THE HELL WE'VE BEEN THROUGH: STORIES OF DISCRIMINATION

Discrimination against LGBTQ+ people in the United States is not a new phenomenon. The period of this exhibit, however, stretches from the 1960s to 2001. LGBTQ+ people in central Pennsylvania have experienced discrimination in all its forms, in employment, housing, education, public accommodations and in verbal and physical assaults. This exhibit is not a comprehensive database of LGBTQ discrimination in Central Pennsylvania. It does not privilege one group’s history over another. Rather, it reflects the current physical collection of the LGBT Center of Central PA History Project.

Hate crimes are the most brutal form of discrimination. Aggressors, motivated by prejudice, rely on the use or threat of violence to instill fear in the LGBTQ+ community. According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program, there were 1,249 reported hate crimes which targeted individuals solely for being LGBTQ+

A lesbian couple, Nancy and Riitta, living in Dauphin County faced constant harassment by their neighbors in the 1980s. Nancy recalled how their neighbors “would scream to the top of their lungs, ‘Pussy-eaters! Pussy-eaters!’ … scratch and key our cars…throw and break eggs in front of our garage … throw dildos on our porch.” The image below shows an incident when the neighbors placed signs warning others of “Lesbians” living on their street. These acts of intimidation escalated throughout the decade.

Harassment became outright hostility. One morning, a neighbor followed Nancy. Nancy remembered, “I didn’t want her to know where I worked, and I pulled in a parking lot of an insurance building … on North Front Street. She pulls in, too. And, it’s just her and I … she takes a handgun out of her glove compartment and points it at me from her car to mine. At that time, someone pulled into work and they saw it, and so I filed a [criminal] complaint with the District Justice.” Sadly, the magistrate denied the criminal case due to the fact there was a civil suit underway.

“She pretended to be dead until she couldn’t hear any more. She ran— she ran down the mountain to—in the darkness, by that time—to a road where she was able to hail a passerby. She was Life Lion-ed—helicopter—to Hershey Medical Center. She was shot in the neck, and the doctors said that if the bullet had gone a quarter of an inch closer to her spine, that she too would have been killed. She was terrified, and it was a terrorizing act for the entire community, but most specifically for lesbians.” – Mary Nancarrow’s Oral History

In her oral history, Mary Nancarrow, lesbian activist and former president of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the National Organization for Women, recounted an incident that traumatized the central PA LGBTQ+ community. Rebecca Wight and her girlfriend Claudia Brenner were shot by a deranged gunman on May 13, 1988. The couple set up camp in Michaux State Forest in Adams County when shots rang out. Wight, of Blacksburg, VA, died almost immediately. Brenner, of Ithaca, NY, survived multiple wounds. Mike George, the gunman’s attorney, claimed his client “felt rejected by women his entire life and that he became enraged when he saw the women making love, believing they were trying to taunt him.” The court sentenced the gunman to life in prison for first-degree murder

Nancy Helm opened The Closet, an LGBTQ+ bookstore, at 25 N. Prince St. in Lancaster City on May 15, 1991. The Closet underwent police raids, numerous threats, and two bombings during its operation. The Ku Klux Klan singled out the store as an excuse to protest against “homosexual activities” on August 24, 1991. Helm stated the second bombing “blew … a nice sized piece of brick out of the wall. It did a lot of damage. I had an old candy case from way back when that I had a lot of my display in, and the glass shards scratched the entire front of it. It was like, it was like a sun burst, you know. My flag was burnt up, my gay flag that hung in the window was burnt up.” The Closet officially closed down on May 14, 1992.

LGBTQ+ people often face discrimination in the workplace. Pennsylvania is no exception.

In 1975 Gov. Milton J. Shapp issued an executive order to protect state government employees of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. It was the first state in the nation to have such protection. In 1978, these protections were extended to transgender individuals, students and employees at state universities and later to employers with contracts with the Commonwealth.

But an amendment to the PA Human Relations Act that would provide comprehensive  non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people has failed to even come to a vote in the Pennsylvania Legislature. It would protect all other employees, as well as provide protections in housing, education and public accommodations.

In 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the 1964 Civil Rights Act provides employment discrimination protection for LGBTQ+ people throughout the nation in workplaces with 15 or more employees. 

Richard Schlegel, born in Berrysburg, PA, faced workplace discrimination by  two different employers, the federal and state governments.

The United States military fired him as a civilian employee after discovering he was a homosexual in 1961 as part of the Lavender Scare begun by Sen. Joseph McCarthy in the 1950’s. He sued the United States government for lost wages. The Supreme Court ruled Schlegel was not entitled to any compensation in 1969. This is considered an important early landmark case in the fight for employment rights for LGBTQ+ people.

