Bathrooms, hormones, surgery — all are topics that have become increasingly politicized in recent years as lawmakers legislate LGBTQ+ rights in nearly every U.S. state.
But what do private citizens who are queer have to say?
A new survey out of Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster asked hundreds of thousands of people within the LGBTQ+ community across the globe about their perceptions of safety and acceptance depending on where they live.
“The general population has a sense perhaps that things are going well for LGBTQ+ people,” said Susan Dicklitch-Nelson, professor of government at Franklin & Marshall, who led the study in partnership with the Council for Global Equality. “But when you dig down deeper, you can see the lived reality is very different.”
And it seems that Pittsburgh has a bit of work to do, despite respondents finding the city 6% better than the U.S. average, and being generally perceived as safer than other Pennsylvania cities, including Philadelphia.
Members of the LGBTQ+ community are more likely to be discriminated against and to experience violence compared to straight people. And the past couple of years have seen hundreds of bills aiming to restrict access to health care, books and spaces. The ACLU counts 523 such bills across the country — five in Pennsylvania — at various stages of the legislative process.
Franklin & Marshall College’s LGBTQI+ Perception Index report found that Pittsburgh received a high “C” grade, at 76%, for how safe it felt to the LGBTQ+ community. (Philadelphia received a 72%.) The U.S. overall received a 70%.
Hawaii was the state with the highest rating, at 77%, and Idaho was the lowest, at 63%.
The report measured general components of safety, including acceptance, fear of police, safety in gathering, violence and discrimination. Researchers conducted the survey online, with more than 167,000 responses — 14,000 from the U.S. — from 136 countries. Ads for the survey were disseminated on queer dating apps such as Grindr and HER.
In Pittsburgh, which had 76 respondents, the lowest score was given to the measure of acceptance, garnered by a “How accepted do you feel?” question.
Michael Komo, an attorney and professional development manager at the law firm K&L Gates, chair of the LGBTQ+ employee resource group and a cisgender gay man, said he’s seen acceptance and queer visibility increase in the city over the past decade.
Komo helped establish the Riverhounds soccer team’s Pride Night in 2016, which he said has contributed tremendously to the public’s understanding of what it means to be queer.
“Sports is the currency here,” he said. “Seeing people sport a rainbow Pirates shirt or hat has raised the visibility.”
That shift has pushed the city from being not only LGBTQ+ friendly, but LGBTQ+ positive, said Komo.
“Folks were generally accepting and would attend pride events if you asked them to,” he said. “Now I've seen a really big shift in people asking me if they can attend [Pride Night] and wanting to celebrate the community regardless of their sexual orientation or identity.”
The federal legalization of same-sex marriage also brought positive attention to the LGBTQ+ community in 2015, said Komo, by humanizing queer relationships. Same-sex marriage was legally recognized in Pennsylvania a year prior.
“There are some ways that Pittsburgh has been seen as a traditional blue-collar city, and seeing same-sex couples getting married has made a huge difference,” he said. “A lot of people can be uncomfortable with what they don't know. Prior to marriage equality, prior to these pride nights, if someone didn’t know someone in the community, they may be more intimidated or less understanding. A decade ago, there was probably more trepidation of same-sex couples holding hands and being publicly out, myself included.”
Despite Pittsburgh’s “sanctuary city” status for queer people, deemed so via City Council approval last September and protecting gender-affirming care in the city, there’s still progress to be made, said both Komo and Dicklitch-Nelson.
For one, Pennsylvania is the only remaining state in the Northeast without worker protections for queer people.
Pa. House Bill 300 intends to close this gap by instating worker, housing and education protections and preventing discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The bill has more than 50 sponsors; House Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, D-Philadelphia, is its prime sponsor. (Kenyatta won the state’s Democratic nomination for auditor general last April.)
The bill passed 102–98 in the House in early May and was referred to the Senate State Government Committee.
Komo recognizes that safety is not experienced equally even within the LGBTQ+ community. While queer people face violence at higher rates than their straight counterparts, transgender people often face the highest rates.
Dicklitch-Nelson said that trend was mirrored in the survey, with those who identified as gay tending to feel more safe and accepted than trans women specifically.
“Everybody has a different struggle,” said Komo. “The LGBTQ+ community needs to be and is being responsive to our minorities within our group.”
Komo has partnered with the Trans Legal Defense and Education Fund on its Name Change Project, which helps connect trans people with pro-bono lawyers to get their names legally changed.
“I represented an out trans cop seven years ago,” Komo recalled. “That was the first time work made me cry, in a good way. My client looked down once we got his name changed and started tearing up. I asked him what was wrong, and he said, ‘I finally feel like me.’ It’s something we cis folks take for granted.
“This project has been a really special way to help trans members of the community,” he said.
The Franklin & Marshall survey also found that older Pennsylvanians felt safer and feared violence less than younger ones.
Julie Beaulieu, a gender studies professor at the University of Pittsburgh, said having a dedicated LGBTQ+ space for students may help — especially during events like the one in April 2023, when speakers came to discuss what they called “transgenderism,” a derogatory term used to undermine the transgender experience. A petition opposing the event received more than 12,000 signatures and led to a protest by hundreds on Pitt’s campus. Previous reporting shows 250 people attended the event.
“Without an LGBTQ+ student center, where do you even go?,” said Beaulieu. “Who do you even talk to? We’ve been advocating for a center for a very long time. That’s been really hard for our students.”
Beaulieu said that despite some protections within the city, the community still experiences tension and fear.
Dicklitch-Nelson wants to keep gathering data about the queer experience and hopes to receive 500,000 survey respondents in her next one, which will open for survey collection in August and be available in 15 different languages. The initial survey was launched in the summer of 2022, before the introduction of numerous bills related to LGBTQ rights.
“We might start to see more variable [responses] from people in the U.S. in the recent report,” she said.
“This report really shows the lived reality of LGBTQ people,” she added. “These are our sisters, brothers and fathers and mothers. They’re Americans. Why are we treating Americans differently?”
Hanna Webster: hwebster@post-gazette.com
First Published: July 5, 2024, 9:00 a.m.
Updated: July 5, 2024, 11:30 p.m.
