The poll shows about a third (33 percent) strongly favor a constitutional amendment that would allow homosexual couples to get married and about another sixth (17 percent), said they would somewhat favor a constitutional amendment to legalize same-sex marriage.

The poll shows more than three-fifths (62 percent) at least somewhat favor passage of a state law that would allow homosexual couple to legally form civil unions, giving them some of the legal rights of married couples. Of those, almost two-fifths (37 percent) strongly favor allowing civil unions.

That represents a sharp shift since June 2009, the last time F&M asked about same-sex marriage. Back then, the results were almost exactly reversed with a majority (52 percent) opposed to the legalization amendment and only about two-fifths (42 percent) in favor. On civil unions, 58 percent were in favor in 2009, while only 42 percent were in favor in February 2004, an era when same-sex marriage played a key role in the presidential election that year.

The most recent poll, of 525 Pennsylvania adults, was conducted between Aug. 22 and Monday, and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points, meaning each percentage could actually be that much higher or lower.

“I think there’s a big change going on with this,” said G. Terry Madonna, Ph.D., the poll’s director. “In the next generation, it’s going to be widely accepted.”

One bill pending in the state General Assembly would ask voters to approve an amendment to the state constitution that would define marriage as between a man and a woman, the opposite of the poll question.

The outcome is no surprise because polling across the country has shown a shift in favor of same-sex marriage or civil unions, said Ted Martin, executive director of the Equality Pennsylvania.

“I think it means Pennsylvania is just a reflection of the rest of the country,” Martin said. “People have realized that same-sex relationships or marriages do not constitute the dire threat to society that those who oppose them would like to say.”

Where same-sex marriage or civil unions have been legalized, people have simply “gone on living,” he said.

People are realizing that same-sex marriage isn’t an issue legislatures need to be worrying about when the economy is slumping,

“Pennsylvanians, by and large, like the rest of the country, are very fair,” Martin said.

Thomas J. Shaheen, vice president of the Pennsylvania Family Institute, which opposes same-sex marriage and civil unions, said the poll reflects people’s immediate reactions and desire to be “fair” and “nice,” but support declines when people realize the large changes legalization of either same-sex marriage or civil unions require.

“Most people don’t understand … what the effect of civil unions is,” he said.

For example, he said, New Jersey had 1,200 changes in its laws to reflect the legalization of civil unions in 2007 because civil unions were equated to marriage.

In Massachusetts, legalization led to the state impinging on religious freedom, Shaheen said. The state forced Catholic Charities to begin placing adoptions with same-sex couples so the charity stopped doing adoptions, he said.

“They were trying to use the hammer of public policy to force acceptance,” Shaheen said.

Beyond that, in the last 15 years, 30 states, including Pennsylvania, have changed their laws to forbid same-sex marriage, a fact that shows approval of same-sex marriage is not as widespread as advocates say, Shaheen said. Same-sex marriage became legal in New York on July 24.

The main benefit of continuing to define marriage as solely between a man and a woman is the raising of children, who are better off with a father and a mother, he said.

“It’s not about whether two people are in love,” Shaheen said. “It’s about government endorsing and licensing a particular arrangement between a man and a woman because of its benefit to society and that hasn’t changed. Attitudes have changed, but I do think that most people understand that there is a difference between marriage between two people, a man and a woman, and two men or two women. Most people recognize that it’s (same-sex marriage is) not the best thing for children.”

Martin said the Catholic church made a voluntarily “value judgment” that is not grounded in reality.

“To be perfectly frank, there are no reputable studies … that prove the point they’re trying to make that this (same-sex marriage/civil unions) is harmful to children,” he said. “The studies that have been issued … show that the children of gay couples develop the same as the children of opposite sex parents.”

John C. Whitehead, The Patriot-News

Isaiah Thomas

According to PennLive, the student has been through hell at the Christian College — from having his wallet, room key and student ID stolen just a month after school started to having a professor call him “an abomination” in class, to receiving a death threat on his Facebook page.

Isaiah has decided to transfer at the end of the semester.

The Christian College requires all students to sign a “Community Covenant” which forbids homosexual behavior, according to school provost Randy Bassinger. He also claimed the school had a very strict harassment policy and has investigated the claims from Isaiah, but they refuse to release the results of any of those findings.

What we find most interesting about Isaiah though is not that he was harassed and is leaving, but he actively worked to change the school’s policies.

He is the secretary of the multicultural council, a member of the black student union and by invitation, vice president of the Middle Eastern Student Association. And when Isaiah learned about the Covenant, he actively worked for more inclusion, but each teacher he spoke to defended the covenant.

