Question For the Pgh. Lesbian Correspondents: Does Gay Marriage Trump Third World Conditions and Murders in the Black Community?

(Originally Published May 14 Before the Election)

Question for the Pgh. Lesbian Correspondents: Is Gay Marriage more important than black male joblessness and the resulting parade of drug war corpses that result from that? What issue is more "progressive"?

ITEM: Lavelle creates anti-Tonya website. By the way, I noticed that Maria linked to a piece by the Pgh Lesbian correspondents--which features routinely great writing--and they gave Lavelle the thumbs down because he was unclear on his position on lesbian and gay issues. You can read it for yourself. I also suspect that there's some reluctance about getting rid of a female rep on a mostly male council. Fair enough.

For the record and speaking for myself, the most persuasive case against Tonya came from a woman, otherwise known as Dr. Goddess, although I'm not sure who's she endorsing in the current race or if she's endorsed anyone. I'm fairly certain she hasn't endorsed Tonya.

Here's what she wrote about Tonya:

It's not a grocery store, goddammit! Our children are DYING. Get it? Dying!

I told Pgh United this from the very beginning. We shared this within One Hill. We told them not to let anyone market this bullcrap to us from the start. Of course a grocery store is an easy win and another way to GET MONEY from people in the neighborhood.

And so, I am sick of everybody at this point. And I am most sick of my City Council representative, Tonya Payne, because she has wasted our entire community's time for the last two years. If we had someone really fighting for us, really going to bat for us AND (this is key, so pay attention) in the positions that she has been in (Planning and Zoning, the URA, close association with Mayor Ravenstahl and David Morehouse of the Penguins), we would not have to waste one moment of our time having to protest. We would be able to simply shake hands with the Mayor, shake hands with the Pens, shake hands with Dan Onorato and applaud our collective vision and masterplan for reinvestment.

I suppose if she was writing about this now it would be: "It's not about gay marriage, goddamnit!" I might also note that her critiques rise above "snark". She also wrote this later:

Tonya Payne does not deserve to be our representative. And I am calling on all of the people who remotely thought putting her in office was a good idea to please get your ballots ready to put her OUT.

But I guess the point of the matter for me is that we're facing Third World conditions within the black community. Manning Marable once wrote a book called "How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America" and it still holds up because its still true. If its a choice between gay marriage and ending this succession of murdered black teens involved in the drug trade then I think you can be a progressive and decide that the latter is more important than the former. I might note that with this stimulus we're looking at these same issues again. The rate of black crime rises proportionally with the elimination of meaningful blue collar work. I don't know if Robert Lavelle can change all that but if you're a person in his district I would think that you would want to give him the chance. To me, anyway, ending this parade of murdered black people trumps gay marriage as an issue, even as a progressive issue. Or, now that I think about it, especially as a progressive issue.