Aug 12, 2018 3 min read

You occasionally hear grumbles that Pennsylvania is mired in the past, with its antediluvian liquor-store system, fraying infrastructure and aging population being prime exhibits in making that case. But an executive order signed by Gov. Tom Wolf on Monday put Pennsylvania squarely in the 21st century, recognizing the diverse and tolerant society the United States is slowly but steadily becoming.

With Wolf’s signature, the first Pennsylvania Commission on LGBTQ Affairs was created, the only statewide commission of its type in the country. Wolf called it “one step of many we have taken to ensure obstacles are removed for anyone who is facing an unfair disadvantage based on sexual orientation, gender identity and expression.” The 40-member commission joins commissions originated by Wolf’s administration that deal with issues surrounding the African American, Latino, female and Asian Pacific American communities.

Sure, it’s an election year, and Wolf is surely trying to engage with a politically active slice of the electorate that he hopes will come out and vote for him in large numbers in November. But that doesn’t minimize the need for such a commission. Despite the strides that gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual people have made over the last half century or so, they are still subject to discrimination, and can be discriminated against without penalty according to Pennsylvania law. Although more than 40 municipalities in the commonwealth have prohibited discrimination in housing, employment or public accommodations based on an individual’s gender identity or sexual orientation, Pennsylvania does not have a statewide law forbidding it. The commonwealth needs to join the more than 20 other states that have taken this step.

State Rep. Dan Frankel, an Allegheny County Democrat who chairs the LGBTQ Equality Caucus in the Legislature, said, “this is about people being denied a job or a place to live just because of who they are. That’s still legal in much of Pennsylvania. It’s wrong, and it’s time to fix it.”

The commission’s work will be helped by the expertise and compassion that will be brought to it by Kathy McCully Cameron, a South Strabane Township resident and one of the founders of the Washington County Gay Straight Alliance. When she received an ExtraORdinary People award earlier this year from Range Resources and the Observer-Reporter, Washington musician and counselor Patrick Arena called her “the perfect friend and advocate for the LGBTQ community. Her energy is boundless and never seems to have a hard edge. We are lucky to have her here, making changes for the youth of Washington.”

When she was interviewed by us in the spring, Cameron pointed out that her hope was that 50 years from now the Washington County Gay Straight Alliance no longer exists. Not because the organization is mismanaged, but because the need for it evaporates. Indeed, perhaps by 2068, the LGBTQ community will have attained a level of acceptance that the Washington County Gay Straight Alliance will seem irrelevant, a throwback to another time. The early signs are promising, considering that polls find young adults broadly accepting of their LGBTQ peers.

Let’s hope that remains the case.