Westmoreland County commissioners want you to believe they’re being “neutral.”
Neutral about queer people. Neutral about trans lives. Neutral about whether LGBTQ+ residents deserve even the most basic symbolic recognition.
Let’s be honest. There is nothing neutral about refusing to acknowledge a marginalized community while enthusiastically handing out proclamations for everything else under the sun.
At their latest public meeting, Westmoreland County commissioners moved forward with seven proclamations honoring an Olympic medalist, a retiring airport executive, and even a deceased police dog. Meanwhile, once again, they rejected a request to recognize the LGBTQ+ community and the upcoming Transgender Day of Visibility.
So let’s call this what it is: selective recognition rooted in discrimination.
Republican Commissioner Sean Kertes defended the decision by claiming government should stay out of “matters of sexual identity,” framing LGBTQ+ existence as something private, something belonging in the bedroom. Republican Commissioner Doug Chew agreed with Kertes. That argument is not just outdated, it’s deeply dishonest.
LGBTQ+ people are not asking Kertes and Chew to officiate their relationships or monitor their private lives. They are asking for a proclamation, a symbolic gesture that the county hands out freely to athletes, nonprofits, and calendar observances without controversy. Commissioner Ted Kopas, a Democrat, has repeatedly tried to introduce proclamations for the LGBTQ+ community.
You don’t get to say government should stay out of personal lives while simultaneously deciding which communities are worthy of public recognition and which are not. That’s not neutrality. That’s governance by omission.
And omission, in moments like this, is its own form of discrimination.
Let’s talk about the subtext no one in power wants to say out loud.
When residents like Ash Franzetti, of Greensburg, speak up, calling out Commissioners Kertes and Chew for pandering to a base that thrives on anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, they’re naming a reality that’s playing out across the country.
This isn’t about “policy.” This isn’t about “government overreach.” This is about political calculus.
Kertes and Chew are not avoiding the issue because it’s too personal; they’re avoiding it because it’s politically convenient for them. A proclamation costs nothing. It changes no laws. It doesn’t reallocate funding.
What it does do is signal that LGBTQ+ people belong. And apparently, even that is too much.
Jean Slusser of PFLAG Greensburg said it plainly that trans people are frightened. And they have every reason to be.
Across the country, anti-trans legislation is surging. Hate crimes remain underreported and under-addressed. Queer youth are navigating a cultural landscape that increasingly treats their existence as debatable.
In that context, a local proclamation isn’t trivial; it’s a statement of safety. A signal that your local government sees you, values you, and affirms your right to exist. By refusing that recognition, Commissioners Sean Kertes and Doug Chew are sending the opposite message.
Here’s the contradiction at the heart of all this. Westmoreland County commissioners clearly believe in proclamations. They use them to celebrate achievements, mark awareness months, and uplift community figures. They just don’t believe LGBTQ+ people qualify as part of that community.
And that’s the story. Not neutrality. Not restraint. Exclusion. And exclusion by a government might just leave the County open to a lawsuit.
If your definition of “community” conveniently leaves out queer people who are your neighbors, your voters, and your constituents, then you’re not governing for everyone. You’re governing for comfort.
And comfort has never been the same thing as justice.