Equality Forum's Annual Summit Is Set To Kick Off This Week
By Cherri Gregg
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Equality Forum's Global Summit on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender issues begins this week.
The four-day summit includes more than a dozen panel discussions on LGBT issues ranging from same-sex marriage to immigration reform and growing older.
"We have a national legal panel with lead council in the three major Pennsylvania cases, we have a religious colloquy, which has representatives from the Roman Catholic Church, Church of the Latter Day Saints," says Malcolm Lazin, founder of Equality Forum.
He says this year's forum will celebrate Canada as the featured nation for its ten years of marriage equality.
Lazin says the goal is to learn Canada's best practices, as support for LGBT equality grows in the US.
"We're beyond the tipping point," says Lazin, "well over 60 percent of self-identified republicans under the age of 30 support same-sex marriage. You had the Pope saying, 'who am I to judge?' when talking about gays, you've had all kinds of athletes come out in sports....it's incredible how much change has happened in a short period of time."
The event kicks off May 1st and culminates on Saturday with the International Equality Dinner honoring Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane and the National Hockey League.
The summit closes out on May 4 with SundayOUT at the Piazza.