With the budget battle concluded, there’s an opening to turn the state’s focus to LGBT nondiscrimination legislation. So says Sam Gehler, field director for Pennsylvania Competes and organizing director for Equality Pennsylvania.
When Gov. Tom Wolf signed two executive orders April 7 adding LGBT nondiscrimination protections for state employees and state contractors, two state representatives were in attendance: Brian Sims, an openly gay Democrat from Philadelphia, and Thomas Murt, a Montgomery County Republican.
Murt cosponsored an LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination law when it was introduced as House Bill 300 in 2013. He has not yet committed to supporting the Pennsylvania Fairness Act, the current proposal for nondiscrimination.
Sims cosponsors the Fairness Act, which has been stuck in committee since September. The lead sponsor in the state Senate is Republican Pat Browne from Lehigh County.
“In Pennsylvania, we’re a state that has the opportunity to actually move in a positive direction,” Gehler said. “We have a governor that’s taking positive first steps. We have a legislature that wants to take that next step and just needs to break the logjam that’s caused by the really nasty fights going on right now [about other issues].”
Wolf acknowledged thinking of the Pennsylvania General Assembly and states like North Carolina, which prohibited municipalities from protecting LGBT people in nondiscrimination ordinances, when he made his own executive orders.
“I am taking action to protect those that I can and send a signal to the country that Pennsylvania is open for business no matter who you are or whom you love,” Wolf said in a statement. “What happened in North Carolina, and what is going on in other states, should be a call to pass nondiscrimination legislation in Pennsylvania now.”
Wolf’s first LGBT order protects 73,000 state employees from discrimination at work. The second order extends LGBT protections from employment discrimination to those working in 3,525 state contracts and 9,000 agency grantees. It’s the first time LGBT employees at organizations that receive state contracts have been protected in a nondiscrimination executive order, said Ted Martin, executive director of Equality Pennsylvania.
Adrian Shanker, executive director of the Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center in Allentown, noted his organization is a state contractor.
“Lots of organizations have a state contract, for-profits and nonprofits,” he said. “It tremendously changes the scope of who’s covered in Pennsylvania.
“The other big deal is it added an enforcement mechanism,” Shanker said. “It added an audit procedure to guarantee that state employees involved in hiring decisions are doing it ethically and following the executive order.”
Wolf’s office said there would be no increase in program costs for implementing and enforcing the order.
In 1976, Gov. Milton Shapp was the first governor to issue a nondiscrimination order to protect gay state employees. Subsequent governors reauthorized the order and Gov. Ed Rendell added protections for gender identity in 2003.
Martin called the executive orders “important steps” but noted LGBT protections from discrimination are still needed in housing and public accommodation, areas that the Fairness Act addresses, in addition to employment.
Dozens of LGBT people from across the state travelled to Harrisburg last week to witness Wolf signing the orders.
“I had tears in my eyes,” said Angela Giampolo, an out lawyer from Philadelphia who writes the Out Law column for PGN. “You could tell everyone got chills. We clapped for a solid minute.”
She said it felt a little surreal to be so excited about basic protections that the LGBT community should already have like any other Pennsylvanian. But, Giampolo said, she respects the governor’s action.
“It has an actual, real impact on protecting people,” she said, adding Wolf said he would prefer the legislature to pass a nondiscrimination law rather than adding LGBT protections through an executive order.
“Ever since marriage equality, there’s been nothing but backlash,” Giampolo said. “Gov. Wolf is the first governor since this backlash to say our state welcomes everybody. It’s a huge symbolic move to wake up our legislature.”