Bills with LGBTQ protections advance in State House

A state House committee advanced a package of bills intended to enhance and codify protections for LGBTQ Pennsylvanians last Tuesday. 

The seven proposals would:

• Extend the states nondiscrimination laws to apply to LGBTQ people.
• Expand the statutory definition of a hate crime, currently referred to as ethnic intimidation, to include acts that target people because of their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.
• Redefine marriage in state code to officially include same-sex couples. 
• Eliminate sentencing enhancements for people with HIV who commit prostitution-related crimes. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Ben Waxman (D-Philadelphia) argues it decriminalizes the stigmatized disease, especially now that treatments can render it non-transmissible. 
• Get rid of what’s known as the “LGBTQ+ panic defense,” which can be argued to reduce murder charges to manslaughter if the defendant claims they were provoked to act by a revelation about their victims sexual orientation or gender.
• Eliminate public notice requirements for petitioners legally changing their names, if doing so to reflect their gender identity. Generally, Pennsylvanians are required to publish notification of their intent in two newspapers before they can.

Support fell largely on partisan lines, with the meeting at times growing contentious. Republicans raised concerns that broadening nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ Pennsylvanians could pave the way for transgender girls to compete in school sports, or require sex-segregated spaces like locker rooms and shelters to allow transgender people.

Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D-Philadelphia), lead sponsor of the bill known as the Fairness Act, to broaden the state’s nondiscrimination laws, said the proposals did not address sports, bathrooms or any other specific space.

The act would also add language to the state’s nondiscrimination laws clarifying they do not require a person, church or religious organization to behave in a way that “constitutes a substantial burden on the free exercise of religion without a compelling interest and through the least restrictive means of furthering the compelling interest.”

But Religious freedom remained a concern for committee Republicans, and co-chair Rep. Rob Kauffman (R-Franklin) called the protections “illusory.”

“The idea that we don’t deserve to be discriminated against because of who we are or who we love should not be seen as controversial. We understand, and most Pennsylvanians believe, that our commonwealth is better when it’s fairer,” said Rep. Jessica Benham (D-Allegheny), the bill’s co-sponsor.

Almost all the measures passed on partisan lines, with the bill codifying same sex marriage protections receiving two Republican votes from Reps. Timothy Bonner (R-Mercer) and Brenda Pugh (R-Luzerne).

Proposals advancing similar legislation to many of the measures voted on Tuesday have advanced in the House or been introduced in the Republican-controlled Senate, but have never been able to make it through both chambers.

For example, Rep. Dan Frankel (D-Allegheny), who has sponsored previous versions of the Fairness Act, said in a statement that he’d been trying to expand nondiscrimination protections in the state for more than 20 years.

“When talented people are excluded or marginalized, our communities lose out,” he said. “The Fairness Act helps ensure that opportunity in Pennsylvania is truly open to all.”

Democrats on the Judiciary Committee also once again moved a GOP proposal that would ban transgender girls from school sports to another committee before Republicans could force a vote on it. It’s a maneuver the party has used several times before. 

That bill passed the Senate with bipartisan support last May.

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