Peter's Place

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: PETER C. FRANK +1-914-417-9579 PCFRANK73@GMAIL.COM Who: A group of citizens concerned about Chick-fil-A's policies and practices What: LGBTQ Equality & Animal Rights Demo When: Saturday, February 11th, 10am - 1pm How: Politely distribute literature to prospective customers Where: Chick-fil-A West Hartford, 509 New Park Avenue, West Hartford, CT 06107 Chick-fil-A has a history of opposing LGBTQ equality . Actively denigrating a segment of our population can make it easier for them to turn a blind eye to the farm factories providing most of their food, which employ inhumane practices that are cruel to the animals they raise. Despite promises to the contrary, Chick-fil-A continues to donate millions of dollars to anti-LGBTQ organizations through its foundation and continues to source products from farm factories. The protest, spearheaded by LGBTQ rights activist Peter C. Frank , has the support of organizations s...

I choose to be unstoppable. I am bigger than my concerns and worries. The strength of others inspires me daily. I focus on my goals. I trust my intuition and live a courageous life! As of today, 1 January 2016, I no longer am associated with the Bronx LGBTQ Center and have severed all ties to the organization. I shared this news with some of my closest friends about two weeks ago. I am the last of the co-founders to leave the Center, 3.5 years after it started -- which is fitting in a way as I was perhaps the first to organize the new organization. Having served as the Board Secretary since the Center's incorporation on 19 September 2012, my decision not to run for re-election and continue my tenure as an officer on the board of directors was announced at the annual membership meeting on 14 December 2015. This decision did not come lightly but leaves me time to work on projects that are bringing positive energy into my life. Of all the accomplishments during my te...

+MSNBC 's  +Morning Joe  show on October 5, 2015 discusses the latest historic and record-breaking rally that US Presidential candidate hopeful Bernie Sanders held: Over 20,000 people packed the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center on Saturday, October 3, 2015 with another 5,000 or so outside the center in an overflow area watching his nearly two-hour-long speech, reports  Morning Joe  co-host Mika Brzezinski . She says that Sanders's rally broke all records for political events in recent history, doubling the turnout of Barack Obama's 10,000 supporters in 2008. Brzezinski ponders, "and I, I don't, I mean I -- is he a celebrity and I just missed it?" As she continues to watch the footage, she says, "Look at their faces, watching on screens in an overflow area. You would think that this was a Taylor Swift concert." Finally, she asks, "What the heck is going on? But why are they there, what's drawing them?" Co-host Joe Scar...

There's a story that's been going around lately, and it's pretty true, that a bunch of Muslim women were recently arrested at the Playland Amusement Park in Rye, New York (which is owned by the Westchester County Government --the only amusement park in the nation so owned by a governmental entity ), for causing a disturbance and protesting the park's refusal to allow them entrance on the park's many rides while wearing their headgear. Being a life-long resident of Westchester County and friends with folks who've worked at Playland over the years, I have an issue with this entire story. It's being made out that the Muslim women were singled out, and that's just not the case. Here's the fact of the matter: Anyone wearing any sort of headgear, including scarves, is not permitted on any ride at Playland, for safety reasons: If the women were allowed onto the rides and one of them were choked to death because their scarf (their headgear) ...

For the past month, I have been performing various functions as a consultant for Marriage Equality New York (MENY) with respect to their 13th Annual Gala . It feels good to be doing activist and advocacy work again, and also to be working on a project. What I didn't expect to find was an amazing individual, whom MENY will be honoring at its signature event of the year: Edith "Edie" Windsor . What does this have to do with the fiscal argument for marriage equality, you might be asking yourself? Quite a bit, actually. Part of what I'm doing for MENY and its gala is something I do best: information gathering. In seeking out information about one of its honorees at the event (Edie), I came across the complaint she filed in federal court ( Southern District of New York ), challenging the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act ( DOMA ). You see, Edie has had to pay over $360,000 in estate taxes to continue living in the very same home that she and her l...

