By JOSEPHINE MENDEZ
The Herald-Dispatch
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Strides made by Huntington officials toward making the city a place of fairness and inclusion for all has a major civil rights organization to take notice.
The Human Rights Campaign recently released its 2016 Municipal Equality Index, which ranks 506 U.S. cities of varying sizes on a number of factors, including nondiscrimination laws, municipal employment policies, inclusiveness of city services, law enforcement with regard to LGBTQ persons and municipal leadership on matters of equality.
Huntington received a score of 85 on a 100-point scale, which is in the top 25 percent of cities that were evaluated. The nationwide average was 55.
Joseph Cohen, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia, said it is unfortunate that a state with such warm and friendly people does not have laws that reflect such an atmosphere.
“We need our government to match our residents’ hospitality and sense of justice and hopefully the work of the City of Huntington can be a model for the rest of the state,” he said.
Currently, West Virginia’s human rights act and hate crime laws do not include protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
In the past two years, Huntington has just about doubled its Municipal Equality Index score because of City Council’s passage of an anti-discrimination ordinance, the assignment of an LGBT liaison to city executives and the Huntington Police Department, providing services to those living with HIV/AIDS, leadership’s pro-equality policy efforts, and a nondiscrimination policy for city contractors.
Most notable for Cohen was when City Council unanimously amended its human relations ordinance in December 2013 to include language that no one could be denied employment, housing or other basic rights based on sexual orientation, gender or veteran status, an act which the state and federal government has failed to pass.
“If you talked to the business community, most people would believe that it is in the state’s best interest to encourage diversity and inclusion and make this a place where people feel welcome and want to be,” he said. “West Virginia really needs that right now.”
Cohen said he hopes state legislators will take note of what Huntington has done and follow suit.
“My hope is that Huntington is putting pressure on the state legislature,” he said “We want West Virginia to be like Huntington and be a leader on this issue and not sort of be dragged into the 21st century. But at the end of the day, for people across the state, it’s going to require the state legislature to step up and do what’s right and that means ensuring that all people are treated fairly.”
According to data from Fairness West Virginia, only 11 cities and towns in West Virginia, including Huntington, Charleston and Morgantown, have enacted LGBTQ nondiscrimination ordinances. An additional nine cities and towns have either ongoing campaigns for such an ordinance or resolutions of support.
Other cities that were also included in the Municipal Equality Index are Charles Town (its score was 50), Lewisburg (49), Morgantown (46) and Parkersburg (20).
Of those cities, only Parkersburg does not have an LGBTQ nondiscrimination ordinance but is currently campaigning to do so, according to Fairness West Virginia data.
Charleston and Wheeling were listed in the report as well but their scores were not immediately available Tuesday.
Maurice R. Cooley, associate vice president of Intercultural Affairs at Marshall University, said he is pleased that Huntington has received such a high ranking, but is not at all surprised.
“The students that attend our university and parents who are from other states or countries who come here, discover very quickly something that is quite new and different than their home communities because of the friendliness that people have throughout Huntington,” he said
Huntington Mayor Steve Williams said there is still more work to be done.
“A year later, our expectations are even more resolute,” he said in a release.
“We expect to be known as a city of honor, respect and compassion. My vision is that we embrace our diversity and actively seek inclusiveness as we learn to stand as one people celebrating our differences. We will be able to shape our future by assuring every person in our city has a seat at the table and has a voice to be heard.”
The city’s labor liaison, Teresa Ball, continues to work with the Mayor’s LGBTQ Advisory Committee, which was formed in 2015, on a number of initiatives to advance inclusiveness in Huntington, Williams said.
“As a resident of Huntington and as a member of the Mayor’s LGBTQ Advisory Committee, I am so proud of the progress we have made in the area of LGBTQ rights,” said Kat Williams, the mayor’s liaison to the LGBTQ Advisory Committee. “Huntington is a diverse community and, as this report shows, we are also an inclusive one.
“For this city to grow and prosper, all of its citizens must have equal treatment and access. Under the mayor’s leadership and with the hard work of our committee we are moving in that direction.”
The full report, including detailed scorecards for every city and a searchable database, is available online at www.hrc.org/mei.
See more from The Herald-Dispatch
