3 Reasons This Is the Moment to Pass an LGBT Anti-Discrimination Bill

Sorry friends, but there won’t be any hate crimes legislation coming out of Harrisburg this year – not even with the groundswell of support created by the recent attack on a gay couple in Center City.

But that doesn’t mean all is lost.

There’s a lot to be done to enhance the safety and welfare of gays and lesbians in Pennsylvania — and this appears to be a great moment to push ahead with it. Remember: Even though gays in Pennsylvania this year won the right to get married to each other, they still lack the protections of a statewide anti-discrimination law — a marriage on Saturday could result in a job loss on Monday and an apartment eviction on Tuesday. That’s not right.

Here are three reasons that now might be a better moment to pursue an anti-discrimination bill instead of hate crimes legislation:

• Republicans in the Republican-controlled Legislature won’t let a hate crimes bill go forward. Period and end of story, I’m afraid. The Patriot-News quoted Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Stewart Greenleaf saying he had “no intention” of letting a hate crimes bill come out of his committee.

Why? Because conservatives are afraid such a law would be used to prosecute them simply for having — or stating — anti-gay ideas. (As an example, they point to former Philly D.A. Lynne Abraham, who used an “ethnic intimidation” law to prosecute anti-gay protesters a decade ago. Michael Smerconish has said the prosecutions were warranted to him, if that means anything.)

The only way you’ll be able to pass a hate crimes bill in Pennsylvania is if you can convince Christian conservatives that they won’t be somehow victimized as a result. If that seems impossible and silly, well, it’ still the obstacle that must be overcome.

• But Republicans increasingly are receptive to anti-discrimination legislation. The percentage of the population that is simply, stolidly, Santorumishly anti-gay just isn’t what it was. Gov. Corbett last year came out in favor of an anti-discrimination bill, even as he worked to oppose gay marriage in the state. (Sen. Pat Toomey voted for a similar federal bill about the same time.) Polling has shown that anti-discrimination bills have the support of more than 72 percent of state voters: That number includes a fair number of Republicans and Independents. It’s just a matter of time before they pass, then.

Will this moment get better, politically, for such action? Maybe. But it’s already awfully good.

 • Anybody convicted in the recent gay-bashing will be punished long beyond what the law prescribes. As of Tuesday evening, it appeared that two men and one woman were facing criminal charges — and if the charges seem a bit meager, well, they’re probably about the same as would be levied if I (a straight man) had been attacked and badly injured because assailants thought I was a lousy columnist.

If convicted, though, it’s going to be very difficult for that trio to go through life. We live in the 21st century, after all — home to Google, Facebook, and the Twitter sleuths who helped identify the three in the first place. Employers use Google and Facebook and Twitter. So do new neighbors and friends. So do prospective mates. Every new job sought, every rental application filled out, is probably going to be a fresh reason for somebody new to discover the facts of this case — and the defendants’ connection to it. They have probably lost their anonymity in perpetuity.

It wouldn’t quite be a scarlet “A” stitched into one’s tunic, but it also requires no change in the law to be felt just as keenly.

All of which is to say: A hate crimes bill might make sense right now. But politics is the art of the possible. An anti-discrimination bill? Increasingly possible. Let’s get it done.

Follow @JoelMMathis on Twitter.