In regard to “Pennsylvania says ‘I do,’” May 23-29:
With Gov. Corbett dropping the appeal in the Whitewood case, we now have marriage equality in Pennsylvania, which is great news for so many of us who have tirelessly worked for this day for many years. But even with this exciting news, we are still not equal under the eyes of the law. It’s still legal to discriminate against LGBT people in employment, public accommodations and housing. We still don’t have a comprehensive, LGBT-inclusive anti-bullying law. We still don’t have an LGBT-inclusive hate-crimes law. Plus, we now have to work for full implementation of marriage equality in Pennsylvania by making sure that employers give the equal spousal benefits they are required to give and making sure that state agencies give marriage benefits everywhere they are required to. We won a huge battle, thanks especially to the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, but we have so much more work to do to achieve full LGBT equality. Our movement is more than marriage and we are nowhere near done with our work! This is a time to celebrate, for sure, but it’s also a time to jumpstart our fight for nondiscrimination in the workplace, to jumpstart our fight for safe and bully-free public schools, to jumpstart our fight for comprehensive immigration reform. We can’t become complacent; we have to continue the movement we started until all of us enjoy the equal rights that we deserve.
— Adrian Shanker Former president, Equality Pennsylvania