Allentown City Council repeals, replaces ‘out of date’ discrimination ordinance

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Allentown officials on Wednesday scrapped the city’s discrimination and human relations ordinance and passed a new measure to expand protections.

Council unanimously approved Bill 46, a 27-page ordinance that replaces the 16-page city law first enacted in 1963 and amended several times since.

Many of the changes in Allentown's new ordinance are housekeeping updates that make it more “reflective of 2025,” Councilwoman Ce-Ce Gerlach said.

She called the new city law “a very comprehensive ordinance that really looks at [multiple] facets of society and different groups that definitely need protections.”

It defines almost two dozen more terms than did the previous ordinance, including citizenship status, gender expression and genetic information.

It also includes provisions that ban race-based hair discrimination, similar to CROWN Act legislation enacted in 25 states, not including Pennsylvania.

And the ordinance grants Allentown’s Human Relations Commission the authority to enforce the city’s HRC protections.

'Well overdue'

Activist Liz Bradbury crafted the measure using Lehigh County’s human relations commission ordinance “as a model” to update the city’s 62-year-old bill, Gerlach said.

“There are parts of it that are just not applicable anymore,” Bradbury told council members before they passed the new ordinance.

Gerlach said she proposed the legislation after residents asked for an update.

“I don't think any of us really knew that our ordinance was that out of date,” she said, thanking residents.

Councilman Santo Napoli, who owns a downtown clothing store, said a rewrite of Allentown’s HRC ordinance was “well overdue” more than two decades after its last major update.

“I can’t imagine doing my day job with 2002 standards,” he said.

The ordinance rewrite comes amid a protracted investigation into numerous claims of racism and discrimination by and against Allentown employees.