photo by Bruce-Michael Gelbert
Patrick Murphy (center), former Congressman, DADT repeal champion & PA Attorney General candidate, with his Pines hosts Steve Rosen & Ron Blum
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To celebrate their 30th anniversary, Fire Island Pines and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania couple Ron Blum and Steve Rosen hosted a fundraiser for former PA Congressman Patrick Murphy, champion of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal, who is running for PA State Attorney General in 2012. The ‘Do Ask, Do Tell’ breakfast benefit for Murphy took place on June 5 at the ocean-side Pines home of David Castleman and Seth Weissman.

A pro-choice Catholic, former ‘altar boy of the year,’ and Iraqi War veteran, who is the son of a police officer and a former nun, Murphy, who was accompanied by his wife Jenni and their small children, Maggie and Jack, on his first-ever visit to Fire Island, spoke of his determination “to vote my conscience” on repeal of DADT and on getting the troops out of Iraq, and about “fighting for values that we all believe in: … [the] fight for equality … [for] American Constitutional values.” Having been asked, “Why do you care so deeply about Don’t Ask Don’t Tell?” Murphy added, “There are those of us who are fighting to do what’s right … to bring our country forward.”

Since Attorney General became an elected office 32 years ago in PA, there has never been a Democratic AG, but our candidate, running on a ticket of Barack Obama for President—Bob Casey for US Senator—and Patrick Murphy for AG, next year, and having once “won a tough [Congressional] seat in a conservative district,” is determined to win, “It’s going to be an $8 million race … They’re going to come after me as an environmentalist and on equality,” Murphy warns. The first declared candidate for PA AG in 2012, Murphy deserves our strong support.