Pennsylvania Elects First Openly Gay State Representative; Other Election News

Congratulations to Brian Sims who won the Democrat primary to run for State House in District 182 (Philly). Brian faces no challenger in November and is on course to be the first openly gay person elected to statewide office in Pennsylvania. From GayPolitics.com.

Brian Sims tonight has won a decisive Democratic primary in his Philadelphia district and will become Pennsylvania’s first openly gay state representative. Sims defeated a longtime incumbent to capture the Democratic nomination in the heavily Democratic District 182, and will face no Republican opponent this November.

“Tonight we’re celebrating a historic victory for Pennsylvania and for Brian,” said Chuck Wolfe, president and CEO of the Victory Fund, which endorsed Sims. ”LGBT Pennsylvanians will finally have a voice in their state legislature, and what a strong and unyielding voice it will be. We are thrilled for Brian, who ran a remarkable campaign.”

Sims, a former member of the Victory Campaign Board, is a distinguished policy attorney and civil rights advocate from Center City Philadelphia. The former Staff Counsel for Policy and Planning at the Philadelphia Bar Association, he recently stepped down as the President of the Board of Directors of Equality Pennsylvania.

This is a very interesting turn of events. This district – previously represented by a progressive veteran Babette Josephs – is an interesting turn of events. While Josephs has been a supporter and ally, its an unusual situation for me to be celebrating the defeat of a female legislator by a white gay male. An interesting situation. It parallels the battle in which Kathleen Kane defeated Patrick Murphy for State Attorney General. Many people that I personally know were very torn in what seemed to be a battle of equals.

Sims could have company. Openly gay Chris Deitz ran unopposed in the Democrat primary to unseat incumbent Republican Sue Helm in the PA 104th House District.

Here in Western Pennsylvania, progressive Erin Molchany won the primary for the Pennsylvania 22nd House District. In an interesting twist, decidedly unprogressive Marty Schmotzer will fill out the term of former Representative Chelsa Wagner who stepped down to assume a new role as County Controller. Schmotzer will hold office until 2013 when Molchaney is sworn in. Molchany had strong endorsements from Western PA progressive stalwarts including Stonewall Democrats, Gertrude Stein Club as well as environmental and labor groups.

Ed Gainey unseated long-term Democrat Joe Preston in Pittsburgh’s heavily East End House seat. One time LGBT ally Jason Altmire conceded to Mark Critz in a battle for a US Congressional District. IMHO, neither has a leg to stand on when it comes to LGBT support or support for women – Critz’ support for labor is pretty much his only progressive credibility.

What does this all mean? Pennsylvania is by no means a solid blue or solid red state. (Ironic that lavendar might be the best description?) Progressive women lose to gay white men. African-American man unseats white Democrat. Blue dog Democrat loses to relatively inexperienced somewhat more palatable Democrat. White woman with solid credentials defeats popular (also qualified) white male who is perhaps the bravest ally of the LGBT community nationwide.

Wow. This is actually pretty exciting.

From the LGBT perspective, I’m quite eager to see where the dialogue goes … will there be a rallying cry for marriage equality? will the east and the west sit down with the middle to start working out a serious platform we can all support? will folks recognize that the situation at Pitt with regard to no formal policy on transgender issues is untenable and something that marriage equality can’t resolve? will someone take a closer look at the current TEN pieces of gay positive legislation sitting in the PA General Assembly and help us sort that out?

If I had my druthers, here’s what I’d like to see happen

Leaders like Sims, Bruce Kraus, Geraldine Delevich, John Campbell, Elinor Warner, and others who identify as LGBT and hold office start or continue or publicize the dialogue.
No more claims as to who started the great East-West dialogue. Start another one and make sure that people who can’t fly to Philly for a $1,000 fundraiser are at the table. I’d love to see more dialogue with on the grounds grassroots groups working on trans safety issues and other concerns that are not part of the “marriage equality” debate.
No more marriage equality debate. For at least two years. Build momentum behind the scenes. But let’s trust allies like Dan Frankel and respected LGBT leaders like Sue Frietsche among others that we need to put our support, money and time into HB 300.
Ensure Pitt enacts a comprehensive policy regarding their trans community.
Educate the public about the status quo. The suburban soccer moms living in Cranberry Township have no protection other than the color of their skin and their bank account. And neither do their kids. Its time to develop educational campaigns that break through this mindset.

