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I posted this morning that I was headed to Vandergrift to meet with state rep Petrarca and some of his constituents, and wanted to write a follow up about the meeting. Meetings of this type are called lobbying your representative. Today was a bit of “walking the walk” for me. I’ve been posting for a few months now about how important these one-on-one meetings are to issues like PA HB300. Not only are they effective, they touch upon the very basis of our democratic process. So, today, I had a chance to put into practice the Instruction Booklet I wrote and that can be downloaded from my blog. PA HB 300 adds to the existing PA non-discrimination laws by adding sexual orientation and gender identity and expression as protected classes.

Joe Petrarca is a really likable guy and it was easy to talk with him He listened to what our gathered group had to say, and ask good questions as a means to better understand how this bill would affect the lives of everyday people in the state of Pennsylvania. so let me follow the instruction booklet and see how all the steps worked to make a successful meeting.

Brian, who lives in Vandergrift, scheduled the meeting. Which turned out to be pretty simple. If there is a hard part of this, it is that representatives are generally in their districts available to meet on Thursdays and Fridays. I was already off today for vacation but the others had to take the time from work for the meeting.

We prepared for the meeting in a few ways. We each knew what we wanted to say, and went over a plan for how we could allow the meeting to work beforehand. Brian had met with him previously about HB1400, a predecessor to HB 300, so we had some idea as to what his concerns were at that time.

we arrived pretty much right on time for the meeting with a box of donuts for the office staff. In my instructions I write:

Remember that everyone in the room wants the same thing: what is best for the State and its constituents. Your role is to help the elected official and his or her staff understand how the issue or legislation at hand will accomplish that shared goal.

That is really what happened. Petrarca’s interest in that outcome as well as that of all of us present was very clear.

The last 2 steps of the process is to follow up with a thank you note and continue to build the relationship which we all are going to do.

There! That wasn’t so hard!

If you have read my posts and feel hesitant to take that next step and meet with your rep, please take my word for it. It really is that easy, and it is very valuable!

I wouldn’t be surprised if today was the first time, Joe Petrarca met a transperson. That alone was powerful: for him to hear a person talk about how this bill will impact her life. All of us know that on some level, there is little special about us. We really are just like everyone else. But that is exactly part of what we need to share. So take the next step- meet with your state rep and ask them to support PA HB 300.

Joe expressed a few concerns that I think are worth talking about. I’ll most likely break them up over a few posts but the first one I want to address is this. Joe expressed that many in Harrisburg aren’t sure there is really a discrimination problem to address. Do people really lose their jobs or fail to get hired? Do people have trouble getting housing? What does discrimination in public accommodations look like in the state?

This is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, GLBTQ folks may not want to come out and identify themselves out of fear of discrimination, and on the other hand, if they don’t come out  and give voice to their experience, no one knows what discrimination has occurred. A lawyer I know shared with me that even in situations where sexual orientation was the reason for the action, a person’s lawyer may hide that and focus on sex discrimination since sex is already a protected class. So the case won’t be understood as sexual orientation discrimination even if that was what it was.

To help legislators like Joe understand this issue, we need to be able to show him examples where discrimination has occurred, and also help him understand the degree to which GLBTQ people may live in the closet  so as to protect themselves as much as possible.

Joe Petrarca said himself, “no one deserves to be discriminated against.” If we can continue to speak to the concerns about this bill, we will continue to mopve thios bil towards successful passage.