Pennsylvania Senator Announces: 'I'm Gay, Get Over It'
A Pennsylvania senator recently announced that he was gay during a press conference to promote a bill that would list crimes against sexuality as a hate crime in the state.
Senator Jim Ferlo made the announcement while speaking at a press conference to promote an updated hate crime law, saying "hundreds of people know I'm gay. I just never made an official declaration."
"I never felt I had to wear a billboard on my forehead. But I'm gay. Get over it. I love it. It's a great life."
Ferlo is now the first openly gay senator in Pennsylvania. State Rep. Brian Sims is also openly gay.
Sims and Ferlo are both promoting support for Senate Bill 42 and House Bill 177, seeking to have the state's hate crime laws be inclusive of crimes committed against members of the LGBT community for their sexuality. The push to change these laws comes after a homosexual couple was reportedly beaten by a group of young people in Philadelphia earlier in September.
Some of the assailants were reportedly affiliated with a local Catholic high school in the suburb of Warminster, and Archbishop Charles Chaput has spoken out against the beatings, saying they go against the Catholic teaching of loving one's neighbor.
"Violence against anyone, simply because of who they are, is inexcusable and alien to what it means to be a Christian," Chaput said last week regarding the incident.
"A key part of a Catholic education is forming students to respect the dignity of every human person whether we agree with them or not," Chaput continued. "What students do with that formation when they enter the adult world determines their own maturity and dignity, or their lack of it."