“Our covenant is quite clear on the behavioral expectations in a number of areas, one of them being homosexual behavior,” Bassinger said. “We’re very committed to that and very intentional on how we apply that — consistently, as with all our behavioral expectations.”

Richard Laird

The scheduled execution of a Pennsylvania man, who was twice-convicted in the torture and murder of a gay man, has been put on hold.

Richard Laird was scheduled to be executed on May 12 for the slaying of Levittown, Pa., artist Anthony Milano in 1987. Prosecutors said Milano, 26, was targeted because he was gay. Laird has been granted a stay of execution while his attorneys pursue post-conviction appeals.

Convicted with Laird in 1988 was his drinking buddy, Frank Chester of Tullytown, Pa., who also received a death sentence. Chester’s conviction also was overturned recently, but prosecutors are still contesting that decision.

The case drew wide notoriety because it was among the first to draw attention to gay-bashing in this area. Prosecutors said Milano had been accosted by Chester and Laird in a bar, harassed because he was gay, and forced to drive them home.

Milano was found dead along a road in Bristol Township, beaten and slashed in the throat so many times that his spinal cord was severed.

Two juries — one in 1988 and another in 2007 — have convicted and sentenced Laird, 47, to death for his role in the torture killing. The first conviction was overturned by a federal judge in 2001. Laird was was retried and convicted again in 2007.

The amendment, introduced in the state House by Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R-Butler), would also state that “no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized.”

Metcalfe said the institution of marriage is under attack.

“This not only includes the special interests who want to permanently redefine marriage,” said Metcalfe, “but unfortunately the executive branch and the federal Department of Justice have blatantly and recklessly refused to uphold and defend its constitutionality.”

Metcalfe is referring to the Feb. 23 announcement by the Obama administration that at least one part of DOMA — Section 3 — will not be able to pass constitutional muster, and that the Justice Department will not defend that part of the law in two pending cases in the federal court.

“Representative Metcalfe has introduced a bill that would divide us, goes against the growing majority of Americans’ beliefs on equal rights under law and would drive jobs and people out of Pennsylvania,” said State Rep. Dan Frankel (D-Allegheny) in a statement.

The bill to amend the Pennsylvania constitution would have to be approved in two consecutive sessions of the General Assembly before being put to voters in a ballot referendum.

A similar amendment is currently being considered in Minnesota.

The attack occurred on Mertz Field on the Delaware County campus, Elizabeth Braun, dean of students, wrote to the college community Tuesday. Neither the student nor his friend was identified.

The student reported that he and his friend were punched and knocked to the ground, and then were repeatedly kicked and stomped by at least five boys and one girl, Braun said.

“Our student has also shared that he and his friend were being affectionate with one another when they were approached by the high-school-age students,” Braun said.

“While it still isn’t clear what prompted the assault on our student and his friend, it does appear that homophobia could have been a factor in the attack,” she said.

- via Philly.com

The incident occurred shortly after midnight early Sunday morning.

According to Swarthmore Borough Police Chief Brian Craig, the group — described as high school students — asked the two men to buy them alcohol. They were attacked upon refusing their request.

Rafael Zapata, Assistant Dean and Director of the Intercultural Center, said it was “a reasonable conclusion” that homophobia probably played a significant role in the violence, “in light of the context.”

Rev. James St. George

A Pennsylvania professor and cleric, who was forced to leave Chestnut Hill College because he is gay, has reached a settlement with his former employer, and has landed a new teaching job at the University of Pennsylvania.

Rev. James St. George confirmed last week he is co-teaching a course on religion, social justice, and urban development, together with another member of Penn’s teaching staff. He said he was invited to co-teach the course with professor Andrew Lamas, and that Lamas compensating him directly, not the University.

St. George, who was dismissed from his teaching job at Chestnut Hill College on February 18 after the college learned he was gay, recently reached a settlement with the Catholic college.

The college terminated St. George after he made “public statements of his involvement in a gay relationship with another man.”

St. George had written about his 15-year gay relationship on his personal blog.

“There are no hard feelings on my part,” St. George said regarding the settlement with Chestnut Hill College. “We all own our own stuff and can move forward and not hate each other.”

Asked if he received a monetary settlement, St. George said: “I can’t comment on anything with Chestnut Hill College. I’ve never in my life sued anybody, or went to court, or wanted to get money from them.”

Chestnut Hill College, a private Catholic school, said that when St. George was hired, it was unaware he belonged to a branch of Catholicism not associated with the Vatican and that allows priests to be actively gay.

The church where St. George is a pastor — the St. Miriam Church in Blue Bell, Penn. — is affiliated with the Old Catholic Apostolic Church of America, which vows not to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, and performs commitment ceremonies for gays and lesbians.

