7 Idiots of the Week: Chambersburg, PA Council repealing their LGBTQ+ nondiscrimination protections

Whenever the Republican party reclaims power in a place, they remove rights and protections for people. How the Hell does that help people? It doesn't. Now, in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, a town I have visited- the newly elected Republican City Council has voted to ERASE LGBTQ non-discrimination protections. Following outrage by a PA Democratic legislator is the article about the bunch of IDIOTS that have taken protections away from LGBT People. Here's the list of Idiots:  IDIOT #1 Bill Everly, Council vice president IDIOT #2- Larry Hensley IDIOT #3 - Allen Coffman, in the first ward IDIOT #4- Weston Waytow in the fifth ward. IDIOT #5 - Tom Newcomer, second ward IDIOT#6 - Dom Brown IDIOT #7 - Ken Hock, Mayor ******   STORY>>>

PA REP Brian Sims (D) said, "Chambersburg Council repealing their LGBTQ+ nondiscrimination protections was a dangerous step backward. Time and time again we are reminded that a patchwork of local anti-discrimination laws is no solution to ensuring equality across the commonwealth, only robust and stable statewide protections can do that. Protecting the rights of all citizens is one of our most basic responsibilities, and I am continually disappointed by my colleagues’ failure to stand up for their LGBTQ+ constituents’ rights. It’s time to do the right thing and pass the Fairness Act." 

GOP-led Chambersburg becomes first Pa. town to revoke LGBTQ inclusive law

By Ivey DeJesus | idejesus@pennlive.com /Updated: Jan. 25, 2022, 12:04 p.m. 

 A Republican majority on the Chambersburg Borough Council on Monday revoked the town's LGBTQ inclusive law.

Chambersburg on Monday became the first municipal authority in the commonwealth to repeal protections for residents against discrimination based on their sexual orientation, ethnicity or gender identity.

By a 7-3 Republican-majority vote, the Chambersburg Borough Council made good on its pledge, repealing the ordinance citing a host of reasons, including redundancy in the ordinance and lack of muscle in its provisions.

The ordinance, enacted just four months ago in October by a then Democratic majority, extended protections against discrimination toward gay, transgender or genderqueer people in employment, housing and public accommodations.

IDIOT #1 Council vice president Bill Everly -  “We are a very diverse community,” said council vice president Bill Everly, a lifelong resident. “For that reason I don’t understand why we need to have special protections for people. I think by creating special protections for people we open the door for other protections for other people. I think we need to come together and not divide us. I think this would divide us.”

IDIOT #2-  Council member Larry Hensley - In explaining his opposition to the ordinance, council member Larry Hensley shared his experience of running a ranch in Louisiana and having a cross burned in his front yard after hiring a Black couple.

“I’ve seen discrimination,” he said. “I‘m not for discrimination. God told us to love everyone but I believe this ordinance will cause more havoc than it’s going to help.”

For more than three hours, council heard the impassioned pleas from scores of borough residents, overwhelmingly speaking out in support for the ordinance. Only a few borough residents spoke in favor of repeal.

Some visibly overcome with emotion, resident after resident implored council members to keep intact the ordinance citing a litany of personal challenges faced as members of the LGBTQ community, while others spoke about the stain on the reputation of the borough if repealed.

“It feels like we are going backwards,” said Kierstin Stockum, a borough resident. “This is just protecting somebody. Why would we not want that as a community? A repeal says we not welcoming to anybody whether LGBTQ or not. It’s saying we discriminate here. Why would we want to send that message?” In repealing the ordinance Chambersburg became the first among 70 Pa. municipalities that have enacted LGBTQ inclusive laws to revoke it. Other municipalities include Gettysburg, Shippensburg, Camp Hill, Carlisle and Harrisburg.

Councilwoman Kathy Leedy chided council saying the repeal would leave a “black mark on Chambersburg.”

“You will rebrand Chambersburg,” she said. “This rebranding is a very serious thing. Once a person loses a reputation, it’s very difficult to get that reputation back. It’s the same with communities. We will be the first and only town to have a non-discrimination ordinance rescinded. You cannot rescind that once you do it. This is government taking rights away. That is very, very serious.”

Leedy echoed the arguments made by some borough residents that the repeal would be bad for the business sector.

