An Open Letter to the Springfield Township Board of Commissioners on The Proposed Human Relations Ordinance

Read publicly at the Board of Commissioners meeting, July 13, 2011.

Dear President Harbison and Commissioners of the Board:

The response to the efforts of our community to establish a civil rights ordinance that will protect an estimated 7.3% of the population (based on studies of the number of self-identified gay, bisexual and transgender people in the U.S.) has been astonishing. The amount of vitriol and thinly-disguised bigotry that has been unleashed has become so outrageous--and from so many who came out of the woodwork with no stake at all in my community--that I really felt I had to speak up.

Let me begin with 3 premises:

1. that being LGBT is not a choice; scientific studies have shown time and again the organic and genetic origins of sexual orientation;
2. that being gay or bisexual or transgendered is more than sexuality. Just as one's heterosexuality makes up only a part of one's existence, so are LGBT people more than the sum of their sexual attractions. Yet opponents of LGBT rights continue to refer to them as though they exist only below the waist and above the knees. They are full human beings with full lives, and you know them. They are your friends and acquaintences, your medical providers, your co-workers, your fellow parishioners, your children. Maybe they are even you; and
3. that having a faith in a particular creed, no matter how devoutly one believes in it, does not convey upon one the mantle of truth and infallibility, and does not serve as a license to legislatively condemn those one disagrees with to a permanent second-class state. Further, it does not convey on one the privilege of speaking for an entire religion. I was raised in the Methodist church, and the lessons I was taught there were about love, and forgiveness, and refusal to judge. That is not the church I recognize in the protests of our more religious opponents. The God about which I was taught is not so small that extending tolerance and justice to my brothers and sisters would destroy Him, or even ruin His day.

In Pennsylvania there is no state or federal protection for those who are discriminated against in employment and housing on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Only state employees are protected (so far, until the new governor decides otherwise), and only those discriminated against in municipalities that have enacted such ordinances have recourse to remedy. It is untrue to suggest, as some have, that such protection already exists and an ordinance in Springfield Twp. would pre-empt some other law.

Almost half of the United States currently have such protections in place. And only through the patchwork change across Pennsylvania wrought by many individual communities like ours will enough influence ever be brought to bear to convince the Commonwealth itself to protect the citizens it continues to leave out in the cold. It's time we sent a message to Harrisburg and Washington that we stand against hate and ignorance. It's time we stood for justice with the LGBT brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, and children of our own community who pay taxes, contribute time and money for good causes, worship in our sacred places, and make Springfield better in so many ways.

Sincerely,
Debi Riggs Shaw, Wyndmoor, PA