Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania State Rep. Mike Fleck (R-Huntingdon) publicly acknowledged Saturday that he is gay, making him the first openly gay lawmaker in Pa. and the only* currently sitting openly gay Republican state legislator in the entire country. [ Read more → ]

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama on Tuesday nominated Judge Nitza I. Quiñones Alejandro, who currently serves on the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas, for a federal judgeship with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. [ Read more → ]

HARRISBURG, PA -- Philadelphia policy attorney and civil rights advocate Brian Sims was elected Tuesday to represent Pennsylvania's 182nd District, and becomes the state's first openly gay state legislator. [ Read more → ]

UNIONTOWN, Pa. -- More than a 100 people marched in a parade downtown to celebrate marriage Sunday in Uniontown. [ Read more → ]

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Pennsylvania State Rep. Babette Josephs (D-Philadelphia) has introduced a bill that would ban mental health providers from offering "gay-to-straight" reparative therapy for minors. [ Read more → ]

PHILADELPHIA -- A street naming dedication ceremony for Barbara Gittings Way -- named for the LGBT civil rights pioneer -- was held Monday in the heart of Philadelphia's gay neighborhood at the intersection of Locust and 13th Streets. [ Read more → ]

Miss Pennsylvania USA has given up her state crown because she said the Miss USA pageant was fixed, but pageant officials refuted her claim, and said she quit over her disapproval of the organization's decision to allow transgender participants. [ Read more → ]

Pennsylvania elected its first openly gay state legislator this week. Democrat Brian Sims won his bid to represent the 182nd District in the state House, defeating longtime incumbent Rep. Babette Josephs. Sims will not face a Republican challenger in the fall. [ Read more → ]

PHILADELPHIA -- A federal judge last week ordered the city of Philadelphia to pay nearly $900,000 in legal fees to the local chapter of the Boy Scouts of America, following the city's failed attempt to evict the Scouts from a city-owned building because of its anti-gay policy. [ Read more → ]

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- The House State Government Committee on Tuesday abruptly delayed its vote on a measure that would establish an amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution, redefining marriage as “the legal union of only one man and one woman.” [ Read more → ]

HARRISBURG, Penn. -- A Pennsylvania state House committee is scheduled to vote on Tuesday on a bill that would “define” marriage as a union between one man and one woman. [ Read more → ]

Half of Pennsylvanians favor a constitutional amendment to legalize same-sex marriage and an even larger percentage think the state should at least allow civil unions, according to a Franklin & Marshall College unveiled Wednesday. [ Read more → ]

Openly gay freshman Isaiah Thomas has discovered Messiah College in Grantham, Pa., is not quite a good fit. [ Read more → ]

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. [ Read more → ]

A Pennsylvania lawmaker has introduced a bill that would amend the state Constitution to define marriage as "the legal union of only one man and one woman as husband and wife." [ Read more → ]

A Swarthmore College student and his male friend were attacked by a group of teens in a over the weekend, and a college official cautioned the assault may have been spurred by homophobia. [ Read more → ]

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. [ Read more → ]

Police in suburban Philadelphia have arrested a man and charged him with murder in the brutal beating of an elderly man. The suspect said he killed his victim using a sock stuffed with rocks because the Old Testament refers to stoning homosexuals. [ Read more → ]

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." [ Read more → ]

PHILADELPHIA -- A gay couple has filed harassment and brutality charges against the local police department, and claim they were taken out of their homes and beaten in the snow by 10-12 officers with batons. Several neighbors reportedly have photographs and video. [ Read more → ]