The newly installed conservative majority has leaned on the idea of a voter mandate for repeal of an ordinance that was extensively vetted and researched last year.

IDIOT #3 - Allen Coffman, a Republican and newly installed borough council president, downplayed the idea that the borough would distinguish itself negatively among the other municipalities.

“There are what 956 boroughs in the state of Pennsylvania? Or is it 965?” he said. “You draw your own conclusion as to why those other folks haven’t done the same.”

Alice Elia, a Democrat and former borough president, made a last-ditch effort to table the motion to allow council to further explore ways of addressing concerns about the ordinance, namely provisions for mediation and creation a special commission tasked with hearing complaints.

“We have a duty to protect,” she said. “Removing that protection not only sends a sad message but it’s a step backwards. It’s disappointing. It’s disheartening and it’s a dangerous message.”

Elia noted that council members had been swamped with emails and messages from residents spreading misinformation about the ordinance, including that it would infringe on religious freedoms.

“All those things are incorrect. They are not true,” she said.

Coffman noted that the motion had already been seconded.

Council member John Huber suggested voters would have another opportunity to change the makeup of council.

“I don’t hate LGBTQ people,” he said. “I don’t hate anybody but I don’t like the ordinance. It has no teeth. I ‘m tired of all this. This is the second time. You all get a chance to vote in November and you can decide how to change council then.”

Members on the 10-seat panel serve four-year terms; every two years half of the council is up for re-election.

IDIOT #1 -  Mayor Kenneth Hock, a Republican newly elected, issued a proclamation mirroring the ordinance. The proclamation called on all borough residents and visitors to reject bigotry and discrimination against all individuals in all settings, including employment and housing. The proclamation called on residents and visitors to be treated with “respect and dignity.”

“That is what we come up with,” Hock said. “I hope that helps. I know I‘m trying to find a happy medium.”

Among those who spoke in person and via Zoom were teachers, faith leaders, mental health providers, veterans, parents and business owners, their concerns ranging from the real impact to vulnerable lives to a brain drain in the borough as a result of an exodus of young people, if repealed.

Dawn Abraham, a high school teacher and cosponsor of the gay-straight alliance, noted that the LGBTQ population at Chambersburg High School had grown exponentially in recent years.

“Kids are reporting being bullied, being pushed down the stairs, barked at and called multiple expletives,” she said. “By pulling support for this you are showing our community that you don’t support the school children in the community.”

Pastor Scott Bowerman implored council to “put aside politics for a moment and remember that we are talking about real flesh and blood human beings.”

“Put aside your desire to score political points and remember these are people. They are worthy of love, compassion and protection. Don’t repeal this,” he said.

More than 165 borough residents tuned into the meeting via Zoom. Scores more packed into council chambers, while others stood outside in the hallway. Several police officers were on duty throughout the meeting.

Elia vowed to continue fighting for the borough.

“I’m saddened and disappointed in this outcome,” she said. “I will not stop working to create a community that welcomes, supports, and accepts all people.”

This story was updated to include Mayor Hock’s comments.

Gay Couple told their Surrogate Daughter Isn't a U.S. Citizen

A gay, married, U.S. couple decided to have a biologically related child and the surrogate lived in the

United Kingdom. The Administration told this gay couple (U.S. Citizens) that because their child was born out of the U.S. the baby isn't a U.S. citizen.  Children born out of the country to U.S. citizens are all U.S. Citizens. WHAT IS THE ISSUE HERE? The couple is GAY. So, the Administration says their baby isn't a citizen. It's Blatant discrimination. It's targeted discrimination, and has caused this couple a lot of money, and angst in what should have been a celebration of a baby. These guys are STILL fighting this in court (a straight couple would never have to do this, if this Administration wasn't in power).
    So,  If you're a supporter of you-know-who, then you agree with this. Plain and Simple and you are no friend of the LGBTQ community. Supporting this is a direct reflection on YOU.
Here is the article, 

Court orders State Dept. to issue passport to gay couple's daughter
Aug. 28, 2020, 4:20 PM EDT By Tim Fitzsimons  NBC News

A federal judge has ordered the State Department to issue a U.S. passport to the daughter of a married gay couple whom the Trump administration had argued in court was ineligible for birthright citizenship.

