Editor’s note: We call upon the Pennsylvania legislature and Governor Shapiro to support inclusion of adult dental care for Medicaid patients. It is a vital component of living healthy, as demonstrated by this post.

 

Both my wife Jennifer and I are cancer survivors. While I have been in remission with papillary thyroid cancer since 2018, she has been fighting pancreatic neuroendocrine cancer since 2019. Her medication list is fairly long; she takes 20 different medications at different times throughout the day and week. Among the medications on her chart is tramadol, but she has not taken it for some time. Instead, she relies on Tylenol and ibuprofen for her pain management.

 

After weeks of suffering in December of last year, she tried to visit her dentist for tooth pain. While the dentist agreed that she needed to be seen, he explained to her that she does not have dental insurance coverage. On January 4, she decided to seek medical care from the local emergency department. The doctor that saw her treated her for an abscessed tooth. Before she left the hospital, the doctor prescribed Clindamycin (an antibiotic) and morphine sulfate for the pain. I could not be with her at the ER and had no idea she was prescribed morphine until she had picked it up from the pharmacy.

 

Jennifer began taking the morphine as prescribed, but she did not stop taking ibuprofen. She mixed the two medications, and within a few hours, she was incoherent. Initially, I thought maybe she was adjusting to the damage caused by the abscess, or that she had a minor infection caused by lack of treatment for so long. I thought that the antibiotic would relieve any infection, and that the morphine would give her comfort and allow her to sleep.

 

In the morning on January 9, Jennifer was setting up her medications for the week, a task I usually don’t pay much attention to. It was difficult watching her that morning, as she had put the wrong medications in the wrong spaces in her medicine box. She had stuffed 12 capsules of one of her cancer medications in one slot without any other medications. When she realized she had made a mistake, she tried correcting it by putting random medications back into random bottles.

 

By 3 PM on January 9, I loaded my wife into the car and drove her to the Emergency Room at a hospital in Erie, some 40 miles from home. My thinking was that if the morphine was the cause of the medication mix-up, that the local ER would only worsen matters. After 8 hours of waiting, numerous tests, and watching her blood pressure hover at 80/40, the doctor told us that Jennifer was in acute kidney failure. Her kidneys were shutting down due to the combination of ibuprofen, morphine, and an allergic reaction to the antibiotic. She spent 3 more days at the hospital, and two weeks at home recovering from the damage to her kidneys and a severe outbreak of hives from the antibiotic reaction which she never had before.

 

Jennifer survived her ordeal, but only because she we didn’t wait one more day for her to be seen by a physician. She should have been treated by a dentist, but the legislature of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania doesn’t seem to think that dental care for adults is a concern worthy of including in the annual budget. It hasn’t thought that way in 12 years. Adults have dental needs that must be addressed, and without adequate dental coverage whether from an employer or through Medicaid, they could suffer a similar fate as Jennifer did.

 

We do not know for sure whether Jennifer’s kidneys have resumed full, normal functioning. Everything seems better for now, but she will still not be able to return to the dentist any time soon. She could have died, if we had waited. Although kidney failure would have been the cause of death listed on her death certificate, the real cause was the lack of understanding, compassion, and urgency to restore adult dental coverage to the medical benefits package that is so desperately needed by Pennsylvania’s people living in poverty.

 

The President of our organization sent this email to Representative Sanchez in support of PA House Bill 637 to ban the gay/trans panic defense in criminal trials in Pennsylvania.

Representative Sanchez,

 

On behalf of the Pennsylvania Equality Project, thank you for writing and pushing for this bill. Our organization would like to help this bill get through the PA Senate to Governor Shapiro. I have reached out to the bill’s co-sponsor, Representative Schlossberg to let him know we will do everything we can to push this bill through. Too many LGBTQ+ folks have been brutally assaulted or died at the hands of homophobic and transphobic people who should be held criminally liable for their actions. When people in our community are attacked, harassed, bullied, intimidated, or in any other way harmed, it impacts our entire community. When a 16 year old nonbinary student in Owasso, Oklahoma was killed on February 8, our entire community was struck by the audacity of the cruel beating inflicted on Nex Benedict (they/them). They did not deserve to die. If a similar crime happened in Pennsylvania, the culprits could end up facing no criminal penalties whatsoever. The family still grieves, but gets no justice. My thanks to you and Representative Schlossberg for keeping in mind one of the most marginalized communities in Pennsylvania.

