Philadelphia Passes Sweeping LGBT-Inclusive Reform (Pittsburgh, Reading: living, vs, bill)

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by Clark Park

The positive pro-LGBT initiatives here in The City Of Brotherly Love And Sisterly Affection did not happen overnight. It took years of community organizating, political action, building alliances with other communities, education, activism.

I can attest to this. I have friends I used to visit (right near Clark Park, btw) who had "tourist" issues of Philadelphia Magazine. Each issue had pages of advertising and "special sections" directed towards gay people, wanting us to move to Philadelphia. I'd never seen such a thing. I've still not seen anything else like it.

[JimboPGH]

Originally Posted by Clark Park

Many people are not aware that the very first gay rights demonstration in America took place in this city in 1965 ... four years before the Stonewall Uprising.

Stupid New Yorkers always stealing yunz guys' thunder!

Great legislation (except for the the non-gender specific bathrooms; transgender people don't need separate bathrooms, they should be allowed to **** wherever they want), hopefully we can keep up the pressure in the PGH.

As for PA on the whole being resistant to gay marriage, I'd like to think most of it is based on us having a larger elderly population than our neighbors to the south, east, and north. That and the fact that our state legislature is chronically about 50 years behind the times, instead of only twenty like most state governments.

Also, total side tangent, there is no such thing as "The Northeast," at least as a cultural region. There's New England, Greater New York City, and the Mid-Atlantic, and those three regions get lumped together because the writers of American geography textbooks are lazy and borderline ahistorical, but they're clearly three separate regions.

PA has a unique blend of urban Mid-Atlantic, German influenced rural middle-American, multi-culural industrial, and Scotch-Irish influenced mountain culture. It's hard to compare us as a state to our neighbors. Hell, it's hard to compare us to ourselves.

Regardless of all that, hopefully it won't be too much longer before our state's archaic, discriminatory marriage laws are banished from the records. I want some damn lesbian weddings before I'm too old to really dance!

[Clark Park]

Originally Posted by JimboPGH

Also, total side tangent, there is no such thing as "The Northeast," at least as a cultural region. There's New England, Greater New York City, and the Mid-Atlantic, and those three regions get lumped together because the writers of American geography textbooks are lazy and borderline ahistorical, but they're clearly three separate regions.

PA has a unique blend of urban Mid-Atlantic, German influenced rural middle-American, multi-culural industrial, and Scotch-Irish influenced mountain culture. It's hard to compare us as a state to our neighbors. Hell, it's hard to compare us to ourselves.

Indeed, PA has a split personality ...

Philly belongs to the East Coast (even though it's more than 55 miles inland from the Atlantic) and The 'Burgh belongs to Mid West. We have more in common with NYC and you have more in common with Cleveland.

[ElijahAstin]

Originally Posted by Clark Park

The 'Burgh belongs to Mid West. We have more in common with NYC and you have more in common with Cleveland.

Everybody, run and duck for cover!

[ElijahAstin]

Originally Posted by UKyank

I agree absolutely, if I was directly affected this would be at the top of issues that concern me too; I was merely pointing out that any one issue doesn't make you a. 'backwater'; if that was the case then most of the rest of the planet would likewise be a 'backwater' as well

Which, sadly, it is.

I think the whole "backwater" thing is a red herring, anyway. It doesn't matter to me that Pennsylvania is still in line with the majority of U.S. states in this regard. All of the arguments against gay marriage (and LGBT rights in general) ultimately stem from varying combinations of ignorance and prejuduice.

[JimboPGH]

Originally Posted by Clark Park

Indeed, PA has a split personality ...

Philly belongs to the East Coast (even though it's more than 55 miles inland from the Atlantic) and The 'Burgh belongs to Mid West. We have more in common with NYC and you have more in common with Cleveland.

"East Coast" and "Midwest" are overly simplistic, arbitrary geographic distinctions for people who don't really grasp the complexity of regional American culture.

Philly is the anchor of the Mid-Atlantic. It has a lot more in common with Baltimore than New York. Just listen to the accents.

Pittsburgh doesn't really have that much in common with Cleveland other than an industrial past and a serious football obsession. Cleveland is a Great Lakes city, founded by New Englanders. Pittsburgh is a half Mid-Atlantic, half-Appachian city founded by the Scotch-Irish. Cleveland is like Buffalo. Pittsburgh is like nothing else.

Tying this back to LGBT rights, the Mid-Atlantic as a region tends to have one of the strongest "live and let live" mentalities of anywhere in the U.S., due at least in part to it's cultural identity being first defined by it's Quaker settlers. Philly, despite it's often over-stated, yet definitely prevalent hot-headed nature, is a very tolerant city, outside of it's complex racial relations.

Pittsburgh tends to be a very tolerant place as well, though it's more isolated nature, both socially and geographically, tends to incubate a strand of fear and loathing of outsiders amongst our more conservative social sectors.

Philly is always going to be a little ahead on these issues, although Pittsburgh as a city should be progressive enough to stay a step or two behind.

[jimmyev]

Originally Posted by Clark Park

Indeed, PA has a split personality ...

Philly belongs to the East Coast (even though it's more than 55 miles inland from the Atlantic) and The 'Burgh belongs to Mid West. We have more in common with NYC and you have more in common with Cleveland.

I've always thought that Philly had more in common with Houston than anywhere else. Both have a small, relatively gay, thriving core surrounded by a large ring of decay filled with ghettos, barrios, chemical plants and shipyards, then endless miles of suburban sprawl going east, west, north and south.

[steindle]

Originally Posted by Clark Park

Indeed, PA has a split personality ...

Philly belongs to the East Coast (even though it's more than 55 miles inland from the Atlantic) and The 'Burgh belongs to Mid West. We have more in common with NYC and you have more in common with Cleveland.

I'll allow the ensuing 50 posts to fully correct you on this, but you are massively (and pretty insultingly) oversimplifying Pittsburgh here. I'll give you a pass, because you were probably frantically choking on a cheesesteak and slipping in a pile of garbage while you wrote this, and passersby were of course ignoring you. Because that's what happens in Philadelphia, invariably, because it's the East Coast.

[ElijahAstin]

Originally Posted by jimmyev

I've always thought that Philly had more in common with Houston than anywhere else. Both have a small, relatively gay, thriving core surrounded by a large ring of decay filled with ghettos, barrios, chemical plants and shipyards, then endless miles of suburban sprawl going east, west, north and south.

Other than a quick layover at the airport, I've never been to Houston. But I can tell you that Philly has a very strong inner ring suburban core to both the North and West (read: not sprawling). We also don't have "Southern" or "Eastern" suburbs. We do have South Jersey, however. There are also lots of non-ghetto/barrio/industrial neighborhoods outside of Center City. You probably know a lot less about Philadelphia than you think you do.

Originally Posted by steindle

I'll allow the ensuing 50 posts to fully correct you on this, but you are massively (and pretty insultingly) oversimplifying Pittsburgh here. I'll give you a pass, because you were probably frantically choking on a cheesesteak and slipping in a pile of garbage while you wrote this, and passersby were of course ignoring you. Because that's what happens in Philadelphia, invariably, because it's the East Coast.

I give this post a 5.5/10.

And I can assure you that Clark meant no harm. As a Philly native who's lived in Pittsburgh, I'd say that while there are definitely some striking differences between the two cities, there are a lot more subtle similarities.

[steindle]

I should add that I really like Philly and always have. I just tire of casual Philadelphian dismissal of their western cousins.