Ironic? Hypocritical? How ‘bout both.
One day last week, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto’s administration filed an amicus legal brief connected to litigation before the U.S. Supreme Court, litigation that seeks workplace protections for the LGBTQ community.
Two days earlier, meanwhile, we found out that the mayor’s very own LGBTQ advisory council has had it up to here with him. (Picture your mom slicing the air above her head with a karate-chop hand motion.)
The midpoint of the year came and went, yet the members of the advisory council hadn’t been granted even a perfunctory audience with the city’s supreme leader — the guy who posits himself as an LGBTQ “friend.” (Think “friend of the court” brief.)
In fact, only three meetings ever had been held with the panel, though members were promised quarterly get-togethers with Mr. Mayor when the board was established in 2017. The advisory council had other gripes but, first, in the interest of greater context, let’s revisit the amicus brief.
Essentially, it’s little more than a symbolic gesture — a Peduto penchant.
Requested by an LGBTQ advocacy group in Georgia, our city’s friend-of-the-court submission is one of about 100 that have been filed coast to coast. The litigation before the high court involves three people from Michigan, Georgia and New York who seek protection under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in the workplace. The plaintiffs allege they were fired from their jobs because they are members of the LGBTQ community.
Their stories should provoke outrage. Discrimination is patently wrong. The protections of Title VII should extend to those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning. And Pittsburgh’s support of the plaintiffs is on the mark.
Because even though an amicus filing is largely symbolic, symbols can be powerful.
That being said, I’ve got to wonder about Mr. Mayor’s PR radar if not his actual values.
Let’s assume for a minute that Mr. Peduto really does care about the LGBTQ community and that he wasn’t simply striking a pose when he endorsed creation of the advisory panel two years ago. If that presumption is true, the mayor hasn’t just dropped the ball, he’s kicked it into the bushes.
His panel (officially named the LGBTQIA+ Advisory Council) sent a letter to the mayor and copied other Pittsburgh officials (a Post-Gazette news reporter got a copy of it), complaining of virtually no support. The council has seven members and each signed the letter.
“Currently, the Mayor’s LGBTQIA+ Council suffers from a number of severe structural deficiencies and bureaucratic obstacles that have prevented us from achieving our goals and functioning effectively,” the letter states. The council doesn’t have access to a dedicated email or Facebook account. It doesn’t have enough financial support to undertake outreach or programming, the letter complains. And then there’s the lack of facetime with the mayor. Remember, only three meetings. Ever.
All of this is particularly perplexing when juxtaposed with the fact that Pittsburgh City Council has been working on a new city ordinance amendment (enacted this week) that adds “gender identity” and “gender expression” to the municipal anti-discrimination code. Doesn’t it seem logical Mr. Mayor’s administration would have wanted and would have sought input from the LGBTQIA+ Advisory Council while drafting such legislation? If not then, when?
A spokesman for the mayor said his office is “working diligently” on the council’s complaints.
I’ll bet.
Here’s the problem: Mr. Mayor often seems more concerned with image than reality. Otherwise, he’d be conferring with his LGBTQ panel on matters pertinent to that community — like litigation before the high court and amendments to local anti-discrimination law.
For someone who seems highly interested in optics, this isn’t a pretty picture.
From me to you, Bill, maybe stop trying to strike the right pose and focus on doing the right thing.
Karen Kane is a Post-Gazette editorial board member. She can be reached at kkane@post-gazette.com, 724-772-9180, Twitter: @KarenKanePG.
First Published: July 12, 2019, 9:00 a.m.
Updated: July 12, 2019, 10:40 a.m.
