I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I sat down to chat with Dok Harris in his DIY-themed campaign office in Oakland, hipply located under the former home of Phantom in the Attic comic store, but it sure wasn't a gentle reproof that I was slurping a Starbucks frappucino in lieu of a home-brewed beverage from a nearby locally-owned, neighborhood coffee shop.

Busted. 

It was a fitting beginning to a conversation I wanted to have about the LGBTQ community's contributions to Pittsburgh economic revitalization.  I'm no Mike Madison so I hope I get this right -- Dok's economic vision is about balancing the strengthening of the small business sector of Pittsburgh with increasing the intellectual capital.  That's pretty apt for gays concerned about economics because we have this inner balance between our small businesses, such as A Pleasant Present and The Square Cafe, and the emerging pink within corporate America.  Our community needs the VPs and the high-powered execs to come out and contribute as much as we do the owners of the businesses to display their rainbow merchandise.  Visibility in the economy isn't just about being a market sector; it is about measuring our contributions, defining how we create as much as how we consume. 

Dok envisions small business liaison to create dialogues with his Administration and acknowledged that an LGBT small business owner should be at the table.  Why not?

Why not? seems to be a recurrent theme when it comes to Harris and equality.  A social progressive, he approaches equal rights from an (very well) informed historical perspective, noting that America has a pattern of finding ways to exclude someone - anyone - from "us," be it because of how many drops of blood in their racial identity or their gender or their sexual orientation. 

"Respect is a better term" than tolerance or acceptance, according to Harris who openly acknowledges that his parents' interracial marriage (and his birth) should be compared to current battles over equality.  Harris isn't interested in merely being tolerated himself and holds those around him to the same high standard.  With regard to marriage equality, he believes that society and government should extend "full faith & credit" to citizens' choice of partnerships.  Yes "choice" is a bit troubling, but here's his answer to Steel City on marriage equality:

I believe that in the eyes of the state that every partnership between two consenting adults should have equal rights and full protection of the law.  I will fight to guarantee those rights and that protection while in office. 

Focusing locally, Harris is adamant. "Get rid of pay to play politics and everyone benefits."  The current Administration plays up their youthful mentality, but plays the same old games.  Transparency is the solution.

Given how opaque the current Administration has been with regard to LGBTQ issues, that's a refreshing perspective.  I agree that the politics of exclusion are not putting the best & brightest that the LGBTQ community has to offer at the forefront of our community.  The best way for that to happen is to create a fair playing ground where City of Pittsburgh residents who are LGBTQ are at the table and not in the closet. 

So how would Harris create a culture of inclusion specific to the LGBTQ community within the City?  He sees that the City overall has a lot of respect for the gay community, but acknowledges that changing the internal culture has to start with the Mayor sending a clear message that disrespectful behavior will not be tolerated.  It was invigorating to talk with someone who understands that "institutional knowledge" translates into "it can change, but it takes effort" rather than "that's just Pittsburgh" particularly when it comes to institutional discrimination. 

Many conservative groups believe that this issue should not be legislated, but should remain a matter for the private sphere to resolve on their own.  I disagree - where law has created disparate treatments of people, the law must then work to solve that discrepancy.  Equal protection under our laws means equal protection no matter who you are. 

Interesting again to note that discrimination is not just about individual personal beliefs, but is rooted in the systemic, intentional opppression and exclusiong of certain groups of individuals and that the institutional, state-sanctioned oppression contributes to the ongoing "personal beliefs."

Clearly, this is not a man who would bring a body guard to a gay Democrats meeting.

We talked about the Mayor's plans for a LGBT Advisory Committee.  Harris would keep that in place and ensure that multiple perspectives from the community had a voice.  When it come to the Domestic Partner Registry as a tool to encourage more companies to provides domestic partner benefits, he acknowledges that he doesn't want to meddle in company policies but model leadership.  As a business owner, he understands that domestic partner benefits are good business and that is a leadership message he can promote. 

