Anti-Discrimination Law Advances Through City Council Committee

A City Council committee on Thursday night recommended adoption of a law that would prohibit discrimination in workplaces and public facilities, while establishing a new Bethlehem Human Relations Commission to enforce it.

The law would extend protections to gays, lesbians and transgender persons, in addition to those already covered under the Pennsylvania Human Relations law, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, ancestry, national origin, handicap or the need to use a guide or support animal.

A new Human Relations Commission would enable aggrieved city residents, employees or visitors an opportunity to have their complaints addressed in Bethlehem, as opposed to Harrisburg where a state panel convenes.

“The ordinance before you and the Human Relations Commission that it will form will send a clear message that Bethlehem welcomes citizens from all kinds of backgrounds and that we will ensure that they will have an equal opportunity to succeed here in Bethlehem,” said Mayor John Callahan, who began boosting this proposal in 2010.

“This is about inclusivity. This is about tolerance. It’s about respect. But it’s also about Bethlehem’s ability to continue to attract the best and the brightest from around the world.”

Bethlehem is currently the largest city in Pennsylvania without an anti-discrimination law or a Human Relations Commission to address discrimination complaints.

Allentown has had a law since 1964 and amended it in 2002 to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Easton adopted its law in 2007. Two counties and 16 other cities also have anti-discrimination laws.

Though the proposed ordinance appeared to have little, if any, opposition, the meeting of council’s Human Resources and Environment Committee took three hours. About 100 members of the public attended and some 30 of them spoke, almost universally in favor of the proposed law.

The supporters included representatives of AARP and the American Civil Liberties Union; Bethlehem NAACP President Esther Lee; former city councilman and current state Human Relations Commission board member Ismael Arcelay; and several gays, lesbians and transgender people who call Bethlehem home.

“It is so important that more of us be open and honest about who we are and be safe in doing so. That is why this ordinance is so important” said Dixie Dugan White, co-founder of Integrity/Bethlehem, an organization for gay, lesbian and transgender Episcopalians and their friends and families.

“It’s not fun to spend time with an adolescent who is contemplating suicide or finds solace in alcohol or drugs because they’ve been ostracized by their family or bullied at school,” said White, who has had a career as a county caseworker.

“Hiding in a closet is a sick and degrading choice that many of us have made in order to feel safe on the job and elsewhere.”

The committee, consisting of Chairman Gordon Mowrer, Councilman David DiGiacinto and Councilwoman Jean Belinski voted unanimously to move the legislation forward with some amendments that may yet be turned back by the full council.

All seven members of City Council were at the meeting. Among council members there appeared to be general support for the law.

But there was some debate over some of the law’s details, including whether council should provide a sunset clause that would put the law and commission under a review in three years. Law and commission supporters argued strenuously against that idea advanced by DiGiacinto.

Stephen Glassman, chairman of the state Human Relations Commission said doing that could end up politicizing human rights in the city down the road.

“If you can guarantee that you’re going to get rid of discrimination in three years, then you can get rid of the commission,” said city resident Rob Hopkins. “But if you cannot, it’s horrible to face the possibility of a different council coming in that would get rid of it. That does not protect the people of Bethlehem.”

Council also discussed whether commission appointments should be made by the mayor or council and how many commission members there should be. Some of this may not be worked out until the full council addresses the law for the first time on May 18.

Bethlehem actually had a Human Relations Commission in the 1960s, establishing it in 1963, according to DiGiacinto. That would have made Bethlehem the third city in the state to do so following Philadelphia and Reading. But the commission was de-funded and stopped operating in 1971, and repealed by law in the mid 1980s, DiGiacinto said.

A reconstituted commission will cost the city little, Callahan said. City Solicitor Jack Spirk has agreed to work for the commission pro bono, as have several other attorneys in the city, the mayor said.

DiGiacinto pointed out that the law would allow commission members to be reimbursed for expenses incurred while conducting investigations.