The LGBT and ally community is expected to turn out in full force next week in Lancaster for two demonstrations to save the county’s human-relations commission, which could be on the chopping block because of budget cuts.
“Unity Rallies” will be held at 11 a.m. July 24 and 5:30 p.m. July 29 at Binns Park, 100 N. Queen St. The second demonstration will precede the 7 p.m. Lancaster County Commissioners’ public hearing at the county administration building, 150 N. Queen St., during which the three county commissioners will consider testimony on the future of the HR body.
The city and county of Lancaster operated a joint human-relations commission until 1991, when the city moved to include sexual-orientation protections in its nondiscrimination law, and the county split to form its own commission.
The proposal to disband the commission was made last month by the two Republican county commissioners, who argued the state human-relations commission could handle the local cases. Stephen Glassman, chair of the state commission, is opposed to the idea.
The announcement was made shortly before a scheduled hearing to discuss the possible expansion of the county’s nondiscrimination law to include protections for discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
County Commissioner Craig Lehman, the only Democrat on the body, told the Lancaster Sunday News that he thought the timing of the proposal to dissolve so close to the push for LGBT inclusion was “certainly questionable.”
Adanjesus Marin, an organizer of the upcoming rallies, said both events are meant to call for maintaining the commission and also expanding its scope to include the LGBT community.
The demonstrations have been endorsed by a slate of agencies, such as the Lancaster County Council of Churches, the Lancaster County Democratic Committee and the Governor’s Advisory Commission on Latino Affairs, and representatives from such groups as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Spanish American Civic Association are set to speak at the rally on July 29.
“What the commissioners have done is create the broadest coalition of people fighting for civil rights that we’ve ever seen in Lancaster,” Marin said. “They’re threatening to take away protections for everyone’s civil rights, so we have been able to get support from so many different communities and so many different organizations.”
County Commissioner Scott Martin has said the elimination of the commission is meant to save the county and its taxpayers money, but Marin said an in-depth cost analysis was lacking.
“This was the first time something was proposed to eliminate county services without first having a long investigation process,” Marin said. “They pointed to budget costs, but we’ve done the analysis and essentially what it’ll cost to keep the local civil-rights enforcement body is 93 cents a person per year.”
Ted Martin, executive director of Equality Pennsylvania, which has been working with the local activists and agencies to fight the closing of the commission, said the minimal savings such a move could have doesn’t compare to the potential damage to Lancaster.
“This would have such a negative impact for a county like Lancaster, which is driven by tourism,” Ted Martin said. “The message they’d be sending is that they are the narrow-minded people you thought they weren’t. With the small budgetary savings they’d get out of it, good luck in paying the PR firm they’d have to hire to recoup their image.”
Marin noted that Lancaster would become the first county in Pennsylvania to disband its human-relations commission and “move backward on civil rights.” But despite that distinction, he said proponents of the commission still face an “extremely uphill battle.”
Ted Martin said involvement from across the state, including Philadelphia, is needed to demonstrate to the commissioners the wide-ranging impact the elimination of the panel could have.
“Philadelphia is part of the state just like everybody else. When a county as large as Lancaster, a county as important as Lancaster, and a county that’s rapidly becoming a suburb of Philadelphia, does something like this, it affects everybody. It sets a precedent and sends a message that everyone should be concerned about.”
For more information about the rallies, visit www.facebook.com and search “unity rally.”
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].