 

Best regards,

 

David E. Moore
President and Founder
Pennsylvania Equality Project

Additionally, Pennsylvania State Senators Saval, Schwank, and Costa will soon be introducing the companion bill in the Pennsylvania Senate. Accordingly, their co-sponsorship memorandum reads as follows:

Over the past decade, the consequences of eviction have been well documented. Evictions cause housing instability, economic hardship, and further the cycle of poverty. For example, Yale researchers found that people facing eviction were three times more likely to use emergency shelter, and annual incomes of evicted people dropped by $1,300 in the first year after an eviction and $2,400 during the second year.
 
What many people don’t know is that cases of eviction are always recorded, regardless of the result in court. Therefore, even when renters are not ultimately evicted from their home, the records of their previous court cases have similar long-term effects as actual evictions. As detailed in a recent report by Community Legal Services, eviction records negatively affect a person’s credit score and lessen future housing opportunities. Limited in this way, people many times are forced to live in unsafe housing or experience homelessness.
 
Evictions and eviction records are not evenly distributed. Princeton University’s Eviction Lab tracks nationwide eviction data and has found that eviction disproportionately affects specific individuals. According to Eviction Lab data, 59% of people facing eviction are women, the majority of whom are Black and Latino. A recent study by the American Civil Liberties Union found that in at least 17 states, Black female renters had evictions filed against them at double or more than double the rate of white renters.
 
Pennsylvanians deserve eviction laws that recognize this inequality, as well as state policies that protect them against the harmful effects of eviction records. Our legislation provides fairness for Pennsylvania’s renters by establishing procedures for limited access to eviction records. This bill will require courts to seal eviction case files unless and until a renter loses the case in court, at which point the records would be unsealed.
 
The bill would require no additional costs or requirements for landlords or renters, as the courts would be responsible for sealing and unsealing eviction records. This is a companion bill to legislation being introduced in the House by Reps. Smith-Wade-El, Fiedler, Krajewski and Harris.
 
It is time to provide adequate protections for renters in our state. Please join us in protecting Pennsylvania’s renters by supporting this legislation to limit access to eviction records.

Among the tech articles in the Washington Post comes this piece of praise from US President Joe Biden for the Kids Online Safety Act of 2023. Their article, shown here, mentions that some civil rights group have pushed back on how KOSA and the impact it could have on already marginalized youth.

 

President Biden on Tuesday gave his strongest endorsement to date of legislation aimed at boosting children’s safety online.

During remarks on mental health at the White House, Biden referenced the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), S.1409, and the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act, S.1628, which together aim to expand existing children’s privacy protections and give parents more controls over their kids’ online activity.

“Later this week, senators will debate legislation to protect kids’ privacy online, which I’ve been calling for for two years,” he said referencing the bills planned for consideration Thursday in the Senate Commerce Committee. “It matters. Pass it, pass it, pass it, pass it, pass it.”

The president in past State of the Union addresses broadly supported such efforts but his remarks Tuesday were his most direct yet of specific legislation.

The measures advanced out of committee last Congress but did not make it to a full Senate vote. Some civil rights groups have pushed back on KOSA, arguing the legislation could force companies to collect more data on children and take actions that could impact marginalized groups. The bills would also have to clear the House, which has focused on a federal privacy bill that includes some increased protections for kids.”

We are among the first Pennsylvania nonprofit organizations to push back against this bill, and we do so for several reasons. First, some of the very children that are intended to be protected may be inevitably harmed by this bill. As we have stressed in other posts online, LGBTQIA+ youth exist. They live in some states in which the political climate is already against them. In Florida and Missouri, among others, gender-affirming care is under attack for minors. Those youth who want to learn more about their own transgender selves and the steps they will need to take to live authentically often turn to the Internet, not only for information, but also for the support of their peers. SB 1409 has the chilling effect of giving parents control over every aspect of their child’s Internet searches and chat history. If they belong to a peer support group, and parents disapprove of the group, or of transgender people generally, the youth run the risk of outing themselves to parents who may readily evict them from the only home they have known with no warning whatsoever.

Another example of legislation crafted without much forethought about the lives of the LGBTQIA+ community, this bill does not address other familial issues. The presumption upon which the bill rests is that both parents in a household live together harmoniously. For youth who are pulled between the households of divorced parents with joint custody, the question will arise, which parent sets the boundaries for what a child can explore on the Internet? Will the Family Courts have to make these decisions? Will each parent get to decide differently depending on who has proximate custody at any given moment?

