Lesbian

HARRISBURG - The Pennsylvania Human Relations Act has long banned discrimination in employment and housing on the basis of gender, race, religion, and disability. Not covered, however, is sexual orientation or gender identity. State Rep. Dan Frankel (D., Allegheny) has waged a nearly decade-long fight to change that through legislation that would add gay, lesbian, and transgendered Pennsylvanians to the protected categories. Speaking at a House Democratic Policy hearing Monday, Frankel noted that 21 states, including New Jersey and Delaware, along with dozens of municipalities and the 27 Fortune 500 companies located in Pennsylvania, have such policies in place.

SOME BURGLARS are stealthy. They'll pick a lock, swipe the diamonds you rarely wear, and leave no evidence behind. You might not notice what's missing for weeks or months. And then there's Britney Singleton and Harley Gifford, the 19-year-old lesbian lovers who Upper Darby police say ransacked more than two dozen houses this summer, stealing everything from flat-screen TVs to facial creams - and turning back only when, the women insist, a lion greeted them inside one of the homes.

RE columnist Ronnie Polaneczky's "Store Dresses Down Bride for Being a Lesbian" : How can anyone make such a staunch claim of identity based upon something as precarious, if not frivolous, as the human sexual appetite? Worse yet, why should anyone support those who have estranged themselves from the rest of humanity? That's right. I said "estranged. " If that weren't the case, then why do gays use the term "straight allies"? Moreover, if gays see us as enemies, why don't they just fight to win our minds by engaging in intelligent dialogue about what makes a person gay?

NBC's Today coanchor Ann Curry was full of one-liners when she addressed the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association here Friday. Some of her lines were funny and others poignant, but in the end Curry, who coincidentally was named last week to Forbes' list of the 100 most powerful women in the world, had the crowd on its feet. "I'm the queen of stories nobody really wants to know about," she said, referring to her passion for stories about the suffering of women and children in Congo.

LYNDON, Kan. - A jury yesterday convicted a Kansas man of capital murder in the shooting deaths of his estranged wife, their two teenage daughters and his wife's grandmother - crimes his attorneys said he committed after his spouse took a lesbian lover and filed for divorce. Attorneys for James Kraig Kahler had argued that his mental health deteriorated and he finally snapped because of his pending divorce and his wife's sexual relationship with another woman whom she met when they lived in Texas.

THIS IS ONE of those stories that make me want to say "I'm sorry" to gay people for the nonsense they endure from some heterosexuals who give the rest of us straight people a bad name. So please, Alix Genter, accept my heartfelt apology that you were denied the chance to purchase the wedding gown of your dreams from Here Comes the Bride. The manager of the salon, in Somers Point, N.J., said she didn't want to be associated with your pending "illegal action. " Yep, that's actually how she referred to your wedding, next July, to your longtime partner (whose name you asked me to withhold in this column, as she's publicity-shy)

WASHINGTON - As the Obama administration moves to end the ban on homosexuals serving openly in the military, the Pentagon is still grappling with major questions about how it will integrate gay and lesbian service members into the ranks. President Obama notified Congress on Friday that the ban would be abolished Sept. 20 and said that it could be done without harming the military's readiness. Congress required the certification when it voted in December to repeal the 1993 policy that required discharging gay and lesbian service members.

One winter afternoon in 2003, in a conference room overlooking the Ben Franklin Bridge, six marketing strategists met to devise a slogan that would revolutionize the city's tourism industry. The target audience represented fewer than 10 percent of Americans. But this minority had time and money, considerably more than the average citizen, and Philadelphia needed the business. The city was missing out on its share of the $54 billion that gays and lesbians were spending yearly on travel.

The Sundance-approved "Gun Hill Road" is at QFest, Philly's homegrown gay and lesbian film festival, because it's about a teenage boy who wants to transition from male to female. But "Gun Hill Road's" appeal goes beyond the niche LGBT audience. Rashaad Ernesto Green's full-length debut is about family dynamics and notions of masculinity in Latino culture. The boy's father, played by Enrique (Esai Morales), returns from prison to find his son Michael (Harmony Santana) is a different person.

How many times have you wished you could go back in time and give your younger self a swift kick in the rear over stupid decisions? That's the premise of director J.T. Tepnapa's feature premiere, the time-travel melodrama Judas Kiss , one of two opening-night films for Philadelphia QFest. The festival will offer 109 films through July 18. A mélange of A Christmas Carol , It's a Wonderful Life , and Dante's Cove - with a smidgen of Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Judas Kiss stars Charlie David   as Zachary, a washed-up 35-year-old filmmaker and freeloader who is asked to judge a film contest at his alma mater.