 Derek Mize and Jonathan Gregg are both U.S. citizens. Their daughter, Simone, was born in July 2018 via a gestational surrogate in the United Kingdom using one father’s sperm and an anonymously donated egg. 

 As has recently been the case for other children of same-sex couples where one biological parent was not a U.S. citizen, the State Department denied Simone’s passport application, arguing that she was, like children born out of wedlock, not eligible for automatic birthright citizenship and subject to additional steps for naturalization.

 The fathers first filed suit in July 2019, arguing that denying Simone birthright citizenship and a passport violated the law and their constitutional rights. They asked that a federal court declare their child a citizen and order the State Department to issue her a passport. 

 On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Michael L. Brown issued a summary judgment declaring that Simone Mize-Gregg has been a U.S. citizen since birth and ordered the U.S. State Department to issue her a passport. “When we brought Simone into this world, as married, same-sex parents, we never anticipated our own government would disrespect our family and refuse to recognize our daughter as a U.S. citizen,” Derek Mize said in a statement, describing the family's journey as “complete” having received a judgment that Simone has been a citizen at birth. Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, senior counsel at Lambda Legal, who worked on the case, said in a press released that the group is “very pleased the court found that the agency’s policy was irreconcilable with the law and our Constitution’s guarantee to equality because it treated the children of married, same-sex parents differently from the children of other married parents.” 

 The judge said the “biological reading” of U.S. immigration laws advanced in court by the State Department — that both biological parents must be U.S. citizens to pass citizenship to their child — raised serious constitutional questions for same-sex couples who are left out by it. Since the constitutional avoidance doctrine requires that courts use a law’s “fairly possible” alternate interpretation if that reading doesn’t also raise serious constitutional questions, the judge found that the court was required to use the “nonbiological reading” that simply requires both legal parents to be U.S. citizens, which is inclusive of same-sex couples where one cannot be biologically related to their children. 

 The landmark 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision extended marriage rights to same-sex couples, Brown wrote, and this “includes equal access not just to the ‘symbolic recognition of marriage’ but also to the ‘material benefits’ that come with it.” “Having adopted the Non-Biological Reading, the Court finds that Section 301(c) does not require children to share a biological relationship with both citizen parents in order for those children to acquire citizenship at birth. 

As a result, S.M.-G. is a U.S. citizen under Section 301(c), she is entitled to a U.S. passport," Brown wrote, referring to Simone by her initials. Having found that the child was a U.S. citizen at birth, the judge dismissed the family’s constitutional claims. Aaron C. Morris, executive director of Immigration Equality, an LGBTQ immigrant rights group that served with Lambda Legal as counsel for the Mize-Gregg family, said that after filing suit the parents became fearful about their child living without citizenship documentation, so they filed a green card application. 

 “The green card was granted in remarkably fast time,” Morris said, “and also the law says if you have U.S. citizen parents and you gave a green card, you automatically naturalize.” That is why the State Department more recently filed a motion to have the suit dismissed, saying the child had naturalized via an alternate legal route, an argument the judge took time in his 50-page opinion to reject. “It was very good to see the government was setting up what looked a whole lot like a ‘separate-but-equal’ argument, explaining that, ‘Sure we denied your kid's citizenship, but you have this other pathway toward citizenship,’ and the judge rejected that,” Morris said. “You still have to obey the law, even if there is some other means to get to citizenship, they are not the same.” 

 In the ruling, Brown acknowledged that since the State Department continues to argue that Simone is not entitled to birthright citizenship because she is not biologically related to her fathers, “any stigmatization flowing from that determination necessarily still exists. Because S.M.-G.’s naturalization does not erase Plaintiffs’ alleged stigmatic injury, it cannot moot the case.” 

 A State Department spokesperson told NBC News in an email: "The Department is aware of the Court's ruling and is reviewing the decision with the Department of Justice. We have no further comment at this time.” 

 The judge's ruling does not mean it is the end of the road for the Trump administration's legal interpretation of the citizenship of the children of same-sex couples. While the State Department did issue a passport to the child of a California couple in a similar case after a judge ordered them to do so, the Trump administration then appealed. Morris of Immigration Equality said that that case is still pending, and oral arguments at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals are scheduled for Oct. 7. .

