In many parts of Pennsylvania, it is still legal to evict or deny public accommodations to LGBTQ people. Only in jurisdictions with Human Relations Commissions do LGBTQ individuals and other classes not mentioned in state and federal civil rights laws have such nondiscrimination protections.
For years in the Pittsburgh-area, only municipalities within Allegheny County, and the county itself, offered nondiscrimination to LGBTQ individuals.
On Jan. 12, that changed, as Monessen became the first municipality in Westmoreland County, and the first non-Allegheny County municipality in the Pittsburgh region to pass a law creating a Human Relations Commission to provide nondiscrimination protections to LGBTQ individuals.
