LGBT prayer breakfast speakers call for greater equality, civil rights; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2/17/15

Peter Smith, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; LGBT prayer breakfast speakers call for greater equality, civil rights:

"Dozens of clergy and lay people gathered Monday morning for a prayer breakfast to call for greater civil rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons.

Speakers at the event, held at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Hampton, focused attention on efforts to pass a statewide ban on discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Currently some local governments have such legal protections — which apply to work, housing and accommodations — but not the state as a whole, even while same-sex marriage is legal in Pennsylvania under a 2014 federal court order..."

Rabbi Aaron Bisno of Rodef Shalom Congregation told the gathering of the “cost of silence,” comparing the effort for LGBT rights with the civil rights movement. Rabbi Bisno quoted the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as saying he would remember the “silence of our friends” more than the “words of our enemies.”