GLCC Joins Value All Families Coalition
On Monday June 21, the GLCC Board voted to join the Value All Families
Coalition. Value All Families is an ad hoc coalition which formed last March to
fight attempts to take away rights from same-sex couples in Pennsylvania. This growing
coalition includes SPARC, the ACLU, the Center for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights,
several child welfare agencies, GLSEN, and two labor unions. Organizers working
in Harrisburg will alert representatives from the GLCC of pending legislation and
litigation involving G/L/B/T issues and efforts activists around the state are taking.
Such information will prove invaluable to members of the GLCC working to educate
the larger public in the looming battle on equal marriage rights for same-sex couples.
Such exchanges of information have also proven a successful tool in stopping right
wing attacks on G/L/B/T rights because they allow G/L/B/T citizens to act individually.
In March, unprecedented thousands of G/L/B/T and allied Pennsylvanians contacted
legislators within three weeks. The author of bills to ban domestic partner benefits,
civil unions, and adoptions by gays and lesbians had to withdraw the bills. In late
May, hundreds of Pennsylvanians responded within 24-hours of legislators introducing
bills to bar the state from contracting with companies which offered health insurance
and other benefits to same-sex partners of their employees. State representatives
then voted 96-94 to postpone considering the measure. Some threatened to bring back
the bills though.
By joining Value All Families, the GLCC is not moving to endorse any candidate for
political office. GLCC representatives will also have the option of opting out of
endorsing actions taken by other members of the coalition. Contact
michael_snow@verizon.net for more information
on the Value All Families Coalition.
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