One critical problem for Internet companies such as Meta and Twitter will be determining who is an adult, and who is not. The method used by most banks for cashing a check, or for purchasing adult products such as tobacco or alcohol is to show some form of legal identification such as a driver’s license or state-issued ID card. Large Internet companies have never had any issues whatsoever with hackers crashing their party and absconding large amounts of data, right? At no time have consumers had to worry about their personal data, including their home addresses, being so easily compromised. Without a massive data collection effort on behalf of the larger companies, how will they ever determine who the adults are?

Our organization is critical of any governmental entity imposing censorship in such a way that LGBTQIA+ informational materials cannot be readily accessible for patients, regardless of age. While some may argue that youth should not be engaging in any form of sexual activity, it is incredibly naive to presume that they will remain celibate their entire young lives. Given that in some states, sexual education is not taught in a comprehensive manner that includes LGBTQIA+ youth and given that some states prefer abstinence only sexual education, the rate at which youth will spread STIs and create unintended pregnancies will increase rapidly for lack of solid education on these matters.

Censorship comes in many forms, which KOSA does not address. Instead, this bill places significant power in the hands of the Attorneys General of the various states. If one school district in Florida, for example, were to ban a book such as Gender Queer, because one parent complains about the book being pornographic. The local school district removes that book from the shelf in the libraries throughout the district. However, the Florida Attorney General’s office decides to amplify that parent’s voice and declares that the book’s publisher cannot advertise it at all within the state of Florida because according to Section 11 of the proposed bill,

“In any case in which the attorney general of a State has reason to believe that an interest of the residents of that State has been or is threatened or adversely affected by the engagement of any person in a practice that violates this Act or a regulation promulgated under this Act, the State, as parens patriae, may bring a civil action on behalf of the residents of the State in a district court of the United States or a State court of appropriate jurisdiction to—

(i) enjoin that practice;”

What practice might be so egregious that it would fall under this particular portion of the bill? Under Section 3, Duty of Care, (4) “Sexual exploitation and abuse.” Simply having a book that includes LGBTQIA+ characters could be stretched by the state’s Attorney General to be considered exploitation; after all, these are the same politicians who consider the LGBTQIA+ community nothing more than “groomers.”

Youth have enough to worry about in their lives ranging from whom they intend to date, to where they intend to go to college or trade school, or if they will even go. Some youth bounce back and forth between households. Some youth expend all the energy they have in one day keeping their gender identity or sexual orientation a secret from their parents who may very well evict them simply for being who they are. Some youth worry about whether they will live to the next day given their fears and their own insecurities. Giving them safe space outlets to converse with friends without the peering eyes of the government, the big tech companies, or their parents is precisely the antedote to dealing with a world that in some places really is out to get them. Do youth need protection when exploring on the Internet? Yes, but the people from whom many LGBTQIA+ youth need the most protection is not the same people whom the US Senate seems to think. We encourage our very own Senator Bob Casey to reconsider his full support for this bill in light of these points. We urge you to take notice and call his office to share your thoughts.

Editor’s Note: At the Erie County Council Meeting on July 11, 2023, ten members of the public spoke against the discrimination exhibited by Blasco Memorial Library Director Karen Pierce. Most of the speakers spoke in favor of returning the Pride display to the Children’s library for another month. Vice Chairwoman Mary Rennie was not in favor of restoring the Pride display this year but did recognize that the Director’s instructions to remove the display were “atrocious” and discriminatory. Special thanks to the Erie County Democratic Socialist Youth organization that held a brief gathering in front of the Courthouse before the meeting.

Good evening, honorable Council Members,

 

I am David Moore, President and Founder of the Pennsylvania Equality Project. Our 501c3 nonprofit organization represents over 31,000 Pennsylvanians in the LGBTQIA+ community and our allies. In our 2023 LGBTQIA+ Pennsylvania Housing Survey, 27 responses came from residents of Erie County. They are productive, tax-paying members of the community who use services such as the Erie County Library System. The library is supposed to be an open, safe space for all who come to use the library’s services, to read, and to remain lifelong learners. Our organization proudly supports the Pennsylvania Library Association and all its affiliate libraries across the Commonwealth in promoting literacy.

 

Sadly, on June 20, just days before the Northwest PA Pride Alliance held Pride in Perry Square near this very Courthouse, the children’s librarians of the Blasco Memorial Library were instructed to remove the Pride display which held a collection of age-appropriate pieces of children’s literature including LGBTQIA+ characters. Librarians were told that they had to move the display or remove it entirely from the children’s section. Instead of removing only the Pride display, in recognition of their ethics of welcoming all who come to the library, the librarians removed all the displays from the Children’s section.

