Happy Pride, Pittsburgh! I’m glad to once again celebrate Pride this year with so many of you. As the first out queer woman in the PA General Assembly, Pride means living my truth every day and fighting for our community, even and especially when it is difficult. The number of Out legislators continues to grow in the PA General Assembly: myself, Reps. Andre Carroll, Malcolm Kenyatta, La’Tasha D. Mayes, Abigail Salisbury, Greg Scott, and Izzy Smith-Wade-El – bringing the total number to 7!
I continue to serve in my capacity as co-chair of the legislature’s bicameral, bipartisan LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus, now joined by Co-Chair Rep. Smith-Wade-El. Our caucus includes not just Out members of the legislature, but many straight allies.
As our community continues to face attacks from some elected officials and public figures, our work as Out legislators has grown in importance. We will continue to champion legislation alongside our allies that protects and supports our community and fight back against any anti-LGBTQ+ legislation that our colleagues introduce. On both the federal and state level, we are seeing an increasing number of bills targeting our community, especially our Trans siblings. At least in Pennsylvania, because of the Democratic majority in the PA House and Governor Josh Shapiro, those bills will not see the light of day. And we will do what we can to blunt the impact of federal action.
In the 2023-24 legislative session, we passed the Fairness Act through the PA House. The GOP-controlled State Senate refused to bring the legislation up for a vote at all, hitting that unfortunate roadblock in our efforts to enshrine non-discrimination protections into law. We have resumed those efforts in this new legislative session and will continue to push for this bill to become law. We understand it be the absolute floor for protections for our community. This is a foundation on which we continue to build, advocating for many other pieces of legislation to proactively protect our community.
Amidst troubling times, let’s take the opportunity during Pride month and beyond to celebrate our true selves and the ways our community and our allies have banded together to fight for justice for all of us.
In solidarity,
Jessica Benham
State Representative
District 36
