Amongst the myriad of city departments in Pittsburgh is the city’s Commission on Human Relations (CHR). Many people don’t know about this “small but mighty” agency, but it plays a critical role in making sure Pittsburgh can be a city for everyone. The Commission recently launched a new effort to confront anti-LGBTQ discrimination with a new survey about people’s experiences related to housing.
“We are the official civil rights agency for the City of Pittsburgh,” Rachel Shepherd, executive director of the CHR, tells Pittsburgh City Paper, “We’ve been around since 1955, and while the majority of what we do is civil rights enforcement and looking at the investigative element of our mandate, we also have this mandate to go and do education and outreach and to conduct research.”
It’s under this mandate that they are making new efforts to combat anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled, in Bostock v. Clayton County, that anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination in employment is illegal under federal law. Additionally, the City of Pittsburgh has included explicit protections for sexual orientation (since 1990) and for gender identity and expression (since 2014). This includes discrimination in housing, which means that landlords, sellers, and other actors in the housing market cannot discriminate. For LGBTQ people facing rising rents, these are critical protections.
“It’s important to highlight that, even if something bad really happens this election cycle and we end up rolling back additional protections on the federal level, Pittsburgh will keep those,” Shepherd says. “We will still be able to enforce those laws here in Pittsburgh and to keep those protections going, we just won’t have the federal support that we would have otherwise.”
But prohibiting discrimination does not eliminate it overnight. The CHR is aware of this, but Shepherd says they rarely see filings on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. They doubt that means there’s no issues in the city, which is why they launched this current survey.
The Commission hopes to hear directly from the LGBTQ+ community so they can understand the challenges the community faces, refine their legal guidance, conduct education campaigns, and combat prejudice. In particular, they want to know about specific instances or housing providers who have discriminated. They want to know what that discrimination looks like. And they want to know where queer people feel safe in the city, and where they don’t.
By going to Pride and working with organizations like Hugh Lane Wellness, the CHR hopes to cast a wide net and get as representative of a sample as possible. They’ve even extended the survey deadline twice to maximize responses. The survey is currently still active, and they’re hoping to get into bars and venues that are queer-friendly to spread the word about this research. The survey deadline is formally today (Oct. 31) but will likely be extended into Nov.
These efforts have been a long time coming. The CHR initiated the survey soon after 2020, under Jam Hammond the agency’s first transgender director. Because they are a small agency, and don’t have a massive budget, they had difficulty finding a vendor to help them conduct their research. After multiple attempts, and a hike in the offered contract price, they were able to get a vendor and start their efforts earlier this year. Shepherd described the process as frustrating, but said the agency is excited to be on the ground talking to people and making progress. Once this survey is complete, Shepherd says, the agency will be better equipped to protect Pittsburgh’s LGBTQ+ community.
The delay due to resources reflects a recurring challenge for the CHR. Shepherd calls the Commission “small, but mighty,” but still describes the CHR as understaffed and stretched thin. The CHR is supposed to have 15 commissioners appointed by the mayor and confirmed by City Council that help evaluate complaints and direct the agency’s focus. However, numerous spots are vacant, and some people’s appointments are set to expire soon. This makes it harder for CHR staff to do their job, and Shepherd encouraged interested Pittsburgh residents to apply to be a commissioner.
“We have seven seats to fill right now that I’m really hoping that we do, because we have quite a lot of cases to get through,” Shepherd says, “and we need our commissioners for that.”
The CHR is not the only local agency facing this issue: Shepherd says they have tried to work with the City’s LGBTQIA+ Commission but could never meet formally due to quorum issues.
Still, Shepherd is optimistic that this survey will make a difference. She wants people to know that the CHR realizes that “there is a lot of intersectionality between protected classes in the city of Pittsburgh” and that there are more protections than people may realize. “We can work with you on trying to get something done.”
This article appears in Oct 23-29, 2024.