 

As our response to that action, our organization, in partnership with other organizations held a Read In at the library with the intent of raising awareness of the discrimination inflicted on our community. Erie City Council Member, Susannah Faulkner has launched an initiative to make the City of Erie a sanctuary for LGBTQIA+ people fleeing discrimination and harassment in other US States. Her efforts to make the city of Erie a safe space are marred by a County Library, and its director, that refused to take a stand against discrimination. Erie is not a welcoming place for all, despite its perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign Municipal Index, if the library cannot even display LGBTQIA+ books during Pride Month intended for youth who have questions.

 

People of all ages with varied sexual orientations and gender identities exist, including youth.  They use the library. They attend local public schools. Families with two moms, two dads, and a wide variety of other arrangements exist right here in Erie County. They should not suffer discrimination or hate simply because a few complaints come to the attention of the library director or the County Executive. They have the right to read; they deserve the freedom to exercise that right. We implore this Honorable Council to end discrimination in the library system to prevent future Read-In events. We seek representation in our library’s programs and displays, and nothing less. Thank you.

Right wing media has been abuzz since 1973 about the US Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade 410 U.S. 113, which the Court overturned within the last year in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The Pro-Life movement in the United States has focused primarily on banning abortion in all 50 states and limiting reproductive freedoms in most cases. Further, the right-wing has also vehemently fought against the rights of transgender people to receive gender-affirming healthcare which is endorsed by every major medical association, including the AMA. The right-wing, while somewhat sympathetic to those who are dying, refuse to agree to terminally-ill patients being given the option to take their own lives rather than live in agonizing pain. For being the political wing that claims to support freedoms, they lack any reasonable explanation about why humans should not have the freedom to do as we please with our own bodies. Being pro-life, to us, is about the quality of one’s life as much as it is about its longevity. It is about the freedom to make decisions that governmental entities should not involve themselves.

 

A truly pro-life approach to governance includes the following, and by no means is this an exhaustive list: free pre-natal care for moms-to-be, free counseling for new parents who need extra emotional support, expansion of the WiC program, expansion of programs such as head start, and pre-Kindergarten, free daycare options for parents who need them, quality public schools that support the needs of children, including school meal programs. A truly pro-life approach to governance includes free college and university level study for all who want to attend, free technical training for those who prefer a different education route. A truly pro-life approach to governance includes funding universal healthcare for all who reside in this country. If our neighbors across Europe can find the government funding to meet these expenses, the United States certainly can. If our neighbors in other countries have lower infant mortality rates and lower death rates for pregnant moms than we do, then our country must do better. We must promote healthy bodies and minds for all who live here. We must provide adequate nutrition, education, mental health services, and medicine to those who need the assistance.

 

Our schools are not target practice ranges. Children should not be going to school and feel as if they are in a combat zone. They have sufficient stressors in their lives without having to worry about gun violence. Reducing gun violence begins by assuring that guns do not come near schools. Arming teachers and other paraprofessionals simply is not the answer. We need to reduce the number and availability of weapons, especially to those with mental health issues. Schools need to implement conflict resolution strategies to reduce bullying, intimidation, and harassment within schools. One cannot be pro-life without providing support services for schools to reduce conflict and bullying.

 

Our climate, our physical Earthly environment are at risk. As global temperatures continue to rise, we face greater challenges from weather-related phenomena to health-risks caused by polluted water supplies and contaminated air. We must become less reliant on fossil fuels and encourage simple action such as composting and sustainability programs such as our very own FreeShop, in which we accept gently used items such as blankets, clothing, toys, games, books, and small table-top appliances on one day and make them available for pick-up the next day. The less material we send to our landfills, the better our odds at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The survival of all life on planet Earth depends on our stewardship of the Earth today.

 

Our lives should be richly filled with opportunities for reflection and growth. Lifelong learning and literacy are key to providing such opportunities. Instead of banning books, we should be encouraging youth of all ages to learn more about the complex diversity of the people who reside with us on this planet. Instead of banning drag shows, we should encourage people to be tastefully expressive with their art. Gay children exist. Lesbian children exist. Transgender youth exist. Nonbinary people exist. The LGBTQIA+ community is not an ideology. Being woke is no longer a slur for us. We dust that off and refer to ourselves as truly pro-life.

