It’s been over three years since Kevin Harrigan, Philip Williams and Kathryn Knott bashed a gay couple, Andrew Haught and Zachary Hesse, in Center City Philadelphia on Sept. 11, 2014. At the time, there was outrage that such an attack could occur in Philadelphia, a place where LGBTQ people are supposed to feel safe in a city considered the most LGBTQ-friendly in the country by the Human Rights Campaign. However, the outrage wasn’t limited to the attack itself. Because of a procedural issue, sexual orientation and gender identity are not included in Pennsylvania’s hate crime laws; leaving prosecutors no way to charge Harrigan, Williams and Knott with a hate crime.

State Reps. Dan Frankel, D-Allegheny, and Brian Sims, D-Philadelphia, have been attempting to reinstate LGBTQ citizens and disabled people as protected classes in Pennsylvania with regards to hate crimes for years, the latest attempt being The Pennsylvania Fairness Act (H.B. 1510/S.B. 974). The Pennsylvania Fairness Act, a bipartisan effort, is only now receiving attention across the state with legislatures stating embarrassment at Pennsylvania being the only state in the Northeast to lack hate-crime protections for the LGBTQ community. Locally, disabled and LGBT Philadelphians are protected in a city ordinance that unanimously passed the Philadelphia City Council just two months after the Center City bashing.

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