Allegheny County lawmaker Jessica Benham named as co-chair to state LGBTQ caucus

Pennsylvania’s statewide LGBTQ caucus has new leadership and one new co-chair is a lawmaker from Allegheny County.

State Rep. Jessica Benham, D-South Side, is the new co-chair of the state legislature’s LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus. Her co-chair is state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, D-Philadelphia. This marks the first time since the caucus’ inception that both leadership members are openly LGBTQ.

Benham, who is bisexual, became the first open LGBTQ woman to serve on Pennsylvania’s state legislature when she was first elected in 2020. She is openly autistic and likely the first openly autistic elected official in state history.

She said she is proud to be co-chair of the LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus and said it is important that she and Kenyatta fill the role.

“Representative matters because we legislate from our lived experience,” said Benham. “My advocacy is driven by what I have gone through as a queer woman.”

Benham and Kenyatta are taking over for former co-chairs state Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Squirrel Hill, and state Sen. Katie Muth, D-Montgomery.

Frankel, a longtime advocate for LGBTQ rights, formed the caucus 11 years ago and he said back then LGBTQ allies were drastically outnumbers, but now the caucus has grown and he is happy to hand off leadership.

“Today, the best way for me to be an ally is to step aside and enthusiastically support the leadership of our LGBTQ+ lawmakers,” said Frankel in a statement.

Benham said her top priority as co-chair will be continuing the caucus’ advocacy to pass the Fairness Act, a law to ensure statewide non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ individual. In municipalities without local protections, it is currently legal to evict or deny public accommodation to people in Pennsylvania based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Allegheny County has a local LGBTQ non-discrimination law, as do a handful of municipalities in Western Pennsylvania.

The Fairness Act bill has failed to make it past Republican-controlled chambers for several years in a row.

But Benham said there is growing support for the bill and is confident the Fairness Act will be passed soon.

“Knowing that we will be joined by even more out members of the LGBTQ+ community in the House, I’m confident that this session will result in continued progress toward justice and look forward to fighting for much-needed change,” she said.