Lori Falce: You can lead a county to Pride Month but you can't make them proclaim it

We have often been told about the perils of leading horses to water.

You might be able to push, pull, ride or haul your steed where you want it to go. You cannot ensure it will do what you want when you get there. Life has no guarantees, no matter how badly you might want them.

PFLAG is a group formerly known as Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. Last week, the Greensburg chapter submitted a petition to the Westmoreland County commissioners asking for recognition of June as Pride Month.

June has been nationally recognized as Pride Month since 1999, but, on local and state levels, that recognition is more scattershot. Pittsburgh and Philadelphia have Pride events. Other areas don’t. Gay rights are a notoriously divisive political subject, and Pennsylvania is likewise a notoriously politically divided state.

That brings us to Westmoreland County.

PFLAG had every right to bring its petition to the commissioners. Groups of all kinds ask for the county to put an official stamp of approval on things all the time.

But as of Thursday, with the end of June just days away, the petition had not been called for a vote. According to Democratic Commissioner Ted Kopas, when he asked about it, the response from his two Republican colleagues was “silent stares.”

The LGBTQ community sees this as a slight. That makes sense. Thursday’s meeting had five other proclamations on deck. If parks and recreation workers and the Americans With Disabilities Act can be recognized, why can’t a vote to let Westmoreland County’s gay community be acknowledged as existing?

Kopas is right when he says there are gay Republicans. Greensburg PFLAG President Jean Slusser is right when pointing out supporting people in the community can make it more attractive for people to move to Westmoreland County. That’s something commissioners have said for years is a priority for economic development and growth.

Those are just bridles to pull the commissioners down to the water’s edge. The petition is the water they could easily drink if they wanted.

But these horses aren’t thirsty. And they are allowed to not drink.

Westmoreland County is very Republican. If the law did not require a board of commissioners made up of two majority and one minority member, Kopas wouldn’t have a job. The rest of the row offices are just as red.

The lack of support for Pride is reflective of the party. The gay community, their family members and allies may decry it, but it’s the way the area votes. Just as PFLAG had the right to submit the petition, the two Republican commissioners had the same right to ignore it.

We may want our leaders to support what we support, whether we voted for them or not, but we have to realize that on many topics, it just won’t happen. Politics has squelched the ability to give a grudging OK to anything that doesn’t completely align with a party’s platform.

By the same token, the commissioners need to remember why things happen. When a gay student leaves for college in a more inclusive community or another city grows because it is willing to take the very simple step of rubber stamping a proclamation, maybe this is why.