On May 28, Pittston became the 32nd municipality in Pennsylvania and the first in Luzerne County to pass a nondiscrimination ordinance to protect its LGBT citizens. The historic and unanimous vote will prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in post-secondary education, employment, housing and public accommodations, such as hotels and hospitals. Pittston, which is located in Northeast Pennsylvania, will also have a Human Relations Commission to make sure the ordinance is properly handled, rules are followed and to investigate any violations. The Tuesday meeting drew 30 individuals, most of whom supported the ordinance. The ordinance was largely fueled by Northeastern Pennsylvania Rainbow Alliance, which worked with Pittston lawmakers since February on the measure. NEPA Rainbow Alliance executive director and CEO John Dawe said the city was looking to bring in more LGBT citizens and visitors as part of its downtown redevelopment and revitalization project. “The city is well aware that the thriving LGBT community brings value, art and culture, and they asked how they could attract the LGBT community to come to Pittston,” Dawe said. “There are programs that we do that can help Pittston with the LGBT community, but the first thing I said before we would help them was that we needed to pass a nondiscrimination ordinance for the community to feel safe and protected.” Pennsylvania Student Equality Coalition executive director Jason Landau Goodman said the vote sent “a clear message that all members of the community must be treated fairly and equally with dignity and respect, and that is an extraordinarily important message for every member of the community to hear from government.” Dawe said his agency reached out to Equality Pennsylvania executive director Ted Martin to put the ordinance together. “John really had the relationships in Pittston,” Martin said. “He knew people in Pittston and introduced them to me and I brought in the experience we had in passing ordinances in other places.” Dawe said Wednesday that the process was a “fairly painless” one. “It was the only thing on the agenda last night and they held a special council meeting, and it was the shortest government meeting I have ever gone to,” he noted. Dawe said the Rainbow Alliance gets one or two calls every month from people who are contending discrimination employment or housing, and added he hopes Pittston’s example will influence other municipalities, as well as the state. “Discrimination is definitely an issue in Luzerne County and up until now, there have been no protections in Luzerne County, so we are thrilled that now we can say if you live and work in Pittston, you are covered. We hope that other municipalities will jump on board and do similar things. And we hope our state legislators will get this done in Harrisburg.” Martin said he often speaks with state lawmakers who say supporting the bill would be unpopular with constituents. But, in a growing number of cases, their district already has an LGBT ordinance in place. “It is getting harder and more difficult for them to say why we shouldn’t have protections statewide.”
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