IN THE NEWS Gay American couple sues Trump's State Department over daughter's citizenship

Remember earlier this year that Pres. Trump issued an order saying that Children from out of the U.S. or born through surrogates out of the U.S.  and adopted by Gay couples "WILL NOT BE GIVEN U.S. CITIZENSHIP"?  Well, there are already a couple of law suits for this horrible, vicious, hateful anti-family and anti-LGBT law. Here's one from July 24, 2019 from theHill.com in Washington,DC:

 Gay American couple sues State Department over daughter's citizenship

By Rebecca Klar - 07/23/19 04:03 PM EDT 1,104

A gay U.S. couple is reportedly suing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for discrimination after the State Department denied citizenship to their daughter, who was born in the U.K. with help of a surrogate.

The New York Times reported that James Derek Mize and his husband Jonathan Gregg filed a lawsuit Tuesday after their daughter, Simone, was denied citizenship even though both of her parents are American citizens.

Simone was born in the U.K. last year using the donor egg of a British friend and Gregg’s sperm. She was reportedly denied citizenship when the family submitted an application after returning home to the U.S. Her tourist visa will expire at the end of July. 

“I try not to think about ICE coming to our door and deporting our baby,” Mize told the Times, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “That is a pretty hard thing to think about.”
The State Department has a policy requiring that children born abroad through assisted reproductive technology and surrogacy must show biological parentage in order to obtain citizenship.

At least two other same-sex couples are suing the agency for similar reasons and nearly 100 congressional Democrats last month urged Pompeo to reverse the “cruel” policy, according to the Times.

The State Department told The Hill it would not comment on ongoing litigation.
The Times reported that in court documents the department has argueed that the policy does not discriminate and applies to opposite-sex and same-sex couples alike.
Under the State Department policy, cases where the source of the sperm and egg do not match married parents are treated as “out of wedlock” and require a higher bar to transmit citizenship, the Times reported.

Gregg, a U.K.-born citizen to an American mother, does not meet the five-year U.S. residency requirement, but the newspaper said the couples’ lawyers argue that would not matter if the couple had been treated as married.
Under the Obama administration, after same-sex marriage was legalized, the State Department policy was adjusted, according to the Times, so that biological connection could be tied to supplying the egg or the sperm as well as giving birth to a child, allowing same-sex couples to have a child “in wedlock.”

But under the Trump administration, the State Department is fighting the lawsuits in courts in what critics are saying is discrimination against same-sex parents.

In the News: White House says "Okay to Hang signs: We don't serve gays here"

The WHITE HOUSE press secretary said the Admin. agrees on displaying "We don't serve gays here" signs. 

We really hate Republicans. 

WHERE AND WHEN IT HAPPENED:   If you were watching the White House Press Briefing on Dec. 6, you heard Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Pres. Trump's press secretary say "the president's devotion to so-called religious liberties extends to businesses hanging signs about refusing service to LGBT people."
   They have taken this country back 100 years as expected. They hate everyone that isn't a white,, straight, rich, evangelical (wacko) christian. There are ZERO redeeming qualities in these people. ZERO.
PEOPLE WHO VOTED FOR THEM GETTING SCR***ED  - Everyone making under $75 K will see their taxes go up in 2018 while people making over $250,000 get tax breaks.
** Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are also on their chopping block.

WHO VOTED FOR HIM?  This is what people in the "White Lash" or coal country, or Evangelicals or "I Love the Uneducated"- (said Trump himself) voted for. 

HORRENDOUS.

Gay Husband Not Allowed to Claim his Husband's Body

If you think that gay couples don't face discrimination since gay marriage became the law of the land, think again. The Washington Post just published a story about a gay Husband Not Allowed to Claim his Husband's Body.  (BTW, it also happened to a couple here in the Washington, DC area 2 years ago after they were married and one passed).
   Our christian friends say "Christians should Never do such horrible things," and they're right. But Christians, especially in the Southern U.S. do this ALL THE TIME and they are the face of christianity in the southern U.S. It's inhumane, it's appalling, it's disgusting, it's evil. Just imagine not being allowed to claim your spouse's body after they pass in a hospital or having a funeral home refuse to have services for your deceased spouse. That's the reality of many christians in the Southern U.S., whether people want to believe it or not.

