Community Spotlight #13: Pennsylvania Equality Project

On June 20, 2011, David Moore was watching live coverage on C-Span of the New York state legislature voting to enact marriage equality for same-sex couples. He was so moved that he formed a group of like-minded people on Facebook and called it Gay Marriage for Pennsylvania. When enough people in the group expressed to him that the name overlooked far too many people in the LGBTQIA2S+ community, he changed the name to Marriage Equality for Pennsylvania (ME4PA). In 2012, Joshua Szczesny joined ME4PA; together, David and Josh built the organization into a small nonprofit. However, by August 2014, with marriage equality already law in Pennsylvania, he changed the name to Pennsylvania Equality Project (PEP). The organization he founded now focuses on surveys related to housing, discrimination, bullying, and mental health. PEP also offers the Meadville FreeShop, held two or three times per year at the Meadville Public Library.

The organization is applying to the FCC for a low-watt FM radio station license to serve Crawford County and provide live programming about the LGBTQIA2S+ community across PA. David hopes to open volunteer on-air talent opportunities for students from local schools and colleges. While these initiatives are of a localized nature, PEP also has a listing of resources, petitions, and events and conducts surveys on its website. To learn more about the Pennsylvania Equality Project, email info@paequality.com or see their Facebook page at https://facebook.com/paequalitypro or Instagram page at https://instagram.com/paequalitypro. The organization's website URL is https://paequality.com.