PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia City Council passed three resolutions on Thursday committing to safeguarding the rights of LGBTQ residents.
Council’s first openly gay member, Rue Landau, introduced the resolutions, which include declaring June as Pride Month in the city and pledging to protect LGBTQ rights in the event that state or federal law may attempt to take them away.
“Right now, LGBTQ+ people across the country and right here in our commonwealth are facing unprecedented attacks on our rights and threaten to strip back the progress we’ve made as a country and a city,” Landau said.
“The LGBTQ+ community is facing an inflection point that I don’t think we could have imagined 10 years ago when marriage equality became the law of the land, and so many of us felt like there was no going back.”
More than 500 discriminatory measures have been introduced across the country just this year, including four in Pennsylvania.
U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, representing the Philadelphia suburbs, was among those in City Hall to show their support on Thursday. She said such bills get introduced day after day in Congress.
“Book bans and medical care and eliminating DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] positions, all in the name of sowing division by scaring people with misinformation and disinformation,” she said.
The third resolution in the package authorizes council hearings on obstacles to equality in Philadelphia and how they may be eliminated.
