs, I would like to point out a couple of changes around the blog. The Archives are grouped by year in tabs at the top of the blog along with tabs linking you to all my various video and social networking platforms. This should make it easier for you to check out the nearly seven years of Music, Men and More! which have accumulated and for you guys to find me or my creations on the various platforms and channels to which I ascribe my talents. Finally for today, I have collected a group of gentlemen who are Naked or Nearly So in photographs that are subtle and suggestive of sensuality rather than overt and explicit displays of raw sexuality. Thank you for sharing part of your Friday with me, check back over the weekend to see what are the most outstanding of works of art in the male form I have discovered in my many web wanderings this week. Until next time as always, Enjoy!