I’m looking forward to candidates Molchany and Gainey meeting with Brian Sims. And if you try to say I don’t have a voice in that request because of my previously stated concerns about my district, you missed the entire point. I don’t lose my right to speak my mind because I have doubts. Was it six years ago we were all excited about electing Chelsa Wagner? That didn’t lead to much for Manchester. I have no doubt Erin will vote well on LGBT issues, but almost every piece of campaign literature has referenced her South Hills districts. I’m looking forward to what she’s going to do here in the City.

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Dear Jake Wheatley, Adam Ravenstahl, Harry Readshaw, Dom Costa, Dan Frankel, Joe Preston, Dan Deasy, and Paul Costa.

Gentlemen. As you are aware, my House District (22) has no Representative in your august body. Nor is there any realistic hope that we will have a special election in April to ensure we are represented in the current year. Given my belief that our former Representative’s decision to skip many of her job duties to run for another office, we have effectively been disenfranchised for almost two years under this current plan.

Silenced, I should say for 2 years. A predominantly and important African-American community has been silenced, overlooked and disregarded for two years. Two years. A community with a significant LGBT population. Silenced. A community with very poor and vulnerable people. Rendered mute. Rendered invisible. Unheard. Hushed. Stifled.

What do we do? The redistricting map put Manchester into at least 4 different districts depending upon whom I was speaking with at the time – Mr. Wheatley, Mr. Ravenstahl, Mr. Dom Costa and Mr Readshaw (not sure how that worked). But the court rendered that impossible.

So, I am silenced. However, you are considering legislation that impacts my body … my uterus, my free will, my constitutionally guaranteed right to privacy (that also protects my sexual orientation), my consent, my safety should I be the victim of sexual assault, potentially my health insurance costs. And my body. HB 1077 impacts my body and yet I have no voice – no one to listen to my point of view and take it into consideration when casting a vote. No one to hear me. No one who will even read my email because it’s from the “wrong” zip code.

It is ironic that my former Representative missed many votes because of pregnancy she chose to carry to full term, but chose a course of action that might strip me of my choice.

Let me be clear … forcing me to endure a sonogram is not going to change my mind about seeking an abortion. It doesn’t matter what my persona opinion is on abortion. It matters that you are investing energy into controlling women’s lives and bodies and stripping them of dignity to accomplish this end. It matters that many of my neighbors struggle to find jobs, pay rent, feed their families and gain access to health care in the looming shadow of Allegheny General Hospital. It matters that should they be able to make time in the midst of survival to address this violation of our bodies … we have no voice. No individual voice and no collective voice.

So please take note. I am opposed to this legislation. I am appalled that State Representative Harry Readshaw responded to a constituent with a vile disregard for his duty to listen to her. You should read that post and call for an immediate investigation into his including personal information about her in what appears to be an attempt to intimidate her. That’s an egregious violation of his position. If he or his staff did this, you must be my voice.

You MUST listen to me. You owe it to me. Your House rules permitted a seated member of the House to seek other office while retaining their seat. You OWE it to me to pick up the slack. You ALL represent me. You must change your web forms to accept my zip code (15233) You must respond to me (preferably without tell me about your daughter’s miscarriages and fertility, okay?)

I challenge any of you to respond. I will forward this to your offices. I challenge you to remember that Manchester among the rest of the 22nd District should not be rendered mute while critical issues disproportionately impacting poor families are being discussed and voted upon. I challenge you to do more than process my driver’s license requests and negotiating with PennDOT on potholes in my neighborhood.

Man up. That’s appropriate since you are all men. The shenanigans to fill our seat are beneath you. Maybe not, but I’d like to think you aren’t going to permit a would-be-felon to represent me. And seriously … you should require elected officials to use FMLA like the rest of us should we choose to skip the government sanctioned vaginal rape and give birth. (I realize our bill isn’t “as bad” as Virginia, but they dropped it.)

I’ll be following this. It is stunning to me that Dan Frankel voted for this to be the Year of the Bible. It is stunning to me that Jake Wheatley doesn’t think we should fund public education. Dan Deasy scares the hell out of me. And Mr. Readshaw has lost any ounce of moral authority by his recent actions.

It’s puzzling that I end up wanting to be in Adam Ravenstahl’s district. But I feel better connecting with Perry Hilltop, Fineview and other struggling Northside communities than Castle Shannon.

So, how do I remove the General Assembly generated muzzle and speak my piece?

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