PA Commission on LGBTQ Affairs meeting on Nov 13

The Pennsylvania Commission on LGBTQ Affairs held their quarterly meeting on Friday, November 20. After welcoming remarks from Governor Tom Wolf and Department of Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine, commissioners were sworn in. Pennsylvania was the first state LGBTQ commission in the nation when it was formed in August, 2018.

Co-Vice Chair Ciora Thomas gave a presentation on Transgender Day of Remembrance (November 20), its history and also the need to ban conversion therapy.

Executive Director Rafael Alvarez Febo gave an update on progress over the last year. The commission has gotten new branding and social media. Our commission worked with other affinity commissions of the Commonwealth to issue a joint statement in June regarding racial justice in response to the protests related to the death of George Floyd. The Aging committee had hosted a statewide LGBTQ virtual summit related to the Pennsylvania Department of Aging's (PDA's) four year plan, as well as a survey to identify priorities for the plan. For the first time, the PDA has language addressing the specific needs of LGBTQ seniors. This year, the PA Department of Transportation also added nonbinary gender markers on driver licenses.

The Event & Arts/Culture Committee had stressed that Pride events are also an economic engine and how to safely hold events during COVID.

The Health Committee was able to get sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) questions in COVID infection data collection. The Commonwealth and several municipalities also included sexual health guidelines for COVID. Pennsylvania was the first state to include SOGI data collection for COVID.

The Housing and Homelessness Committee continues to work to make housing policy inclusive.

The various committees then met and reported back.

Aging will continue working with the PDA and will work on how we can identify that area agencies on aging (AAA) are implementing the state plan on aging. They are also looking at getting info onto the PDA's web site related to aging and HIV. The committee is also considering another LGBT aging summit.

Youth and Young Adult is changing its scope to be broader than the education system, We need to elevate polices at the local level, as well as legislative policy. We need to reach youth in care, and address the equity gaps that have been revealed. It is not as easy to access community groups during COVID for youth who don't have internet access.

Health Committee thanks Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine for her leadership. Pennsylvania has an app, COVID Alert PA, that collects SOGI data. We need to promote it to increase its use. The app runs on Apple and Android devices.

Data is about to be released from the 2020 LGBTQIA Health Survey that was conducted earlier this year. There was improved Black and Latinx participation compared to the previous survey.

Legislation and Policy is working on passing nondiscrimination legislation and reported that the next session of the state legislature may be less LGBTQ friendly than hoped.