They lived as a gay couple in Mississippi for 20 years. The worst indignity came in death, lawsuit says.

Source: WASHINGTON POST

For most of the 52 years he was in a relationship with Robert Huskey, Jack Zawadski doesn’t remember much in the way of anti-gay discrimination.

A decoration in the home of Robert Huskey, left, and Jack Zawadski, featuring old pictures of the married couple. Zawadski is now 82, and Huskey died last year at age 86. (Veronica Hayyar)

Not while they were trying to grow apples on a farm in Wisconsin. Not during the decades they spent as special education teachers. Not even when they moved to Mississippi 20 years ago to retire someplace warmer and more lush, or after they married in 2015, when the Supreme Court declared that gay couples have as much of a right as heterosexuals to marry.

But in a lawsuit filed in federal court in Pearl River County, Miss., Zawadski said that prejudice finally reared its head when he was most vulnerable: last May, when Huskey died at age 86 after a long illness.
In a 14-page complaint, Zawadski, 82, said the funeral home that had been prearranged to pick up and cremate Huskey’s body refused at the last minute, telling the nursing home that they don’t “deal with their kind.”

 

In a response filed with the court in March, the owners of the Picayune Funeral Home in Picayune, Miss., deny the events as described by Zawadski and his nephew, who made the arrangements and is co-plaintiff.

Silas W. McCharen, an attorney for the owners of the funeral home, Ted and Henrietta Brewer, said in an email that the firm has never discriminated on the basis of sexual orientation. Henrietta Brewer denies she made reference to not serving “their kind,” he said, and the firm never refused to pick up the remains. But he declined to elaborate further.

Zawadski is being represented by Lambda Legal, an LGBT rights law firm and advocacy organization based in New York. Because neither Mississippi law nor federal law explicitly forbid discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, the suit is relying on “other state laws that hopefully will provide a remedy for the terrible actions that happened here,” said Beth Littrell, the attorney handling the case.
“The essence of the claim is that they both breached a contract and denied services at the last minute to a grieving family based on the fact that the man who had passed away was gay and was married to a man,” said Littrell, whose organization is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages from a jury.

 

For Zawadski, the suit is a rare activist moment. He said he and his husband lived unassuming lives and were rarely open with their friends and neighbors about their sexual orientation. “We lived our lives quietly,” he said in an interview. “We didn’t hit the bars or anything like that.”

The pair met in 1965 in California. After moving around and traveling to indulge their interest in Civil War history, they decided to settle down in the small town of Picayune, not far from the Louisiana border. Zawadski grew camellias, and Huskey served for a time as president of the homeowner’s association.
“And that’s how we lived,” Zawadski said. “We just enjoyed each other.”

They never mentioned their sexual orientation, and nobody asked, he said — not even after the two were married by a judge in nearby Hancock County on Aug. 17, 2015.

 Then, Huskey’s health took a turn, and he underwent bypass surgery, the complaint said. “Jack cared for Bob through his surgery, recovery and as his condition deteriorated,” it said. “By August, 2015, Jack was helping Bob with all the daily functions of life, including eating, walking and personal hygiene.” Huskey moved into a nursing home, and last April it became clear that he would soon die.

The couple’s nephew, John Gaspari, made the arrangements ahead of time with Picayune Funeral Home, the only funeral home in the county with an on-site crematory, according to the complaint. Zawadski had hoped to hold the funeral there so the couple’s local friends could pay their respects. On May 11, 2016, Gaspari contacted the funeral home to let them know Huskey had died. But after filing the paperwork, including a document naming Zawadski as next of kin, Gaspari got a call from the nursing home.

“The Nursing Home relayed to John that once received the paperwork indicating that Bob’s spouse was male, PFH refused service because it did not ‘deal with their kind,’ ” the lawsuit stated.

 

Gaspari and Zawadski were left scrambling to find another funeral home that could cremate Huskey on-site, according to the complaint. They found one in Hattiesburg, about 90 minutes away. But because the nursing home did not have a morgue, it refused to hold Huskey’s remains until the Hattiesburg facility could retrieve it. So Gaspari and Zawadski had to enlist a second, closer funeral home to pick up his body until then.