John Joe Thomas

LANSDOWNE, Pa. — Police in suburban Philadelphia have arrested a man and charged him with murder in the brutal beating of an elderly man. The suspect told police he killed his victim using a sock stuffed with rocks because the Old Testament refers to stoning homosexuals.

WCAU-TV, Philadelphia, reports:

John Joe Thomas, 28, of Sunshine Road in Upper Darby, spent almost every day with 70-year-old Murray Seidman at Seidman’s Lansdowne home, police say. Days before Seidman’s body was found on Jan. 12, Thomas allegedly beat Seidman to death with a sock full of rocks.

Thomas told authorities that he read in the Old Testament that homosexuals should be stoned to death. When Seidman allegedly made homosexual advances toward him over a period of time, Thomas said he received a message in his prayers that he must end Seidman’s life, according to court documents.

Murray Seidman

Though the relationship between the two men is still unknown, Thomas was
the sole executor of Seidman’s will and knew how much money was in Seidman’s bank accounts, police say.

Thomas also told police he had spent nearly every day with Seidman, and he had the power of attorney over Seidman’s affairs.

Lansdowne police Chief Daniel Kortan said the break in the investigation
came when Thomas allegedly told a witness he beat an older man to death.

Thomas allegedly described for the witness how he placed batteries and rocks in a sock, and hit Seidman in the head at least 10 times.

Rev. James St. George

PHILADELPHIA — Chestnut Hill College, a Catholic institution, has fired a part-time professor after learning the cleric was gay. The college said that the Reverend’s conduct was “contrary to the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church.”

The college acted shortly after a Philadelphia man sent a letter to the archdiocese complaining that Chestnut Hill was employing a gay priest.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:

The college, in a statement, said it terminated the Rev. James St. George after he made “public statements of his involvement in a gay relationship with another man for the past 15 years.” The statements apparently were in a blog.

The private Catholic school seemed to suggest that St. George had somehow misled the college during his hiring process.

It appeared surprised to discover — well after it hired him in 2009 to teach Bible studies and other subjects — that he belonged to a branch of Catholicism that is not associated with the Vatican and allows priests to be actively gay.

St. George said that he was open with Chestnut Hill officials that while he is a priest, he is not a Roman Catholic priest — and that he asked if that was an issue when he was hired.

College officials appeared surprised that St. George belonged to a branch of Catholicism not associated with the Vatican that has different views on gay issues.

The church where St. George is a pastor is “affiliated with the Old Catholic Apostolic Church of America, which vows no discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and performs commitment ceremonies for gays and lesbians,” the Associated Press reported.

“While we welcome diversity, it is expected that all members of our college community, regardless of their personal beliefs, respect and uphold our Roman Catholic mission, character and values both in the classroom and in public statements that identify them with our school,” said Carol Jean Vale, President of Chestnut Hill College, in a statement Friday.

“For this reason, we chose not to offer an additional teaching contract to St. George,” she said.

In late December, police were called to the home of partners Luis Berrios and Jason Mendez after a neighbor heard what they thought was a domestic dispute.

Officers allegedly handcuffed Mendez and dragged him outside, shoved him in the snow and started beating him with their batons, screaming “nigger” and “faggot.”

When Berrios demanded that the police stop beating his partner, they did the same thing to him.

Via the Philadelphia Gay News:

“I don’t know what he did with the baton but it felt like he put it between the cuffs and just started twisting it back the opposite way,” Berrios said.

“I kept telling him how much it was hurting and he just said, ‘Shut up, pussy faggot.’ I closed my eyes and all I could hear was Jason screaming. And I told him I have a dislocated wrist, and he said, ‘Shut the fuck up, or you’ll have a broken wrist.’ He said, ‘Let me hear you squeal, faggot.’

“And I just started screaming in pain and telling them to just take me, to just put me in jail if they wanted to, so he’d stop. I begged the other officers to make him stop and my neighbor was standing there crying because she knew she couldn’t do anything. I was crying and finally just started banging my head against the windshield to try to knock myself out because I was in so much pain.”

Police allegedly picked the men off the ground by their shirts and pants and threw them head-first into the squad cars (missing the first time so they landed on the ground face-first).

The couple claim that several neighbors were watching, crying and have photos and videos of the event.

Berrios filed the complaint with Internal Affairs on Dec. 30, and again on Jan. 13 after he was told they had not received his complaint. No official action has been taken.

Barrios was bailed out the day after the incident by a neighbor, but Mendez remains in custody because he was on probation over a drug charge last year.

