After winning a 7-3 majority in
November, Republican leaders in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania plan on
repealing the city's LGBTQ protections ordinance passed in October.
According to Penn Live, the
borough's council will hold a vote on Monday, January 24.
The ordinance, which prohibits
discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and
ethnicity in housing, employment, and public accommodations, was
approved in October, when Democrats controlled the chamber.
Borough Council President Allen
Coffman, a Republican, is leading opposition to the ordinance.
“All of us that ran in this election
to be on council, we think we got a mandate from the people,” he
said. “People we talked to when we were campaigning did not
like this ordinance at all. I don't know what the vote will be, but I
have a pretty good idea.”
Alice Elia, the former Chambersburg
borough council president and a Democrat, called repeal of the
ordinance a “political move.”
“I don't know of any reasons for
repealing it other than a political move,” she said. “This issue
should not be politicized. It's an issue of justice and having equal
protection for everybody in our community. It shouldn't be a
political or a Democratic or Republican issue. This should be
something we are all concerned about.”
Coffman told Penn Live that the
ordinance is ineffective because it has “no teeth.”
“There are no penalties, not fines,”
he said. “There’s nothing that the ordinance can make someone do.
The most they can hope for is that the committee request the two
parties to sit down with a counselor or mediator and talk about it.
Quite frankly there is nothing that compels them to. There’s no
teeth in this.”
Pennsylvania is among the 27 states
lacking statewide LGBTQ protections.
According to Penn Live,
Chambersburg is poised to become the state's first municipality to
repeal an LGBTQ-inclusive law.