The LGBT-rights movement in our nation has been heading forward at an almost unstoppable speed in recent years. The progress in Pennsylvania, however, has been — to put it mildly — slow, although recent events seemed to have sparked a fire propelling the Keystone State to inch forward.
Pennsylvania has seen the most activity on the marriage-equality front in the past three months than it has in history.
In July, Montgomery County began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Also that month, a federal lawsuit was filed challenging the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. Our Attorney General declared the law unconstitutional and declined to defend it. Over the next two months, 174 same-sex couples received marriage licenses in Pennsylvania. The operation was shut down last month but this week the county appealed.
Last month, a lesbian couple filed another federal lawsuit, calling on the state to recognize same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions, while a group of couples married in Montgomery County sued in state court for recognition of their marriages.
And this week, marriage-equality legislation was introduced in the state House for only the second time ever.
Ten years ago, marriage equality wasn’t legal in any jurisdiction in the United States. By 2004, Massachusetts had become the first state to sanction same-sex marriage. And in just the past five years, an astounding 12 states — six in just the last year — and Washington, D.C., have followed suit. If the recent court ruling mandating marriage equality in New Jersey stands, the country will have gone from zero-15 in one decade.
Most would agree that if Pennsylvania could only have one immediate LGBT-rights advancement, it should be the adoption of an LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination ordinance, rather than a marriage-equality measure. But that’s not to say that, while internal work is being done to ramp up legislative support for the nondiscrimination bill, the state’s ban on same-sex marriage shouldn’t be attacked on all possible fronts.
Working to dismantle this very visible icon of discrimination against same-sex couples could be a boon for nondiscrimination efforts. The more Pennsylvanians get to see the real-life impact of the marriage law on same-sex couples and families, the more familiar and relatable the community becomes. And when the issue is raised that these couples fighting for state benefits can also be fired from their jobs, kicked out of their apartments or denied service at a restaurant at most places in Pennsylvania, the more unconscionable the latter seems.
Progress isn’t going to come to Pennsylvania overnight. But unrelenting and unapologetic assaults on all facets of institutionalized discrimination in the state that we’re beginning to see can make the potential of Pennsylvania falling in step with the rest of the nation a not-so-distant dream.