Special to News is Out from Philadelphia Gay News Although no law can truly prevent unfair treatment, nondiscrimination laws act as a deterrent and offer a path to accountability when problems arise. But many state statutes do not explicitly protect LGBTQ+ people — and without federal nondiscrimination laws pertaining to the queer community, most LGBTQ+ people […]
Author Archives: Lauren Rowello
Posted inCommunity
The need to preserve LGBTQ+ histories of rural America
Special to News is Out from Philadelphia Gay News “People think of big cities when they think about the LGBTQ community because it’s just more visible there,” said Barry Loveland, co-founder of the LGBT Center of Central PA History Project, explaining that it’s often easier to find and document the stories of queer urban pasts. “The more rural […]
Posted inTop Stories
Corporate America’s embrace of LGBTQ+ rights shaped history. What’s next for allyship?
Special to News is Out from the LGBT History Project. “The evolution of a company’s policies and branding and reputation is a lifelong work-in-progress,” said Bob Witek, a pioneering LGBTQ+ business leader and communications strategist. Concepts like DEI are mainstream today, and advertising to LGBTQ+ customers is commonplace — but neither were the norm thirty years […]
Posted inHistory
“But the Bible says!”: How one mistake accidentally sparked today’s anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric
This article originally appeared in Philadelphia Gay News as part of the LGBTQ+ History Month series. After months of deliberation, David Sheldon Fearon wrote a letter in 1959 to the committee responsible for developing the Revised Standard Version (RSV) of the Bible. Fearon, recently deceased, was then a 21-year-old seminary student in Canada who hoped […]