{"id":49754,"date":"2017-10-23T21:44:28","date_gmt":"2017-10-24T01:44:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=49754"},"modified":"2018-04-26T22:21:08","modified_gmt":"2018-04-27T02:21:08","slug":"allentown-achieves-maximum-municipal-equality-rating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=49754","title":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN ACHIEVES MAXIMUM MUNICIPAL EQUALITY RATING"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">The City of Allentown has earned a maximum 100 point score in the 2017 Municipality Equality Index (MEI) from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\"><u><\/u>\u00a0<u><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">The MEI examines how inclusive municipal laws, policies and services are of LGBTQ people who live and work there.\u00a0 Cities are rated based on non-discrimination laws, the municipality as an employer, municipal services, law enforcement and the city leadership\u2019s public position on equality.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\"><u><\/u>\u00a0<u><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">\u201cI am extremely proud that Allentown has achieved a 100 point score on the 2017 MEI, said Mayor Ed Pawlowski.\u00a0 \u201cWe have worked hard to be recognized as an inclusive community.\u00a0 This year\u2019s edition recognizes Allentown for adoption of an ordinance banning the dangerous practice of conversion therapy on minors.\u201d<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\"><u><\/u>\u00a0<u><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">The MEI covers 94 million people from the 200 largest cities in the country. Ten cities were rated in Pennsylvania.\u00a0 Only Philadelphia and Pittsburgh joined Allentown with scores of 100 based on 44 different criteria.\u00a0 Across the country, 68 municipalities earned a 100 point rating.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\"><u><\/u>\u00a0<u><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">Allentown had earned a score of 95 points in the 2016 Municipal Equality Index.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\"><u><\/u>\u00a0<u><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">Click on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hrc.org\/resources\/mei-2017-see-your-citys-score\">http:\/\/www.hrc.org\/resources\/mei-2017-see-your-citys-score <\/a>to view the 2017 Allentown scorecard.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\"><u><\/u>\u00a0<u><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">Click on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrc.org\/mei\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?hl=en&amp;q=https:\/\/www.hrc.org\/mei&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1508889880801000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGs0lXl5bfi_GEHnuOBmhY0ANmCDA\">https:\/\/www.hrc.org\/mei<\/a> to learn more about the MEI.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Information Provided By:<br \/>\nMike Moore<br \/>\nCommunications Manager<br \/>\nMayor&#8217;s Office<br \/>\n435 Hamilton Street<br \/>\nAllentown, PA 18101<br \/>\nMike.Moore@allentownpa.gov<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.AllentownPA.gov\">http:\/\/www.AllentownPA.gov<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class='adkingprobanner sidebar banner3023'><a href='http:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/' target=\"_blank\" data-id='3023' data-ga='{\"campaign\":\"\",\"banner\":\"\",\"implemented\":\"universal\",\"imp_action\":\"Impression\",\"click_action\":\"Click\"}'><img src='https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/inpostblank.jpg' alt='' \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div class='adkingprobanner sidebar banner7036'><a href='http:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com' target=\"_blank\" data-id='7036' data-ga='{\"campaign\":\"\",\"banner\":\"\",\"implemented\":\"universal\",\"imp_action\":\"Impression\",\"click_action\":\"Click\"}'><img src='https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/inpostblank.jpg' alt='' \/><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?post_type=adverts_posts&p=7036\" class=\"read-more\">Click here to read more... <\/a>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49755,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5716,69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-allentown","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hrc.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49754"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/49755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}