No love lost between Dems, GOP over ‘Love is Love Day’
A proposal to recognize “Love is Love Day” next Saturday in Pennsylvania died in the state Senate this week because the feeling apparently isn’t mutual among Democrats and Republicans.
Bucks County Democrat Sen. Steve Santarsiero promoted recognizing love and acceptance of and among youth who are not heterosexual on a “Love is Love Day.”
In a video broadcast on his official website, Santarsiero noted Feb. 15, the day after Valentine’s Day, coincides with an event called “the rainbow room prom” in Doylestown, part of his district.
Santarsiero sought what is known as “unanimous consent” for a measure in support of “Love is Love,” but it was shot down, not by cupid’s arrow, but because no one knew what they were voting on, according to Sen. Camera Bartolotta, R-Carroll Township.
Her 46th District represents the bulk of Washington County, part of Beaver County and all of Greene County, and she won praise, nonetheless, during this dust-up from both Santarsiero and Lt. Gov. John Fetterman.
“As president of the PA Senate, I am disappointed by the lack of unanimous consent for Love is Love Day,” Fetterman tweeted Thursday.
“However, I am heartened this is a minority view within the majority. (With) leaders like @senbartolotta, we are closer to giving the LGBTQ community what they deserve in PA.”
Bartolotta, however, didn’t express unanimity with either Fetterman or Santarsiero.
“There never was a vote at all,” Bartolotta said late Friday afternoon on a train trip from Philadelphia to Harrisburg. “No one knows how many Republicans were for it.”
She took Santarsiero to task for waiting until after the legislative session wrapped up for the day – during a segment known as “proclamations and remonstrances” – to present his proclamation.
Bartolotta said she had already left the chamber and was still, on Friday, trying to piece together what Santarsiero had delineated.
“It was much more than love is love, let’s get along,” she said. “Most of our unanimous consent resolutions are not controversial by their very nature. There may’ve been some things included that didn’t fit well with everyone. This does not mean the entire caucus was homophobic.”
On Monday, the Harrisburg Capital-Star featured a photo of Bartolotta rallying “with LGBTQ advocates at the state Capitol in Harrisburg who seek protection from discrimination.”
The headline quoted her saying, “It’s about damn time” that changes in the state’s human rights law make “it illegal for landlords, employers and businesses to discriminate against LGBTQ citizens.” The news account cites 1976 as the year such protections were introduced in the General Assembly.
Bartolotta twice retweeted the Capital-Star story and photo.
Santarsiero, after “Love is Love Day” went by the wayside, acknowledged and thanked Bartolotta for her support of the anti-discrimination measure known as Senate Bill 614.
Bartolotta said she was “disappointed that a unanimous consent that I feel very passionate about was weaponized. There were many Republican senators in favor of this topic.”
Many, but not all, unanimous consent resolutions may instead be sent to the Rules Committee, of which Bartolotta is also a member, and not, she said, because of “Love is Love.”
Social media also sparked a controversy when a Democrat dissented on a condolence message in the wake of Kobe Bryant’s recent death, along with that of his daughter, Gianna, in a helicopter crash.
Bartolotta pointed to Democratic state Sen. Katie Muth, a sexual assault survivor, who brought up a sexual assault allegation against Bryant on Twitter.
Bryant, who played basketball at Lower Merion High School outside of Philadelphia, maintained the 2003 episode was consensual, and the accuser refused to testify against him.
Bartolotta maintains Republican leadership “pulled unanimous consent” not because of “Love is Love Day,” but “mostly because of Kobe Bryant condolence resolution.”