I also asked about preserving the rights and benefits of City employees in any talks of City-County mergers, reminding him that it is the clerical worker making $27,000 in the back office who is most vulnerable, he agreed that people should not lose rights and benefits.  However, he believes that the current talks are complex, but poorly thought out even while acknowleding that it is the future. 

Harris peppers his enthusiastic responses with terms such as "thought leader" and "best & brightest" and it is clear to me that he absolutely sees our community as part of that dynamic. 

His Steel City Stonewall survey is attached as a Word document.  He's good on the issues.  Read it for yourself. 

Any last thoughts?  Dok brought up Richard Caliguri more often than he did Franco Harris.  :-)   

I had to miss the Campaign Kick Off party tonight, but I hope to be at the next event later in the week. 

With a refreshing beverage from a locally owned company in hand. 

Here's the status of where Pennsylvania's House delegation stands on an Inclusive version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

UPDATED AS OF 7-23-09 6:30pm; In this column:	Definite Yes	Probable Yes	Total Yes	Unconfirmed	Probable No	Definite No	Notes
PENNSYLVANIA
Robert A. Brady	x						CS 2009; co-sponsor in 2007
Chaka Fattah	x						CS 2009; co-sponsor in 2007
Kathleen A. Dahlkemper				x			voted yes on hate crimes bill; Sabrina Schnur: undecided as of 6-15-09
Jason Altmire				x			voted yes on hate crimes bill; voted yes on 07 ENDA
Glenn Thompson				x			voted no on hate crimes bill
Jim Gerlach				x			voted yes on hate crimes bill; voted yes on 07 ENDA
Joe Sestak	x						CS 2009; co-sponsor in 2007
Patrick J. Murphy	x						CS 2009; co-sponsor in 2007
Bill Shuster					x		voted against in 2007
Christopher P. Carney		x					voted no on hate crimes bill; voted yes on 07 ENDA; constituent mtg requested 7-8-09; office reports leaning towards yes vote
Paul E. Kanjorski				x			voted yes on hate crimes bill; voted yes on 07 ENDA; Rachel Miller: still undecided as of 6-30-09; constituent mtg requested 7-8-09
John P. Murtha				x			abstained on hate crimes bill, but voted yes on 2007 hate crimes bill; voted yes on 07 ENDA
Allyson Y. Schwartz	x						CS 2009; co-sponsor in 2007
Michael F. Doyle	x						CS 2009; co-sponsor in 2007; Sue Kerr: definite yes
Charles W. Dent				x			voted yes on hate crimes bill; voted yes on 07 ENDA
Joseph R. Pitts					x		voted against in 2007
Tim Holden				x			voted yes on hate crimes bill; voted yes on 07 ENDA; Lane Dempsey 6-25-09: no position (co-sponsor in 2007)
Tim Murphy					x		voted against in 2007
Todd Russell Platts	x						CS 2009

As you can see, Mike Doyle is in good shape as a co-sponsor of the legislation.  Tim Murphy is a probable no.  That leaves Jason Altmire and Kathleen Dahlkemper to work on here in Western Pennsylvania.

**STATUS OF THE BILL**
The Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2009, HR 3017, is pending in the House of Representatives, and has the public support of 164 Members of Congress. Another 40 are likely to vote yes, but have not yet made their support of the bill public, as far as we know. This makes a total of 204 in the yes column. 218 are needed for a majority in the House. Passage is likely, but we're not yet clearly there as of today.

The answer is very simple, folks. Pick up the phone and call 202-224-3121 using your free cell phone long distance.  Give your zip or ask for your rep by name.  You'll be connected and can ask about their position (in case you don't have this spreadsheet).  Then encourage them to support it.  Tell them why freedom from discrimination in the workplace is important to your family.  You don't know that your phone call couldn't be the one that tips Altmire toward the "yes" column.  He's a good guy and has been supportive of LGBT issues and events. 

On another note, Ann Rodgers had a nice piece on the status of the post-break up Episcopal churches here in Pittsburgh.  Another fine piece of reporting on an important issue for our community.

