The state of Pennsylvania does have anti-discrimination laws; however, it does not include sexual and gender orientation in its protections. In fact, Pennsylvania is the only state in the Northeastern United States to not have statewide protection for LGBTQ individuals. 

Shippensburg Township passed a nondiscrimination ordinance in September 2020, and following this in October 2021, the Chambersburg Borough Council approved their own protections for these minorities. The ordinance promised to “foster equality and equal opportunity,” and provided protections against discrimination with regard to employment, public accommodation, housing and daily life. This specific ordinance did not just concern the LGBTQ community but all citizens, regardless of “race, color, sex, religion, religious creed or belief, ancestry, national origin, familial status, marital status, age (except in public accommodations), veteran status, mental or physical disability or handicap or the use of service or assistance animals or the handler or trainer or such service animals.” 

For four months those protections stood. 

During their regular meeting, the borough council decided to rescind the order on Monday, Jan. 24. Why would you revoke an ordinance that was put into place only 4 months ago, despite popular public opinion begging to keep it? Bill Everly, the council vice president and a resident of Chambersburg, was vocal about his opposition to the ordinance. “I don’t understand why we need to have special protections for people,” said Everly. “I think by creating special protections for people we open the door for other protections for other people.”

While this was notably a major step in the right direction in terms of LGBTQ protections, the ordinance does far more than provide safety for the LGBTQ community. This is only one part of its contents. Everly’s statement lacks consideration for members of any of the groups the ordinance protects. It seems that these vital protections against discrimination for all has become a primarily Democratic vs. Republican issue, or perhaps it is an issue of whether or not Chambersburg wants to make members of LGBTQ community feel welcomed.

Regardless of the ordinance’s actual written content, this overturning appears to be a direct hit to the LGBTQ community. The setup of the council meeting must be considered, especially the opening prayer. Prayer is common. Prayer is meant to be beautiful and unifying. But why is religion being brought into politics here? This prayer disregards council and community members who practice anything outside of Christianity and additionally presents a sense of bias. By showing that religion plays a part in the council room, any and all decisions made by them are going to appear affected by it, whether it is true or not. Religion is also an easy way to cover up discriminatory actions, as perpetrators of such behavior can argue that victims are discriminating against their right to practice their religion. Yet, hatred is not written into any sort of scripture.

Who are these “other people,” Everly speaks of? The tone implies that people who are different from the majority race, sexuality, age and status of the majority should be treated as lesser, regarded as less important than another due to a circumstance outside of their control. There is a reason the ordinance was even considered to begin with. A township should not look to alienate its own citizens. Everly mentioned that in California they are adding more letters to the LGBTQ community. The complete acronym is ‘LGBTQQIP2SAA.’ This stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, queer, intersex, pansexual, two-spirit (2S), androgynous and asexual. Everly claims that as more groups are recognized they will all want their own protections. Evidently, once we align ourselves with too many different identities, we are no longer safe. If we are too different from each other, Everly seems to claim, we can no longer help each other. The message Chambersburg is choosing to send with this action is that these groups facing constant harassment do not deserve protection because this legislation is just too difficult to uphold and would allow groups who are not facing this type of unfounded discrimination to get protected for other, amorphous reasons. 

This is ridiculous. The evidence of the existing discrimination is clear.

“Kids are reporting being bullied, being pushed down the stairs, barked at and called multiple expletives,” Dawn Abraham, a high school teacher, said. “By pulling support for this you are showing our community that you don’t support the school children in the community.”

Children are impressionable, they learn from what they hear at home, follow the behavior of their friends and take in the immediate world around them to form decisions. The ordinance could have sent a necessary message to the community that this type of hate is unacceptable. Children should not have to feel unsafe in school for the sake of a politician’s pride.

It goes far beyond children getting bullied. Arielle Catron of the PAGE Center on campus noted how students have had to leave their homes due to discrimination based on sexual orientation. Not every person can say they were unable to get a house, job or anything else, simply for being themselves. Everly brought up being discriminated against for being overweight in the past, using the justification that he did not need explicit protection from experiencing prejudice while overweight. It is unfortunate that people experience this kind of shame for who they are, but there is a difference between being denied opportunities and civil rights that impact your basic survival and comfort level and having your feelings hurt. 

A council member spoke on how this ordinance would divide people instead of bringing them together, causing a divide that would result in more harm than good. Council president Allan Coffman said the ordinance serves no purpose and is redundant. Other council members chimed in with other reasons why protecting people is far too complicated for them. 

Many Chambersburg residents countered these points. They gave impassioned stories and spoke about their experience with discrimination, trying to plead to the council to reconsider. One borough resident who spoke during the council meeting told the story of her attempt to hire a contractor to work on her house. Once the contractor saw her husband was an African-American man, he refused to deal with him, and the resident never heard from the contractor about the work she wanted to hire him for. Nearly 100 residents spoke, and only 6 of them were in favor of repealing the ordinance. Not everyone has the same opportunities and it is difficult to see beyond your experiences, but that is the point of democracy; we must pass legislation that is good for the community as a whole. 

That said, during the meeting, Chambersburg mayor Kenneth Hock issued a proclamation condemning discrimination. Yet where is the support for these claims? One can verbally condemn hatred and discrimination until they are blue in the face, but without action words are nothing. One duty of a borough council, or any body of government, is to protect its citizens. This means protecting everybody. There is no caveat that says minorities should not be given equal protection.

It is appalling to even consider that in 2022 this is not understood. There is no gain for the politicians that have removed this ordinance other than support for their own campaigns. By playing politics rather than focusing on the needs of the borough, the seven council members showed themselves to be pro-discrimination against LGBTQ residents, racial/ethnic minorities, veterans and so many others.

There are over 900 municipalities in the state of Pennsylvania. Of those, 70 of them have passed anti-discrimination ordinances. These still stand. This decision to so quickly repeal the non-discrimination ordinance must stop with one municipality. Many students at Shippensburg University frequent Chambersburg, or commute from their homes there. This decision impacts us. Chambersburg’s decision to fully rescind the order that protects minorities in the community sends a message to everyone. While our campus sports “hate has no home here” signs, Chambersburg appears to conversely be making a home for such discrimination.

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