 

However, life eventually ends. Someday, we will no longer grace our friends and neighbors with our smile, except via old photos and videos. For people who are approaching life’s end, the physical pain that hurts us becomes intolerable. It becomes unbearable. People who are within six months of living their final days should not have to needlessly live through the pain and the suffering. We all deserve the right to die with dignity and to allow our friends and families the opportunity to grieve with us before our passing. Giving ourselves that dignity is among the greatest pro-life actions we can take. Those in right-wing circles who fail to understand all the concepts, that I have enumerated, are not pro-life. They are anti-abortion and lack the compassion and empathy they will someday ask of us as their own lives are ending.

Editor’s Note: Today’s blog post comes to us from Marcus Lansky, Founder of Abilitator.biz. 

As the economy continues to rebound, small businesses are facing problems with rising inflation rates and an understaffed market. The unstable economy presents unique challenges when it comes to scaling small business operations. Navigating a small business expansion in this economic climate requires careful consideration and planning. To help increase your chances of success as an LGBTQ+ entrepreneur, Pennsylvania Equity Project is here to share some valuable tips and insights.

 

Prepare Your Website for Sustainable Growth

 

If your website is not prepared for sustainable growth, an increase in traffic could lead to a drop in website performance, creating a frustrating shopping experience for your customers.

 

Evaluating your site’s content is a good place to start. As part of a larger content marketing strategy that also includes creating and sharing content on social media, relevant and useful content is key to drawing and retaining visitors. You can click here to learn more about the ins and outs of content marketing and using it to your advantage. This is all part of leveraging modern digital marketing techniques such as search engine optimization (SEO), social media advertising, and email campaigns to reach a wider audience at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing channels.

 

Another idea is to consider making the shift to scalable hosting solutions, such as cloud hosting or virtual private servers (VPS), that will allow you to adjust your server resources based on your traffic demands. It’s also important to audit your website regularly to address technical issues, improve your page load speed, and enhance mobile responsiveness. At the same time, focus on creating a user-friendly experience so your customers can easily find what they need.

Have Customers Do Your Marketing for You

 

Word-of-mouth marketing has an incredible return on investment. According to NeilPatel.com, 90% of people trust brand recommendations from friends, and 70% rely on consumer opinions when making purchase decisions. Leveraging the power of customer referrals can help you grow your business without blowing your marketing budget on paid advertisements.

 

Mobilize your customers to do your marketing for you by offering incentives for referrals. Gift cards are great for this purpose! For example, you may consider a digital gift card API to automate the delivery of gift cards to customers who advocate for your brand. Using an API will allow you to easily reward respondents and customize the reward experience with your own branding and messaging.

 

Get Involved With LGBTQ+ Organizations

 

Getting involved with local LGBTQ+ organizations is a great way to get some recognition in the community, which will help scale your business. When you’re participating in organizations and like-minded events, you plug into the pulse of the community and make new connections.

 

Optimize Your Operational Efficiency

 

As your business grows, so will your business processes. If you’re already facing labor shortages or cost issues, you may not be able to keep up with your growing operational demands.

 

Take action to optimize your operational efficiency before scaling your business. For example, TechTarget recommends identifying a single business process that needs improvement and isolating weaknesses that can be improved. Be sure to take advantage of process management software, CRM platforms, and project management tools to optimize workflows and minimize inefficiencies.

 

Focus on Employee Retention

 

The Great Resignation is a post-COVID economic trend in which mass numbers of workers are quitting due to low pay and lack of opportunities for advancement. As such, employee retention should be one of your top priorities.

 

Workhuman suggests several ways to retain workers, including recognizing your employees for their contributions, offering flexible work arrangements, providing opportunities for training and development, and offering competitive pay. Investing in employee retention strategies, including fostering an inclusive work environment, will help you weather the understaffed market as you work to grow your business.

 

Mitigate Rising Costs

 

Small businesses everywhere are facing rising overhead costs. To give your business room to grow, you’ll need to embrace a few money-saving strategies. One effective approach is to go paperless, reducing expenses associated with printing, storage, and document management. If you spend a lot of money on traditional marketing, you can cut costs significantly by relying on modern online marketing.

 

As an LGBTQ+ entrepreneur, scaling your small business in an unpredictable economy requires a strategic approach. By preparing your website for sustainable growth, incentivizing your customers to do your marketing for you, focusing on employee retention, and taking steps to reduce your overhead costs, you can navigate many of the challenges facing small businesses today.

Pennsylvania Equity Project is dedicated to making Pennsylvania a better place to live, work, and grow for the LGBTQIA+ community and other marginalized groups. Contact us today to learn more! (814) 337-9732