I apologize if this has been diaried previously; I've been out of town for a few days. HB 2381, the so-called Marriage Protection Amendment, died in committee in the wee hours of July 2nd. The amendment was overwhelmingly passed in both houses, but with different wording; the PA House version would have endangered civil unions and domestic partner benefits, while the PA Senate version did not. The bill was eventually referred to the PA House Rules committee, where it died. Because of the demise of this bill, the earliest this could go before PA voters is 2009.
Many thanks to the Center for GLBT Civil Rights, which took a leadership role in lobbying against this amendment. A significant coalition of organizations, including a wide variety of faith communities, lobbied against this amendment. (I even went out to Harrisburg myself, and I'm anything but comfortable going office-to-office talking to legislators and administrative assistants - but under the circumstances, one does what one can.)
It is almost certain that this bill will be back in a future session of the PA legislature. So, if you're a PA progressive, please do whatever you can to build coalitions against these phony marriage protection amendments, so we're prepared when this comes up again!