Tampa Bay Coalition
Posts this in Support and on Behalf of;
The National Transgender
Advocacy Coalition
For Immediate Release: July 24, 2003
From: The National
Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC)
Contacts: Media Director, Robyn
Walters, Seattle, Washington
NTAC Chair, Vanessa Edwards Foster; Houston,
Texas
Contact Email: ntacmedia@aol.com / media@ntac.org
Contact Phone: 832-483-9901
/ 360-437-4091
Website: http://www.ntac.org
Anti-Gay Group Seeks to Overturn
Allentown Human Rights Ordinance
Last year, Allentown,
Pennsylvania, joined a growing number of jurisdictions extending
nondiscrimination protection to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people
in such areas as housing and employment. The ink had barely dried before an
anti-gay organization, Citizens for Traditional Values (CTV), began gathering
signatures to force repeal of the ordinance or to place a repeal referendum
before city voters. The effort failed when the Allentown City Council agreed
with the City Clerk that 637 petition signatures were invalid. That was the
number of voters who said that they had been duped into signing the petition
through fraudulent and misleading information. They were led to believe the
petition was pro-gay.
Citizens for Traditional Values is trying again,
filing a lawsuit to overturn the Allentown ordinance on the basis of violating
the Pennsylvania constitution.
The National Transgender Advocacy
Coalition (NTAC) decries efforts to legalize the firing of and denial of other
civil rights to GLBT citizens. "Apparently this conservative group - CTV - has
nothing better to do than to force local jurisdictions to spend taxpayer funds
to defend specious and frivolous lawsuits," said Vanessa Edwards Foster, chair
of NTAC. "Even if a law is passed with a fair and democratic process, CTV
seems to believe they can continue calling for new votes and challenging it in
court again and again, city funds be damned."
Details of the suit were
not immediately available, according to Steve Black of the Pennsylvania Gay and
Lesbian Alliance (PA-GALA). Councilwoman Gail Hoover had not yet seen the suit
but alerted PA-GALA. Black said that PA-GALA intends to take an active Friend of
the Court role in defending the ordinance.
Black assumes the CTV
suit will claim that the Allentown ordinance is invalid because it is not
"substantially similar" to the state Human Rights Law. State law does not yet
include protection for sexual orientation or gender-identity. The courts would
have to rule on the similarity of the two laws. The decision in this case could
impact similar ordinances passed in Erie County, Harrisburg, Lancaster,
Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New Hope, State College and York that include sexual
orientation and gender identity.
"I am sure that the Allentown City
Council will defend the ordinance," said Black. "PA-GALA will submit a Friend of
the Court brief, and I am confident that the ordinance will stand."
Renewed debate and legal action will likely spark interest in current
efforts to amend the State Human Rights Law to include protection for sexual
orientation, gender-identity or expression.
"If all things were
automatically equal, there would be no need for ordinances such as the one in
Allentown," said NTAC chair, Foster. "The pending lawsuit by CTV proves that
they're still seeking ways to justify their personal prejudices. Someday
we hope they'll see that no matter how you slice it, prejudice is
wrong."
Founded in 1999, NTAC - the National Transgender Advocacy
Coalition - is a §501(c)(4) civil rights organization working to establish and
maintain the right of all transgendered, intersexed, and gender-variant people
to live and work without fear of violence or
discrimination.