Pennsylvania House passes LGBTQ rights bill

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives on May 2 voted 102 to 98 to approve a bill calling for protecting LGBTQ people from discrimination, marking the first time such legislation has passed in either the state House or Senate in the 47 years since similar bills have been introduced.

Supporters have said the outcome of the bill, called the Fairness Act, is uncertain in the Republican-controlled Pennsylvania Senate, where the legislation is now headed.

“Today is a historic day, as we take a critical step to make Pennsylvania fairer,” a joint statement released by the six Democratic House members who were the bill’s lead sponsors.

“The Fairness Act is as simple as it is substantive,” the statement says. “H.B 300 would protect LGBTQ+ Pennsylvanians from facing discrimination and allow all individuals in the com-

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monwealth to file complaints with the PA Human Relations Commission,” it says.

“Now, we call on the Senate to quickly consider and pass this legislation and send it to Governor Shapiro’s desk,” the statement concludes.

Only two Republicans joined 100 Democrats in voting for the bill, according to the Philadelphia Gay News. The PGN reports that GOP opponents, among other things, brought up arguments that the legislation would require women’s sports teams to allow transgender women to play on those teams.

The gay newspaper noted that Pennsylvania is the only state in the northeast that doesn’t have a statewide LGBTQ nondiscrimination law. It reports that on the local level, about 73 municipalities in the state have passed LGBTQ nondiscrimination laws, but almost 2,500 municipalities that make up about 65

MICHAEL K. LAVERS

percent of the state’s population do not have such laws.

At least 22 states and the District of Columbia have enacted LGBTQ rights laws. Although LGBTQ rights advocates have called on the other states, including Pennsylvania, to pass such laws, activists have also pointed out the landmark 2020 U.S. Supreme Court decision known as Bostock v. Clayton County, Ga., ruled that LGBTQ people are protected under the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964.

That law bans discrimination in employment and other areas based on a person’s sex or gender as well as other factors such as race, religion, and ethnicity. In an action that surprised many legal observers, the Supreme Court ruling said LGBTQ people were protected under the sex or gender provision in the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

LOU CHIBBARO JR.