Human Rights Ordinance

Born in Chicago, IL in 1949 to a Catholic family, Mary Merriman joined the Air Force in 1967, where she struggled with her sexuality due to the environment, eventually becoming pregnant and discharging from the military before giving her son up for adoption. She attended Montgomery College in Maryland and received a degree in psychology, after which she and her then-partner moved down to Tampa, FL. Merriman got licensed and ordained as a pastor and started a Metropolitan Community Church in Lakeland, FL in 1983, where she and the congregation dealt with the difficulties of forming an LGBT church in a conservative town as well as the emergence of AIDS. In 1987, she was called to serve as pastor at Vision of Hope MCC in Lancaster, PA, a position which she held until 1995, navigating the creation of Lancaster’s Human Rights Ordinance and the process of buying the church’s current building in Mountville, PA. Since earning her Master of Social Work degree, she has worked as a social worker at Community Care Behavioral Health in Camp Hill, PA. In this interview, she discusses her involvement in the LGBT community, especially in the area of religion, and the advances that the community has made over time.

The Pennsylvania Rural Gay Caucus was “an association of interested individuals and groups, formed with the objective of promulgating the concerns and freedoms of gay people and all sexual minorities.”

In this letter, the Caucus is writing to the Majoyr of Allentown, PA in support of the adding sexual orientation preferences as a protection clause in the Human Rights Ordinance.

Created by Lorraine Kujawa, Cindy Mitzel, Mary Nancarrow, and several others in 1983, the Lavender Letter Newsletter was a calendar of events for, by, and about lesbian women to create community in the Central Pennsylvania area. The newsletter was distributed monthly until the mid-2000s. This issues features: 

• "Hates Crime Bill Introduced in Legislature" (p. 4)
• "KKK to. March in Lancaster" (p. 4)
• "Gay Bookstore Gets Bombed" (p. 4)
• "Channel 8 Debates KKK in Area" (p. 4)
• "Lancaster City Council Approves Ordinance" (p. 5)
• "WITF Declines to Air Award Winning Black Gay Film" (p. 5)
• 'York House AIDS Hospice to Open in York" (p. 5)

Document created by Jerry Brennan and Richard Hill recording the history and development of Dignity/Central PA as an organization in Harrisburg from July 1975 to June 1985. 

The Gay Era was a newspaper that reported news of interest from around the United States, with a specific focus on the news surrounding the gay community in Central PA, and provided a central forum for gay communities that were spread out across Central PA. Noteworthy news in this issues:

• "State-Wide Gay-Support Group Announced" (p. 2)
• "Council Appointments" (p. 4)
• "Rights Ordinance Introduced in State College" (p. 5)
• "Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Gay Case" (p. 6)
• "Anita's Source" (p. 11)
• "Rural Resources" (p. 15)

The Gay Era was a newspaper that reported news of interest from around the United States, with a specific focus on the news surrounding the gay community in Central PA, and provided a central forum for gay communities that were spread out across Central PA. Noteworthy news in this issues:

• "State Gay Support Group Formed" (p. 3)
• "Voter Registration Starts in Pennsylvania" (p. 5)
• "March Planned in Allentown" (p. 6)
• "Anita to Appear at Bloomsburg Fair" (p. 6)

This issue is missing some articles that appear to have been cut out at some point.

The Gay Era was a newspaper that reported news of interest from around the United States, with a specific focus on the news surrounding the gay community in Central PA, and provided a central forum for gay communities that were spread out across Central PA. Noteworthy news in this issues:

• "Allentwon Battle Continues: Gays Banned from City Forums" (p. 2)
• "Observations by David Leas" (p. 8)
• "Anita Display Removed in Misunderstanding" (p. 20)
• "Coming Out as an Old Man" (p. 24)

The Gay Era was a newspaper that reported news of interest from around the United States, with a specific focus on the news surrounding the gay community in Central PA, and provided a central forum for gay communities that were spread out across Central PA. Noteworthy news in this issues:

• "Lancaster City Council Votes against Anti-Porn Law" (p. 3)
• "Centre County Minorities Form Democratic Club" (p. 3)
• "Bill Gray for Congress" (p. 4)
• "Era Extension Drive" (p. 6)
• "Gubanatorial Candidates on Gay Issues" (p. 7)
• "Impressions of Pride '78" (p. 9)
• "Bruce Voeller" (p. 12)
• "Tom Wilson: They Laugh When He Sits Down at the Piano" (p. 14)
• "Tony Silvestre: Why Are You Gay-Because I'm Lucky" (p. 16)
• "Wanted: Volunteers for Research Project" (p. 17)
• "Report from Millersville" (p. 17)
• "Ecumenical Conference" (p. 18)
• "N.O.W. in Lancaster" (p. 19)
• "Rural Resouces" (p. 23)

