Monessen extends protections to LGBTQ community

Monessen city officials have extended protections to members of the LGBTQ community through a nondiscrimination ordinance.

The action, which council passed unanimously this week, forbids discrimination in housing and employment based on sexual orientation and gender identity and expression. Protections previously were based on race, gender and religion.

“Monessen’s a very diverse place even compared to a lot of the rest of the county, not only in terms of LGBTQ but in terms of race, age, all of that,” Mayor Matthew Shorraw said. “It’s so important to help support and protect all of our residents. That’s number one.”

The ordinance lays the groundwork for a human relations commission, a five-member board that will have the ability to research and educate the public on topics covered in the ordinance, Shorraw said.

The board would be the first of its kind in Westmoreland County, and it would mirror those in Allegheny County and Pittsburgh. Allegheny County created a human relations commission in 2009, while Pittsburgh officials extended protections to the LGBTQ community in 1990. Across the state, more than 60 municipalities have adopted similar legislation, Shorraw said.

“This has been my dream ever since we got involved with LGBTQ organizations, that there be basically a fairness act, a nondiscrimination act, for Westmoreland County because it is so important that there are protections in employment and in housing and in services for LGBTQ people,” said Jean Slusser, president of PFLAG Greensburg, the local chapter of the country’s largest organization for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community.

She noted several members of the LGBTQ community moved to Allegheny County, where they feel safer, specifically those who are transgender.

“If other municipalities and the county itself follows Monessen’s example, all LGBTQ people will feel a lot safer,” said Jim Galik, president of the Westmoreland LGBTQ Interfaith Network. “That’s kind of the bottom line.”

Shorraw, who said he was unaware the commission would be the first of its kind in the county, said he is hopeful other municipalities will adopt similar measures to help close loopholes seen in state and federal laws that only provide protections based on race, religious creed, ancestry, age or national origin.

“I’m hoping that other communities in Westmoreland County and in the Mon Valley will also join in because we have a lot of diverse communities, and so this will kind of help update these laws,” Shorraw said.