Back in May, local blogger Kira knew he would be stirring up controversy when he began a local blog compiling the media coverage of West Mifflin School District Superintendent, Patrick Risha.  Risha has been front and center in a controversy over renewing the contract of the girl's basketball coach which brought to light allegations that Risha administers the district from home, just the latest in a long series of political scandals from the borough that has too often seen elected officials removed from meetings by the police. 

Kira, a former School District employee, began his blog to bring to light the already public information that he felt wasn't reaching the parents, tax payers and residents of West Mifflin.

"I knew about his past," said Kira. "I wondered why he was hired." 

Risha, a former superintendent of the McKeesport and South Allegheny School Districts, has an array of supporters who sprang to his defense in the comments section. The debate took an unpleasant turn when Kira accidentallly revealed his identity when posting a document. 

That's when things turned away from the facts and focused on personal attacks on Kira, an openly gay man.  Comments ranged from accusing him of pedophilia, to being a scorned suitor of Risha's adult son to downloading pornography to school equipment while he was employed there.  Other comments about his competency and questioning the circumstances of his departure also circulated. 

Things escalated when an individual claiming to be a WM parent and teacher sent a vicious email to Kira and various Administrators in West Mifflin.  "Vinn Dogg" wrote:

Children's safety is not a priority to him as his type can never have kids unless they come up with a way you can do it by mixing semen and feces.  Let me go on the record to say that I for one am glad that there are no more deviant [staffers] trying to corrupt the minds of the WM students.  It is comforting as a parent and teacher to know that someone with [Kira]s mental illness is no longer anywhere near our children. 

It is nice to know that there is no longer a reign of deviant terror in the district.  Where there once was ball gags, KY Jelly, and Village People CDs is now cutting edge hardware, the latest software and fiber optics.  Yes we know that [Kira] is unfairly taking out his frustrations on you that Mr. Risha's son did not take to his sexual advances. 

A second letter soon followed, after Kira posted this rant to show people exactly the extent to which Risha's defenders are willing to use completely unsubstantiated homophobic slurs to defame him.  He also questioned if the inclusion of the Administrators in the email was meant to send a message that they tacitly or, perhaps explicitly, endorsed these tactics. 

Looks like someone is enjoying the "wiener"  Looks like this tub of crap probably spent too much time when he was at West Mifflin stuffing pizza and donuts down his pie hole while using district resources to search gay porn.  Fat boy's daddy issues are pretty obvious in this picture.  Maybe that is why is likes the wieners better than tacos.  The power bottom in him is attributed to his daddy not loving him enough.  His daddy is so disappointed in him.  Daddy's little girl couldn't be a man so he looks for other guy's pee pees.  Good thing you guys dumped Megan's Law [Kira] before he could pull a "[name deleted]" and sleep with a student. 

Well. I must say that you typically don't see a homophobe reference a ball gag and the Village People in the same slur, but that's the only thing remotely humorous about this.  Kira has also posted this email message, but I'm not optimistic that any of the Administrators included in the distribution will publicly denounce this vile attack.

The question, of course, is how gay bashing Kira supports Mr. Risha?  Is it possible that the extreme tact makes the others look more reasonable and plausible?  Perhaps they don't have a real defense so they use a homophobic offense?

It gets worse. 

Last week, anonymous letters were sent via US Postal Service to Kira's employers (the principals in his company) and to their top clients with a litany of accusations, including his use of company resources for his blog and accusations that he was engaging in homosexual sexual online activity.  His company is standing behind him at this point after investigating and determining that Kira had not jeopardized the company with his blogging.  Still, how much could they tolerate?  There is no right to free speech in the private workplace.  He could be fired at will at any time.

What on earth motivates someone to go to this extreme?  Who could be this invested in shutting down a critic of Mr. Risha?  The man still has his job and the support of the School Board.  He was able to leverage out the girl's basketball coach and hire his chosen replacement.  He continues to have the accommodation of working from home and has pretty much withstood attacks from all sides.  So why is someone hurling such venomous homophobia at Kira whose crime is simply compiling materials published by other sources?