The Gay Era was a newspaper that reported news of interest from around the United States, with a specific focus on the news surrounding the gay community in Central PA, and provided a central forum for gay communities that were spread out across Central PA. Notable news in this issues:

- National Gay Blue Jeans Day Held in State College (p.4)
- Allentown Battle: State Conference in Limbo (p.4)
- PA Rural Gay Resource List (p.10)
- Martin Rock (p.14)
- National Endowment for the Humanities (p.24)
- PDE Supports Affirmative Action for Gays (p.25)

The Gay Era was a newspaper that reported news of interest from around the United States, with a specific focus on the news surrounding the gay community in Central PA, and provided a central forum for gay communities that were spread out across Central PA. Notable news in this issues:

• Bryant Aid Details Gay Dade County "Errors"(p.4)
• School Cuts "Propaganda" Film (p.6)
• Harrisburg Radio Show (p.6)
• Allentown Rights a Political Hot Potato (p.7)

The Gay Era was a newspaper that reported news of interest from around the United States, with a specific focus on the news surrounding the gay community in Central PA, and provided a central forum for gay communities that were spread out across Central PA. Noteworthy news in this issues:

• "What is Obscenity?" (p. 3)
• "Gay Rights Ordinance Attempted in Allentown ("p. 5)
• "Lobbyist Kohn Denies Charges "(p. 6)
• "PA Rural Gay Resource List" (p. 12)
• We Are Not the Criminals: Support Human Rights Day (p. 13)
• "Dyke Cooper" (p. 15)
• "Gay Awareness at MSC" (p. 19)

The Gay Era was a newspaper that reported news of interest from around the United States, with a specific focus on the news surrounding the gay community in Central PA, and provided a central forum for gay communities that were spread out across Central PA. This is an anniversary issue. Noteworthy news in this issue includes:

• "State Hiring Regulations" (p.3)
• "Dyke Cooper" (p. 5)
• Rural Caucus Report (p. 7)
• "Shapp and Shrinks" (p. 9)
• "Reading (PA) Items" (p. 9) 
• "Council on Sexual Minorities" (p. 10)
• "Lebanon Items [Gay League of Lebanon]" (p. 11)
• "Pennsylvania Gays - It's Time" (p. 12)

The Gay Era was a newspaper that reported news of interest from around the United States, with a specific focus on the news surrounding the gay community in Central PA, and provided a central forum for gay communities that were spread out across Central PA. Notable news in this issues:

• "Wheatland Zapped" (p. 4)
• "Rural Caucus Report" (p. 5)
• "State College [PA]" (p. 5)
• "Reading [PA]" (p. 5)
• "A Personal Expression of Gay Oppression from Lancaster, PA" (p. 12)
• "Northumberland [PA]" (p. 13)

The Gay Era was a newspaper that reported news of interest from around the United States, with a specific focus on the news surrounding the gay community in Central PA, and provided a central forum for gay communities that were spread out across Central PA. Notable news in this issues:

• Gay Health Column (p.5)
• After a Year of Activism (p.6)
• Rural Caucus Meeting (p.7)
• Philadelphia Bill Defeated (p.7)
• Phila. Gay News Begins Publishing (p.7)
• GUL Holds Election of Officers (p.8)
• GUL Co-Sponsors Phila. Conference (p.8)
• Date Set For Gay Lobby Day (p.8)
• Dyke Cooper Comes to Town (p.9)
• Of Interest to Gay Women (W.O.W.) (p.9)
• Plant-Nite at Marietta Avenue (p.19)
• State Police Investigating Blackmail Racket (p.20)
• New Peer Counseling Program Begins (p.20)
• Constructing Gay Pride or Bari's Five Steps to Sainthood (p.23)

In these Meeting Minutes, motion to dissovle the PA Rural Gay Caucus as a formal organization is passed. Agenda concerns next steps of group. 

The Gay Era was a newspaper that reported news of interest from around the United States, with a specific focus on the news surrounding the gay community in Central PA, and provided a central forum for gay communities that were spread out across Central PA.

This issue was labeled incorrectly, and should be April 1976. Noteworthy news in this issue: 

• "Supreme Court Says 'Nay' on Gay" (p. 1)
• "Rural Caucus Report" (p. 5)
• "Governor's Council on Sexual Minorities" (p. 8)
• "Gay Education Day" (p. 12)