The 42nd annual Pittsburgh Pride Celebration is underway, something that’s become a welcome summer tradition, yet I again must report that the state Legislature has yet to pass legislation to protect the rights of the LGBT community by prohibiting discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations.
This time of year always brings bittersweet reflection, as Pride festivities emphasize the great contributions of the LGBT community, juxtaposed with the harsh reality that so many Pennsylvanians still lack full civil rights.
For more than a decade, I have been the prime House sponsor of what is now called the Pennsylvania Fairness Act (House Bill 1510, Senate Bill 974), which would prohibit discrimination on the basis of a person’s sexual orientation and gender identity. It is entirely consistent with the bans on discrimination against minorities or based on religious faith, as well as the actions of 36 local jurisdictions across the commonwealth which already have extended civil-rights protection to the LGBT community, including Pittsburgh and Allegheny County.
The Fairness Act again is stuck in the muck of the House State Government Committee, the chairman of which is a well-known opponent of equal rights and has successfully stifled forward movement on it.
But public opinion is very much in our favor: 72 percent of Pennsylvanians believe LGBT residents should be protected against discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodation, and more than two-thirds of the nation’s Fortune 500 companies have adopted LGBT protections. Indeed, our own local governments have acted while the commonwealth stands on the sidelines.
Over the years since this bill was first introduced, attacks against it have taken many forms. Most recently, they’ve been packaged as matters of “religious freedom” or, worse, “bathroom bills” aimed at nonexistent problems. Regardless of how opponents market their viewpoints, their arguments all share the singular aim of defeating LGBT civil rights at any cost.
In support of the “religious freedom” bills, proponents assert that people’s “sincerely held religious beliefs” should allow them to refuse service to a customer in a public place of business on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. This is a perverse interpretation of the First Amendment, and one that wields the principle of religious freedom as license to discriminate. These same religious-freedom arguments have been used to justify slavery, the marginalization of women and the enforcement of Jim Crow laws.
The latest target is the transgender community. “Bathroom bills,” such as the high-profile one approved by the legislature in North Carolina, require people to use public restrooms that correspond to their biological gender at birth. Proponents would have us believe that there is some kind of correlation between equal access to public accommodations for transgender people and sexual assault or a lack of privacy.
The bathroom scare is a red herring; there is not a shred of evidence that transgender people have been causing problems in restrooms. And nothing in the Pennsylvania Fairness Act would change current law for crimes committed in a bathroom. If anyone enters a bathroom or locker room and commits a crime, that person will be charged with breaking the law. Any claim that our legislation would change the law in a dangerous way is unequivocally false.
In addition, states such as North Carolina that promote discrimination have seen an economic backlash — instead, we should move our economy forward with an expanded non-discrimination law that would make Pennsylvania a more attractive and welcoming place for residents and businesses.
While their tactics may have changed over the years, the opponents of the Pennsylvania Fairness Act have one simple goal: Use any means necessary to stop the movement for LGBT civil rights. In the face of that opposition, we all should commit ourselves to seeing that the Fairness Act becomes the law of Pennsylvania and that the last vestiges of legal discrimination in the commonwealth are eliminated.
For those who want to help get the Fairness Act moving in Harrisburg, please visit www.legis.state.pa.us and let your state representatives know that you support it.
State Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Squirrel Hill, has represented the 23rd District in the Pennsylvania House since 1999.
First Published: June 5, 2016, 4:00 a.m.