Human Rights Campaign released a report this week that ranked the Keystone State among the worst in the nation for LGBT rights.
For those of us in Philly, the ranking may seem aberrant; we live in a city that protects LGBT rights at nearly every turn, though there’s certainly room for improvement. We’ve had nondiscrimination protections for years, our city offered domestic-partner benefits before marriage was accessible to all, we have a governing body that consistently backs pro-LGBT measures.
The same unfortunately can’t be said for the majority of the state. Thirty-seven municipalities now protect LGBT citizens from discrimination; that sounds like a good number, but that’s out of a total of more than 2,500 municipalities in Pennsylvania. In most places in our state, LGBT people can be fired from a job, turned away from housing, ejected from a public place solely for being LGBT. That’s nearly unconscionable in 2016 but that’s the reality of our state, which has long been the very last one in the entire Northeast to not protect its LGBT residents from discrimination.
Action on nondiscrimination has never been more imperative than it is right now. A federal administration chock full of appointees with abhorrent LGBT records is about to take office in one month. Things like the First Amendment Defense Act — which would give businesses across the nation a license to discriminate against LGBT people based on religious objections — are a reality.
The future of LGBT rights under a Trump administration remains questionable — as does the status of the rights of many other populations. In the face of such uncertainty, we need to put in place as many protections as we can, and strengthen those that do exist.
Now is the time (actually, decades ago was the time) for Pennsylvania legislators to step up to the plate. When the new legislature convenes next month, LGBT nondiscrimination deserves to be a priority. Republicans can no longer duck out on this issue.
LGBT nondiscrimination is not only a pressing issue, it is one supported by a majority of Pennsylvanians. One need only look to North Carolina’s recently ousted governor to know that supporting LGBT equality — even in a red state — is politically acceptable.
We in Philadelphia can’t rest on the laurels that our city’s LGBT-inclusivity provides us. The majority of our fellow Pennsylvanians don’t have that opportunity, and it’s up to us to keep the pressure on our elected officials to do the right thing.