Whitemarsh Township in Montgomery County became the 24th Pennsylvania municipality to bar discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity or expression last week.
The ordinance, passed Nov. 17, provides protections for members of the LGBT community. If a member of the community feels discriminated against in any way relating to housing, education, employment or other matters, a human-relations commission, once established, would hear complaints and work to resolve the issue for all parties involved.
Ted Martin, executive director for Equality Pennsylvania, an LGBT advocacy group, said this ordinance, which has been in the works for six months, is one of a number of similar ordinances the group hopes to get passed in other municipalities across the state.
“We’re working very hard to have 25 ordinances on the books by the end of the year,” he said. “We’ve been working with receptive communities to start these ordinances to put them in place. We work with people in the community beforehand. Then we start working through those folks to get an ordinance.”
Whitemarsh’s Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to approve the ordinance, with supervisor David Brooke absent for the vote.
According to the 2010 Census, Whitemarsh has a population of 17,349.
During the public meeting, some attendees stridently opposed the ordinance, including the American Family Association representatives, said Adrian Shanker, president of Equality Pennsylvania.
“They came from outside the township and, quite frankly, they made comments that were reprehensible at the public meeting at LGBT people in general,” he said. “It actually caused some gay residents that were at the meeting to feel very defensive [and] uncomfortable and they responded with very strong words in response. One of the speakers, Jim Scheneller, who is affiliated with the American Family Association, stated that he’s not sure that discrimination or harassment against LGBT people actually exists. That’s a delusional perspective to take. Those were the types of comments that were spewed out by opponents at the meeting.”
Shanker and Martin said residents are key to the success of the ordinance and combating any opposition to it.
“They can now volunteer to be on the township’s soon-to-be-created human relations commission, which is an important voluntary position within these cities and townships that have passed these laws,” Shanker said. “Those are the people that get to enforce these laws.”
Martin and Shanker also stated that these local ordinances will hopefully influence statewide legislature.
“There are more municipalities that are hopefully going to take action to protect their LGBT citizens as well, but hopefully it’s everyone’s goal that the state legislature will take a real look at the fact that the vast majority of Pennsylvanians support these laws,” Shanker said.
“This is exciting,” Martin said of the new ordinance. “I think that people are, through the efforts of activists, realizing that discrimination on a basic level like this exists. And the fact that people are reacting in a positive way is a really good thing. It’s something that will help the legislature in Harrisburg think differently.”