In 1963, Schlegel was hired for a high level position as Director of Finance for the PA Department of Highways (now PennDoT). Schlegel became involved in homophile organizations, including the Janus Society of Philadelphia, and started the central PA chapter of the Janus Society in 1965, the first LGBTQ+ organization created in central PA.  In 1965, Schlegel was terminated by the Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Highways for being a member of the homophile movement. 

Image: Richard Schlegel, 2nd from right. Photograph. LGBT Center of Central PA History Project collection at Dickinson College Archives.

Dan Miller, a certified public accountant, worked for Donald L. DeMuth Professional Management Consultants from 1985 to 1990. Miller spoke on behalf of Harrisburg’s LGBTQ+ community during a wave of gay bashings in the summer of 1990, appearing on local television news. DeMuth learned of Miller’s homosexuality when a client praised Miller for doing “a good job … talking about gay activism!” He fired Miller for “moral turpitude” on October 17, 1990. 

Miller opened his own accounting practice, which attracted some of DeMuth’s clients, on December 1, 1990. DeMuth filed suit against Miller for violating a non-compete clause. He also sent out a letter to former clients which warned that homosexuals “get AIDS and die. And while he doesn't know [Miller’s] medical status, he assumes that … [Miller] would not be living for very long.” Miller counter sued for wrongful termination. The court ruled that Miller was to pay DeMuth $130,000 plus interest. The LGBTQ+ community rallied behind Miller to help raise money for his legal defense.  

Miller was elected to Harrisburg City Council in 2005 becoming Harrisburg’s first openly gay elected official. He served one term and then was elected City Controller in 2009.

The Patriot News reported former Mayor Linda Thompson referred to Miller as “ that homosexual, evil little man” in February 2011. Around 250 protesters showed up to demand Thompson resign for her comments. In 2013, Miller challenged Thompson in the Democratic primary for mayor but lost to Eric Pappenfuse in a multi-candidate race.  Miller was appointed City Treasurer in 2016 to fill a vacancy in an unexpired term and elected to that position in 2017.

Miller contributed much to the LGBTQ+ community through his activism, including founding the Gay and Lesbian Pride Festival of Central PA and the Business Association of Gays and Lesbians (now the  Keystone Business Alliance).

Despite the firing and lawsuit, Miller enjoyed great success for 30 years as founding partner of his CPA firm Miller Dixon Drake, retiring in 2020. 

“There was a police officer standing on the center of the sidewalk and he was telling people ‘Wait.’ He would look up and say, ‘Okay, run!’ And so, a group of people would then go and run across the street. As soon I as I got across the street, I turned around and looked up and was like, ‘Oh my gosh!’ I had no idea of what had happened. I knew that it was a fire and I thought in my mind that it must have been a boiler that exploded. I crossed the street and I started to walk away from the building and I just remembered looking back and then realizing that whatever happened it was on my floors. My company had 93 to 100 in Tower 1 and the first plane went right in at 95. So, it went right into my floors.” – MJ Dougherty’s Oral History

MJ Dougherty’s  employer, the Harrisburg office of Marsh and McLennan, selected her to travel to New York  City for business purposes on September 10, 2001. She was held up by a phone call from Christy, her partner, in the Marriott World Trade Center when the first plane struck the North tower on September 11. MJ escaped, running through the debris field of building pieces and body parts. She saw people jump from the Towers to their death.

MJ, like so many others, stayed closeted at her workplace during this period. Christy unintentionally outed MJ at work when hearing the news of the 9/11 attacks, she called the Harrisburg office and asked about MJ’s whereabouts. When MJ’s supervisor asked who she was, Christy indicated she was MJ’s partner. MJ expressed grief that her relationship with her employer “completely fell apart after that.” Suffering from PTSD, her supervisor denied her the free counseling that was offered to all other Marsh and McLennan employees. Her supervisor gave her a poor review, and denied her a raise and a bonus in 2002. She appealed this decision to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission but was denied due to the fact that lesbians were not considered a protected class.

The society of the United States is heteronormative and cisnormative. In other words, most Americans assume that any given stranger is heterosexual and/or has a gender identity which matches their biological sex. These norms sometimes force LGBT people to live double lives.

Katherine Marie McIntyre always sensed she was a woman. She was born Robert Henry McIntyre in 1944. The Patriot News reported, “By day, she was Robert Henry, a parking authority maintenance worker. By night, she was Katherine Marie McIntyre, a towering woman with reddish-brown hair.” In 1995, the Dauphin County Court ruled she could not change her name without getting gender affirming surgery. McIntyre told the Patriot, “I have a right to live my life as I see fit.” The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania ruled that the state legally recognized her as a woman on July 21, 1998.