More than 300 people gathered at Love Park last Thursday to demand hate-crimes protections for LGBT people in Pennsylvania.
The rally, organized by state Rep. Brian Sims (D-182nd Dist.), was well-attended by elected officials and community leaders. The rally was held after police arrested three suspects in the attack of a gay couple in Center City last month.
Caryn Kunkle, friend of and spokesperson for the victims, was also in attendance.
“I am thankful that many legislators are working to restore Pennsylvania’s inclusive hate-crime law,” she said. “This is important to me not only because of my gay friends who were brutally attacked, but also because I have struggled my entire life to protect my autistic younger brother. It is never OK to hurt someone because of who they are,” Kunkle said.
A law was passed in 2002 to add sexual orientation, gender identity and several other classes to the hate-crimes law, but that was later overturned on a technicality. Efforts to reintroduce those protections have been stalled since.
Sims called out his colleagues who oppose passing the legislation.
“There are some in Harrisburg who object to restoring sexual orientation and gender-identity protections to the hate-crime law. But they haven’t been calling for repeal of the law’s remaining protections, for victims targeted because of their race, color, religion or national origin — they know they would take a political hit for that,” he said. “Unfortunately, they think there’s no political penalty or constituent outrage to face for leaving out women, LGBT people or people targeted because of their ancestry or mental or physical disability. Pennsylvanians who don’t like this injustice need to let their state representative and senator know now.”
State Rep. Cherelle Parker (D-200th Dist.) said the impact of last month’s attack went far beyond just the victims.
“It was Dr. King who stated, ‘Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly,’ and all acts of violence in Philadelphia directly and indirectly impact our city’s 1.5-million residents and the more-than 12-million residents of our commonwealth,” she said. “Every citizen, regardless of their ethnic background, religious affiliation, sexual orientation or gender identity has the right to feel safe in this city and state. We can no longer excuse nor ignore the behavior of violence in our communities or discriminatory targeting of any Pennsylvanian. Crimes against our friends, family and neighbors of the LGBT community solely committed because of a hatred for a natural difference must be deemed what they truly are — a hate crime. Our General Assembly must set an example and take the necessary actions to properly protect each and every one of our constituents.”
Philadelphia City Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown announced plans to introduce local legislation to maximize the penalties for hate-crime offenders within the city.
The proposed bill is co-sponsored by Councilman Jim Kenney, who was also in attendance at the rally.
Other elected officials and representatives at the rally included Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams, state Sen. Larry Farnese (D-First Dist.), Equality Pennsylvania executive director Ted Martin, community activist Sharron Cooks, William Way LGBT Community Center executive director Chris Bartlett and GALAEI: A Queer Latin@ Social Justice Organization executive director Elicia Gonzales.