ColumnWhile this past week has been full of gross news about how certain states (ahem, MISSISSIPPI and NORTH CAROLINA) view LGBT people in a less than favorable way, there is a beacon of hope in Pennsylvania, Governor Tom Wolf, who is taking a progressive political stand against the recent bigoted legislation.
Over the past weeks, the Mississippi and North Carolina governments created legislation that allows “individuals and institutions with religious objections to deny services to gay couples,” The New York Times reports.
The North Carolina law, signed by Governor Pat McCory, “made it legal to fire someone for their sexual orientation or gender identity… [and] forced trans people to use the restrooms in public buildings that correspond with the sex they were assigned at birth,” Advocate reports. And the Mississippi law, also known as the “religious liberty” law, “allows businesses to discriminate against customers and employees based on their “sincerely held religious beliefs,” Advocate adds.
Mmm. Smells like fresh shit institutional de-evolution.
Well, thank goodness for Pennsylvania’s Governor Tom Wolf, because he’s had enough of this bigoted bullshit.
On April 6, Wolf announced plans to sign executive orders “to protect LGBT state employees in response to North Carolina’s anti-gay law,” Advocate reports. He signed those executive orders on April 7.
And Wolf isn’t trying to sneak this legislation in — in fact, he’s making loud statements concerning the issue.
During an interview with WESA, a Pittsburgh radio station, he called the N.C. law discriminatory.
“This is not something we want in [Pennsylvania] — we want to be known as a welcoming state,” Wolf said in the radio interview. “We want to be known as a place that’s open for everybody.”
In an initial press release concerning the signings, Wolf detailed what the executive orders would entail. One executive order concerns commonwealth employees, and the other pertains to commonwealth grants and procurement process, the release states. “Each say no agency under the governor’s jurisdiction shall discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, gender expression, and identity, among other areas.”
Hell yeah, Governor Wolf. All we can add is that we hope more American states will follow Wolf’s lead and stop the bigotry now.
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Image of Governor Tom Wolf via his Facebook page