The Morning Call reports that a a domestic partnership bill introduced on Dec. 15, would make partners of gay and lesbian employees eligible for health benefits.

“This is about fairness and equality,” said council President Michael D’Amore, one of the driving forces behind the bill.

“Gay employees’ inability to get married in this state should not preclude them from getting health benefits.”

The bill is slated for a final vote as early as next month, and has broad support among council members, who say gay couples deserve the same benefits as their heterosexual counterparts.

To qualify for the benefits, the employee and partner would be required to provide the city with documents that show they live together and are jointly responsible for household finances.

FAMILY PHOTO

Brandon Bitner

MIDDLEBURG, Penn. — Anti-gay bullying has reportedly claimed another teen life.

Brandon Bitner, 14, of Mount Pleasant Mills, Penn., walked 13 miles from his home early Friday morning to a busy intersection and threw himself in front of an oncoming tractor-trailer after leaving a suicide note at his home, according to The Daily Item.

There seems to be little doubt in students’ minds why Brandon did what he did.

“It was because of bullying,” friend Takara Jo Folk wrote in a letter to The Daily Item.

“It was not about race, or gender, but they bullied him for his sexual preferences and the way he dressed. Which,” she said, “they wrongly accused him of.”

Brandon’s suicide note reportedly explained that he was constantly bullied at Midd-West High School in Middleburg, where he was a freshman.

Bullies allegedly called Brandon gay, girly, fag, and geek. He stated in the note that a humiliating event in school this past week was the “straw that broke the camel’s back.”

Brandon was an accomplished violinist, having been a member of the Susquehanna Youth Orchestra in 2009.

His death came just days after an anti-bullying assembly at the high school, which, according to district Superintendent Wesley Knapp, was not held in response to any specific problems at the school, but because it is an issue Principal Cynthia Hutchinson has always felt strongly about.

After the assembly, according to student Briana Boyer in another letter to The Daily Item, “No one took it seriously, and joked around about it.”

Tammy Simpson, Brandon’s mother, said Brandon suffered verbal abuse from other students for years.

“They called him gay lots of times,” Simpson told WHTM-TV. “If the bullying would have been corrected, maybe it wouldn’t have got to this point. Maybe he wouldn’t have taken his life.”

School administrators said they weren’t aware of any problems.

“There were no incidents reported to us, nor seen by teachers, nor reported by students to any of us. So that part of it catches me by surprise,” said Knapp.

Friends of Brandon have set up a Facebook page, “RIP Brandon Bitner.”

A memorial website is here, and the Patriot-News has Brandon’s obituary here.

At issue is whether the local scouts group, the Cradle of Liberty Council, should be allowed to stay rent-free in its city-owned headquarters, despite the Boy Scouts of America’s national policy banning gays.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter says to get free rent, the local Scouts needed to renounce the national Scout organization’s admission policies excluding gays.

The lawsuit filed by the Scouts contends that the mayor’s demand violates their First Amendment rights.

The city has an ordinance saying that groups can’t discriminate based on sexual orientation, and it says the Scouts can rent their space, but can’t get free office space.

The Scouts haves occupied the downtown building since 1928.

Reports Philly.com:

The Republican-majority Senate Judiciary Committee voted 8-6 to table a bill introduced by Sen. John Eichelberger (R) to amend the constitution to define marriage as being between a man and woman only.

The vote came before a packed hearing room without debate.

Committee Chairman Stewart Greenleaf (R) said he brought the bill up for a vote, even though he was uncertain it would pass, to let members express their opinion on it. He called the vote a referendum on gay marriage, and said the measure would not come up again this session.

Three republicans crossed the aisle to defeat the bill. Opponents of the bill called the vote a victory for gay rights.

SB 707, which Eichelberger introduced earlier this week, would add to the Pennsylvania Constitution the language: “Only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid and recognized as marriage.”

Eichelberger, a Republican, announced his intention to spearhead such an initiative in May 2009. Democratic Sen. Daylin Leach shortly thereafter introduced a measure that seeks to legalize same-sex marriage in the Keystone State.

To amend the constitution, both chambers of the state legislature would have to pass the so-called Marriage Protection Amendment in two consecutive sessions before the question is posed to voters.

“Pennsylvania voters have the opportunity to decide how they want marriage to be defined and not allow an activist judge to make that decision for them,” Eichelberger said in a statement Tuesday. “Thirty-one other states have already gone through a similar process and in each state, the definition of marriage was upheld.”

Even if successful, any marriage amendments before state legislatures could soon be moot, as the federal case challenging California’s Proposition 8 could eventually bring the constitutionality of same-sex marriage to the U.S. Supreme Court — whose ruling would take precedence across the nation.