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...

Earlier today I received this e-mail response from a Hillary Clinton supporter who was in my contacts, listed as a media contact, in response to trying to promote one of my articles . It's disheartening that members of my LGBTQ community would respond in such a way, especially with respect to an issue I firmly believe is of great importance to the queer community. We cannot—and should not—allow anyone, for any purpose, to distort our history. This sort of response worries me a great deal. Certain members of our community are completely deaf to dissenting voices, afraid of damaging some fragile balance that must be maintained at all costs. The attitude that we all must fall in line, lock, step, and barrell, is more than troublesome. Our community used to celebrate our differences and value each other's uniqueness. When did we shift from celebrating our diversity to enshrining who we, the queer community, are in such a cookie-cutter definition? Further, when did we, as a ...

Post by Peter C. Equality Frank .

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE On Saturday, July 14, 2012, a fundraiser was held to assist with efforts to raise the nearly $5,000 in funds needed to pay for various NYC permits required to stage  Bronx   Pride  2012 , an LGBT  pride  festival, celebration, and rally that will be held on  Saturday, July 21, 2012  at  Crotona Park  in The  Bronx  from  noon until 6 pm . Donations to help pay the NYC permit fees are being accepted on the Eventbrite page created for the  pride  event at  http://bronxpride2012.eventbrite.com/ . Additionally, orders for official  Bronx   Pride  2012 T-shirts, with personalization options, are being taken. All orders will be available for pick up at  Bronx   Pride  on Saturday. Due to the financial straits everyone is in, we will only be producing T-shirts for people who order them in advance, through Eventbrite. More importantly, attendees at the fun...

In the early 1990s, I advocated pursuing the fight for full marriage equality, in the Hawaii case. Most of the leadership in the LGBTQ community (with the notable exception of Evan Wolfson) nay-sayed the idea, saying that it was too much, too soon. Having studied the civil rights struggles of two notable minority groups in this nation (namely, women and Blacks), it's clear that the minority remained oppressed for centuries because they were appeased with the step-by-step breadcrumbs thrown at them by those in power, those who kept them in second-class citizenship status. I argued that, to break this cycle, we must not accept these small steps, these small breadcrumbs and scraps of rights thrown from the table. We must not have to fight 20 years just to achieve one equal right and another 30 years to achieve another. Instead, we must ask for it all, the whole kit and kaboodle, upfront. Only then will we be able to achieve the equality to which we are legally entitled. Twenty ...

I just e-mailed the following letter to Pastor Hamlin, at pastor@greenbeltucc.org, with a cc: to the Miss Greenbelt Pageant organizers, at natasha@missgreenbelt.com, christine@missgreenbelt.com (they list no other contact information on their web site, at  http://www.missgreenbelt.com/  ) * * * Dear Pastor Hamlin: I write to you because you are listed as a supporter of the Miss Greenbelt Pageants . As a church and religious organization with clear pro-marriage equality stances , I would like to know why you are supporting this clearly anti-LGBT organization and one of its start spokespersons, Little Miss Greenbelt, Sarah Crank. A few days ago, 14-year old Little Miss Greenbelt, Sarah Crank, who is home-schooled by her very anti-LGBTQ Concerned Women for America lobbyist mother,  told the Maryland state legislature , and I quote, " It would be the best birthday present ever if you would vote no on gay marriage ." and " People have the choice to be gay, but...

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...

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...

I was just as this question on a web site I participate in, and thought I'd share my response here for all of you to see.  What is your solution to keeping gays in the military?  Robert, when Truman integrated the military, he didn't wait for Congress. He didn't poll the foot soldiers to find out how they'd "FEEL" about having to live and/or serve with other races in the same unit. He didn't pussyfoot around. He issued a fucking executive order as Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces, and the troops fucking followed his order. Period, end of discussion! The only  reason that can be inferred from POTUS Barack Obama's refusal to end DADT and order an end to discrimination against gay men and lesbians serving in the Armed Forces of United States of America is because he doesn't want to. US  President Harry S. Truman Truman's top military aides and advisers all thought he was bonkers for integrating the military. But guess what? He issue...

AS OF MAY 2004—the last time this analysis was conducted, six years ago—there were ONE THOUSAND, ONE HUNDRED and THIRTY-EIGHT FEDERAL LAWS where martial status is a factor in determining rights , benefits , responsibilities , obligations , protections , etc. In the past ten years alone, the IRS code ( Title 26 of the United States Code ) has grown by some 35,000 page or approximately 50% (thanks to Dorian Davis for this video factoid); if we presume that the IRS code grew 3,500 pages per year over the past ten years (using simple math--not trying to do complicate things), then we can say that it grew 21,000 pages over the past six years. In those 21,000 pages, how much would you like to bet that there are some new laws where marital status is a factor—and that's just in the IRS code, which constitutes only a portion of the United States Code surveyed to determine the number of laws where marital status is a factor. How does this affect the every day individual—"Joe Sch...