Allentown advances Bill 46 to repeal and replace Human Relations ordinance; adds explicit protections including natural hairstyles

A special meeting of the Allentown City Council moved Bill 46, an ordinance to repeal and replace Chapter 27 of the city code governing the Human Relations Commission, to a full council meeting for consideration.

Councilmember Gerlau, who introduced the item for council discussion, said the draft updates follow community requests after a recent resolution protecting LGBTQ residents and that the proposed ordinance was modeled on Lehigh County’s ordinance. “Yes. So when we, passed the resolution on, protecting members of the LGBTQ community, members of the community came forth and suggested that we update our human relations ordinance, so that it would be better reflective of the the 2025,” Gerlau said.

The ordinance before the council would expand protected classes and modernize procedures for the city’s Human Relations Commission. Miss Bradbury, who identified herself as the author of the Lehigh County ordinance and said she has experience training Allentown’s Human Relations Commission, told the council the county text is “the most progressive in the state” and has been vetted by county lawyers and state reviewers. “I am the author of the Lehigh County Ordinance and I am very familiar with the Allentown Ordinance because I served on the Human Relations Commission with you for, for 15 years,” Bradbury said.

Bradbury and other speakers noted that Allentown’s current ordinance dates to 1963 and was amended in 2002 and 2020; they described the new draft as a comprehensive update that mirrors much of the county ordinance while adding a small number of city-specific clarifications.

One explicit addition highlighted during the discussion is language to protect “different ethnic hairstylings” (described in the meeting as aligning with the CROWN Act concept), protecting natural hair and hairstyles unless a specified safety or job-performance concern applies. Bradbury said Lehigh County’s ordinance covers similar issues under gender expression but the draft before Allentown would state the protection more explicitly.

Council staff and the solicitor told members the document before them is a full repeal-and-replace of the existing ordinance; several proposed amendments meant to adapt county wording to Allentown operations were circulated for the upcoming council meeting. No members of the public spoke during the meeting’s public comment period on this ordinance.

A motion was made to send Bill 46 to the full council meeting for consideration. The motion was made by Mister Zuchel, seconded by Miss Gerlach, and advanced after members voted in favor. The matter will appear on the full council agenda scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m.

Discussion at the special meeting focused on substantive differences between the city’s current code and the proposed replacement, the ordinance’s lineage (introduced in 1963 and amended with protected-class additions in 2002 and 2020), and a small set of housekeeping amendments that staff recommended to adapt county language for city use. The council did not take final legislative action to adopt the ordinance at the special meeting; it only referred the draft to the regular council meeting for further consideration and possible vote.