Kira has an unfortunate choice:  keep blogging & potentially lose his job or stop blogging & allow himself to be shut down by bigotry. 

He hopes to "find a way to walk away knowing he accomplished something."  One hope is that GLSEN could use this to open a dialogue with the school district as someone who is claiming to be a teacher is drawing the Administration into a homophobic attack. 

Looking back, Kira sighs that he never anticipated this much stress.  If someone could try to have him fired, how far will they go to silence him?  Of course, the unspoken question is why they feel so compelled to silence him when Mr. Risha seems to be in the driver's seat? 

The personal attacks continue on a local discussion forum http://www.topix.com/forum/city/west-mifflin-pa

These homophobic tactics are absolutely reprehensible and should be repudiated by the West Mifflin School District.  I went through West Mifflin schools with openly gay classmates and it was a brutal experience.  It is a good bet that the WM adults posting on these forums and the comments section of the blog are my contemporaries, demonstrating that more than a few haven't grown beyond the adolescent taunting. 

The step of spreading the taunting to Kira's employer is downright chilling.  Who wants their boss to hear their name associated with pedophilia or ball gags?  Can you envision that conversation with your supervisor?

I'm sure I'm not the only blogger in town who worries about these things (ok, I might be one of the few who would ever worry about the ball gag reference, but still ...). Kira shouldn't have to stop expressing himself because homobigots are throwing everything they can at the wall and hoping some sticks to him.  I've known him for decades and none of it does.

But it will.  Because we are gay in a homophobic society and people panic about it.  I've been told to "tone down the gay" in the workplace so it is perfectly reasonable to expect that the clients of his won't want anything to do with the vile accusations, even if they are sympathetic to his persecution.

One also has to wonder about the escalation.  The written letters were allegedly sent to miscellaneous WM residents as well, with information about Kira's identity.  What is the next step?

Frightening moments in the Burghosphere and some we should take heed from.  Patrick Risha is a School Superintendent in a medium sized Mon Valley community.  Many of us tackle much more prominent public figures and issues that strike at the heart of egos significant larger than West Mifflin.  I share Kira's identity as a LGBT person, but peruse the comments at other local blogs for examples of the hatefest done wrong -- 2 Political Junkies is a great example where misogyny is the weapon of choice when Maria's opinions strike the wrong note. 

It can become a little ho-hum after awhile, but Kira's experiences illustrate how quickly the political can become personal. 

Story from the Washington City Paper.  I hear lots of complaints from local folks, especially women, about American Apparel's pretty sexist ads in the local City Paper. 

This week, hooligans targeted a couple of local American Apparel stores over the stores’ prominent “Legalize Gay” T-Shirt displays. On Monday, a window at the Silver Spring location was shattered. Yesterday, an anonymous caller informed the Georgetown location that as long as “Legalize Gay” is on display, the storefronts can expect more broken glass.

American Apparel isn’t scared.

Following the second threat, Silver Spring American Apparel manager Kassandra Powell told CP that the store had temporarily removed the anti-Prop-8 clothing from its window display. Last night, company spokesperson Ryan Holiday wrote in to say that “Legalize Gay” was there to stay. “The store employee misspoke about taking the display down,” wrote Holiday. “[T]hose decisions get made in Los Angeles and we wouldn’t want to give into something like this.”

In a statement, American Apparel’s Jonny Makeup made clear that the two local incidents would only strengthen its marriage equality efforts in D.C. The company will “continue to run Legalize Gay advertisements in papers across DC-Metro area,” wrote Makeup. Some Washingtonians may even get some free stuff out of the deal: “We’ll also send Legalize Gay t-shirts to any group in Washington DC that is fighting for gay rights,”

Things are always complicated, aren't they?  I once bought a shirt that said "Gay?  Okay by me" and had a friend tell me it made me uncomfortable when I wore it around her.  Well, not so much tell me as just panic when I wore it.  The shirt sort of fell apart in the wash so I didn't wear it anymore.  Would I wear a Legalize Gay shirt?  Yes.

American Apparel, you can send mine via the Pittsburgh City Paper.