“The turmoil and exigency created by Defendants in causing Plaintiffs to find alternative arrangements, as described above, permanently marred the memory of Bob’s otherwise peaceful passing,” the complaint said. Zawadski said his motives for bringing the suit are not financial but rather to ensure that no one else goes through what he experienced. In a video produced by Lambda Legal, Zawadski said through tears that the funeral home had shown disrespect toward his husband.
“This, I hope, brings him some honor,” he said.

 

In the News: Churches in Arkansas refuse funeral for gay man, Hand out Anti-gay literature to family

Anyone with a heart will be appalled by this story. If you think that gay people are not discriminated against think again. This happens daily in the U.S. - and for any church to be this heartless is beyond belief. (Yes, we realize that not all churches are this way. The purpose of sharing this is to show that this crap is still happening). 


In the News: Churches near Mountain Home, Ark. refuse funeral for gay man
and even WORSE:   Arkansas churches refuse funeral for gay man, hand out anti-gay materials to grieving family: husband


Source: DallasVoice:: Posted on 02 Feb 2015 at 12:06pm
http://www.dallasvoice.com/churches-mountain-home-ark-refuse-funeral-gay-man-10189127.html

Widow Jay Hoskins identified the churches that refused to perform a funeral service as being near Mountain Home in the unincorporated town of Clarkridge. Members from one of those churches called the firehouse to cancel the fellowship after the funeral. More information in Friday’s paper.

ORIGINAL POST:
After a gay man from Mountain Home, Ark. died last week, local churches refused to allow the family to have a funeral in

James Stone passed away.

their churches. The local firehouse, which was built by the man’s father, refused to open its doors for fellowship after the funeral as is the custom in that town, according to Jeremy Liebbe, who officiated at the service.

We’re talking to the family and friends of James Stone, the 32-year-old man who was living with his husband in Conroe, Texas and was originally from Clarkridge, Ark. and died on Jan. 19 of Sjogren’s syndrome, a genetic autoimmune disorder.
He is survived by his husband, Jay Hoskins. They were married six months ago in New Mexico on their 10th anniversary together. More on this story in Friday’s Dallas Voice.

ARTICLE #2:  Arkansas churches refuse funeral for gay man, hand out anti-gay materials to grieving family: husband
 SOURCE: Rawstory
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/02/arkansas-churches-refuse-funeral-for-gay-man-hand-out-anti-gay-materials-to-grieving-family-husband/#.VNGUsDWpQZI.facebook 
 
An Arkansas man’s husband says he was turned away from numerous churches while trying to hold a funeral for his deceased partner. Even the local firehouse, which was built by his father, has closed its doors to the grieving family, refusing to host a reception or memorial for James Stone, who died at the age of 32 in January, the husband said.
But there is conflicting information as to what really happened.

The Dallas Voice reported that Stone’s husband, Jay Hoskins, has been trying to find a place to memorialize his partner since Stone’s death on January 19.
The two men lived in Texas and have been together for 10 years. They were married in New Mexico six months ago on their 10th anniversary.

Stone — who struggled with Sjogren’s syndrome, a rare autoimmune disorder — was born in Clarkridge, Arkansas. Hoskins hoped to hold a memorial for Stone in Mountain Home, the closest town, but the town’s churches turned him away, he claimed.

But two Clarkridge churches contacted by The Baxter Bulletin denied being contacted and asked to perform Stone’s graveside service. Family members also told The Baxter Bulletin they canceled the reservation to use the fire station.
In the comments thread at the Voice, Hoskins wrote that the two parishioners at the Clarkridge Church of Christ handed Stone’s grieving family members envelopes stuffed with Bible verses condemning same-sex relationships.
“I have never experienced such hate and bigotry in my life,” said Hoskins.

The Baxter Bulletin confirmed that the family members received anti-gay materials following the graveside service at Thacker Cemetery.

The Dallas Voice claimed that Stone died of Sjogen’s syndrome, but according to Hoskins, Stone took his own life.
“He died a tragic death of suicide where his poor mother and myself found him hanging from a ceiling fan. I tried unsuccessfully to revive him, but it was too late,” he said. In a separate comment, Hoskins said, “I lost the love of my life just over 2 weeks ago, and still don’t know how I am going to carry on, but will have to adapt.”