I posted the following as a comment to Ms. Marcus's editorial that appeared in yesterday's Washington Post : Ms. Marcus, I feel your editorial to be misrepresentative of the facts at hand. There are two major issues the LGBT community had with King & Spalding's retention by House Speaker Boehner to defend DOMA: First, King & Spalding has, traditionally, been an ally of the LGBT community, and touted its diversity rating and support of LGBT-issues to prospective clients and law students seeking to work for the firm. Defending a law that denies LGBT people access to over 1,138 federal rights and benefits was an enormous slap in the face to the community and in direct contravention with King & Spalding's long-standing support of the community. Second, the contract into which Mr. Clement entered King & Spalding with the House of Representatives placed illegal (in at least two states) and unenforceable conditions on the workers of a firm the size King...

So the gay community is up in arms over a soundbite provided by Kelly James, Ph.D., who is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminology at Winthrop University and who serves as faculty advisor for GLoBAL, Winthrop University's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Ally League. Apparently, so much so that she's receiving hate mail. It's more unfortunate that people are riled to such levels as they are unable to conduct a civil discourse. If one takes the time to read articles instead of just headlines, one would find out that Professor James is the bloody faculty advisor for the gay group on campus. So, while her concerns are real and her heart is in the right place, unfortunately, her mind hasn't followed suit.  Quoth she, in whole , But, my first thought was that, "I've got to let my students know" so that when they are out and about in Rock hill that they, you know, act straight, And that’s a sad lesson in 2011 to be teaching young people. I m...

Every Sunday around midnight, for more than the past two years, I've logged into the New York State Unemployment Insurance web site to certify my weekly claim for unemployment benefits (my whopping $60/week!). This past weekend, around midnight on Sunday, I logged into the web site without any difficulty. When I attempted to certify my weekly claim, as I had always done, I was advised that the site was experiencing technical difficulties and could not be access at that time. I tried, for the first time ever, to certify my weekly claim by calling in to the NYS Unemployment Office Certification number. I got up to the point where I choose the option to certify my weekly claim, and was advised that my request could not be completed at that time due to "technical difficulties." When I am able to certify my weekly claim before noon on Sunday, I receive my money on my debit card (issued by NYS thru Chase bank) very late Monday night. If I complete my weekly unemployment certifi...

OK, I've been trying to do this for the past few weeks but things just haven't been in my favour. I'm hoping that today, they are. Actually, I started this tag a number of weeks ago in my #followfriday and #samesexsunday recommendation posts but I just never had the chance to explain it until now. As most of you know, I use Twitter, that wonderful micro-blogging service that where you send status updates in 140 characters (or less) in response to a very basic question: What are you doing? One of the greatest things about Twitter, and what I find most valuable about it, is the ability to connect with people around the world who you may otherwise never come into contact with. I hold daily conversations with folks from the Netherlands, Australia, Europe, Asia, and the Americas (North and South) that I've met -- solely through Twitter. I've formed great friendships, and met some truly wonderful folk. The way to interact with people on Twitter is by following them, or ...

I just posted this video on Gather , that made my heart stop. I've been crying off and on since viewing it. My emotions are all jumbled, raging from terror, horror, sadness, grief, anger ... they're all over the place! I was raised with the understanding that the United States has been the defender of liberty, freedom, and Democracy around the world. The War of 1812. The Spanish American War. World War I. World War II. The Korean War. The Vietnam War. Desert Storm (for the liberation of Kuwait). The War on Terrorism (Iraq). And perhaps most importantly, the American Revolution. Until seeing this video, I did little to lend my support to the Iranian people. I changed the colour of my icon on Twitter to green to show my support of them, but that's about it. Now that I've seen what's really happening over there, I am outraged, and feel guilty. Obama's remark that "the world is watching" is just not enough. In response to that, I submit these quotatio...