LGBT anti-discrimination bill advances in Pa. Senate

HARRISBURG - After years of inaction, an effort to put antidiscrimination protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender residents into state law got its first legislative vote Wednesday.

The Senate Housing and Urban Affairs Committee approved a bill that would prohibit discrimination in housing or employment based on sexual orientation and gender identity or expression. The measure, which now moves to the full Senate for a vote, includes religious exemptions for houses of worship and faith-based schools.

The original legislation - which sought protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Pennsylvanians in housing and employment, as well as public accommodation - had sat dormant in committee.

Some legislators privately expressed fears that it would codify giving transgender men and women the right to access public restrooms that did not identify with their birth sex. As a result, Sen. Pat Browne (R., Lehigh), the bill's sponsor, split the measures into separate bills.

"Today, hundreds of LGBT people and their allies called on the legislature to take action on this important issue, and we are glad that they finally did," Ted Martin, executive director of Equality PA, said in a statement.

Sen. Wayne Fontana (D., Allegheny), who pushed for employment protections to be coupled with the housing protections, said the religious exemption in the amendment strikes "a balance between protecting religious liberty and advancing nondiscrimination protections for people most commonly discriminated against."

The committee narrowly defeated a proposal that would have prohibited requiring institutions to open facilities like bathrooms and dormitories to all people "irrespective of biological sex."

At a rally earlier in the day calling for equal rights for all Pennsylvanians, Gov. Wolf voiced his support for the antidiscrimination bills.

"The LGBT community is asking that our country be made a country I can be proud of, that my state be made a state that I can be proud of," Wolf said.

The bill seeking similar protections in the area of public accommodations still awaits a committee hearing.

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