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Loading ...Pennsylvania Senators introduce Marriage Equality Bill
07.10.2009 8:45am EDT
(Harrisburg) Pennsylvania Senator Jim Ferlo has joined in supporting SB 935, the first bill in Pennsylvania to allow gay marriage. The bill, created by Senator Daylin Leach, now has three Pennsylvania senators backing it.
Sen. Leach held a press conference Wednesday where he announced the Marriage Equality Bill. Keystone Progress, a “a multi-issue progressive advocacy organization that combines cutting edge online organizing and communications with rapid and hard-hitting earned media strategies” according to their website, has been covering the progress of Sen. Leach’s bill.Sen. Leach debated Pastor Bill Devlin on Philadelphia local station Fox 29 before his news conference. Sen. Leach expressed his desire to extend marriage rights to gay and lesbians living in Pennsylvania. Pastor Devlin argued that the bill is a “train wreck” that would deny rights for children, such as having a mother and a father.
‘deny rights for children, such as having a mother and a father.’
what an asinine statement,totally forgetting the divorce laws do the exact thing, and what about the death of a parent, isn’t their god taking away that right? then there is CYS, perhaps removing a child from an abusive parent is costing the kids their rights
Do we stop incarcerating Mothers and fathers for crimes? Doesn’t that “deny rights for children, such as having a mother and a father”
Amazing how these religious wackos never condemn widows and widowers with children, unwed parents. What next, mandatory marriage for all single parents? Their argument is ridiculous just as the procreation mantra is. They just don’t understand that civil marriage has absolutely NOTHING to do with religion and last time I checked, marriage licenses are issued by secular state governments and are not contingent on procreation either. Come to think of it, why do state marriage licenses validate religious marriages anyway? Isn’t that a conflict between separation of church and sttate? And what about Obama’s statement that the federal government should not be involved in the definition of marriage? If it isn’t, then why does the federal government extend special rights and privileges, over one thousand of them only to married straight couples? Am I missing something?
Jessi, Jessi, Jessi- you (like most of us) live in the real world where logic and simply truths are used to make and refute arguments. The christianists and their minions simply ignore all that would immediately disprove the lies that spill forth from their mouths. Apparently it’s a pretty effective strategy as in every state where the matter has come to a popular vote, we lose.
To me these religious fanatics are the descendants of the religious fanatics from the 1960’s….you know…the one’s who didn’t want Black Americans to have any rights because “they aren’t like us”. Give it time….it will change, but not overnight. When that change comes, my Partner and I (18 years now) can finally have it legalized. We live in a very rural area in SW Pa. and most people around us know that we’re a couple and see us as “married”.
What a pathetic comeback from a preacher! Would we expect anything else from the majority of clergy? They have never had and never will have an intelligent response to the subject so they just get more and more desperate and dumber. Sad that so many Americans follow and belive in these idiots and they are the ones who are really ruining our great country.
Sounds like that ol’ Shaman Devlin is just setting up straw-men to knock down. Gays and Lesbians have been raising kids successfully since the dawn of time. Their being married or not wont change that fact. But married parents (Straight and Gay) could give the kids in all kinds of families a little more stability and a lot more security.
Honestly, Pastor Devil…oops, I mean Devlin doesn’t really care about those kids at all, does he? It’s the old ploy of hiding your bigotry behind the presumptive welfare of children.
Who could anyone question your motives then?
Sort of like Anita Bryant and her “Save the Children” crusade in the 1970s, which she and her ilk used to overturn one of the nation’s first civil rights non-discrimination laws for the Gay community enacted in Dade County Florida.
It is soooooo obvious by now…
To paraphrase Shakespeare:
The play is the same, just different actors playing the same moustache-twisting villains; spouting the same trite dialogue, but in different venues…decade after decade.
It’s getting really very, very tiresome.
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“Pastor Devlin argued that the bill is a “train wreck” that would deny rights for children, such as having a mother and a father.”
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…uh, how about the “train wreck” of denying rights to children such as child support; social security if one spouse dies; expanded health insurance coverage, and a host of other rights, perks and privileges for children with parents in same-sex coupled households?
Devlin is a hater…and haters make no sense at all…they appeal to the basest instincts in people…they’re beyond the rational application of common sense…too dialogue with them is like throwing fresh water into the ocean in order to make it less salty. Pointless.
(c) Bud Evans, 2009
(oops! Too early in the morning for me)
From my last post (the line should read):
“How could anyone question your motives then?” or “Who could question your motives then?”
(it got hybridized…
)
Since when does marriage apply to denying rights to children to a mother and a father? I thought divorce laws did that.
I don’t understand why we legitimize christian nut jobs by debating them.
Not a religious issue, no religious authority, not interested in hearing your comments.
Because when we do hear them it is the same non logic that has calmed the sheeple from their fear of death for millenia.
Think how stupid he is. If we can’t marry, we’ll stop raising children? What planet is he on? Marriage won’t affect whether or not gays raise kids, but it will make it a better, safer arrangement.
Why can’t it be that children are just being given the opportunity to have two really cool dads or moms?
I do hope this bill passes. As for the religious right and their “leaders”, if protecting the “right” of children to have both a mother and a father, then why aren’t religious groups doing more to help married couples prepare for and live their marriages successfully? The rate of divorce among committed Christians is almost as high as the rate of divorce among non-Christians. Furthermore, the issues of marriage and having children are two separate issues. However, the evidence clearly shows that LGBT persons are no less capable and caring parents than heterosexuals.
marriage is a civil right. being married doesn’t change you obligation to tythe to the church. I does change your tax obligations to the state. Church’s have the privilege of completing the marriage contract, in leiu of a court justice. The state issues a license, the church signs it after the weddding ceremony. Thereby conveying state rights.
whats the odds of this bill passing? Is the Pen. senate progressive? Either way the fact that the issue is being discussed and being brought to the publc shows progress.
what about the parents who put their children up for adoption?? Thats taking away their right to. I think the children would rather have two gay parents then parents who don’t want them…just my theory.