HARRISBURG (TNS) — The heads of Pennsylvania’s legislative LGBTQ+ Caucuses are calling on the General Assembly to enact a non-discriminatory statute one day after a Franklin County borough became the first in the commonwealth to revoke such a measure at the local level.
State Reps. Dan Frankel, D-Allegheny, Brian Sims, D-Philadelphia, and Sen. Katie Muth, D-Berks, all co-chairs of the LGBTQ+ Caucus, excoriated the Chambersburg Borough Council voting Monday to repeal an LGBTQ anti-discrimination ordinance.
“Last night, the Republican-led Chambersburg Borough Council committed a shameful action by repealing their local nondiscrimination ordinance,” the three lawmakers said in a joint written statement. “That vote was a dangerous step backwards and puts LGBTQ+ Pennsylvanians in an extremely vulnerable position, eliminating their access to recourse if they are denied housing, education or public accommodations because of who they are or who they love.”
In repealing the ordinance, Chambersburg became the first among 70 Pennsylvania municipalities that have enacted LGBTQ inclusive laws to revoke it.
Pennsylvania is the only state in the Northeast without anti-discrimination protections for the LGBTQ+ community. Twenty-two states across the country have implemented statewide anti-discrimination protections.
Since 2001, Democrats have introduced legislation that would prohibit discrimination based on a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. The current version of such proposals, House Bill 300, sits in the House State Government Committee. The lawmakers noted that the measure “has not received a vote, let alone a hearing.”
“We are once again asking for Republican leadership to allow H.B. 300 to receive a vote, so finally someone’s civil rights are not decided by their ZIP code.”
Despite more than three hours of testimony from borough residents imploring the council to keep the ordinance intact, the Republican majority revoked protections for residents against discrimination based on their sexual orientation, ethnicity or gender identity by a 7-3 vote.
Borough residents, who packed into the borough hall, and hundreds more online, laid out concerns and fears about the welfare and rights of LGBTQ individuals ahead of the repeal.
Republican council members cited a host of reasons for the repeal, including redundancy in the ordinance and lack of muscle in its provisions.
Allen Coffman, a Republican and newly installed borough council president, last week told PennLive that council members were fulfilling the wishes of voters.
“All of us that ran in this election to be on council we think we got a mandate from the people,” he said last week. “People we talked to when we were campaigning did not like this ordinance at all.”
Coffman on Monday downplayed the idea that the borough would distinguish itself negatively among the other municipalities.
“There are, what, 956 boroughs in the state of Pennsylvania? Or is it 965?” he said. “You draw your own conclusion as to why those other folks haven’t done the same.”
Frankel, Sims and Muth noted that in spite of some progress among a small number of municipalities, the majority of the state’s population — 65% — lives in municipalities with no protections.
“Pennsylvanians know that legal discrimination is immoral and that it harms this commonwealth economically,” the lawmakers said.
Councilwoman Kathy Leedy echoed that sentiment, comparing the repeal to a “black mark on Chambersburg.”
“You will rebrand Chambersburg,” she said. “This rebranding is a very serious thing. Once a person loses a reputation, it’s very difficult to get that reputation back. It’s the same with communities. We will be the first and only town to have a non-discrimination ordinance rescinded. You cannot rescind that once you do it. This is government taking rights away. That is very, very serious.”
