HARRISBURG, Pa. (KYW Newsradio, AP) — The Pennsylvania legislature will likely miss the constitutional deadline for a finished state budget, but that didn’t stop the state Senate from spending hours passing a series of bills on hot-button topics that are also playing out in other state legislatures across the country.
Gov. Tom Wolf is expected to veto one bill, which would prevent transgender girls and women from participating in girls’ and women’s sports.
Republicans argue it’s about fairness and protecting women’s sports.
"It's incredible that here I stand sounding more like a feminist than the so-called feminists do," Central Pennsylvania state Sen.Doug Mastriano said.
Democrats argue it’s politicizing social issues and marginalizes people who just want to be who they are.
"We should be doing more to encourage Pennsylvanians to be exactly who they are throughout their entire lives without the fear of being marginalized or othered," said Montgomery County Democrat Amanda Cappalletti.
Two other bills are headed to the state House for consideration. The bills passed the Senate nearly along party lines.
One, which passed 29-21, would prohibit classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation until 6th grade. Another, which passed 30-20, would require parental notification if their child wants to check out a book with explicit content.
Educators would have to notify parents if a child’s coursework or a book they’d like to check out from a library contains so-called "explicit content," and parents could opt their children out of viewing the material.
Gov. Tom Wolf's office said he would veto "any legislation that discriminates against LGBTQIA+ Pennsylvanians."
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Deja vu all over the country
Bills like the one on classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation have cropped up in numerous states in recent months.
Florida drew national attention with a new law that prohibits educators from discussing sexual orientation or gender identity in primary grade levels or in a manner that isn’t age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students.
In May, North Carolina Senate Republicans rolled out a comparable proposal, couching it similarly as Pennsylvania Republicans: as legislation that gives parents control over what their children are being taught.
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The Republican sponsors of the bill in Pennsylvania say it aligns with the state’s “timeline for when the existing academic standards on general sex education begins in sixth grade.”
Democrats slammed the bills during contentious floor debate as further harming an already marginalized population of LGBTQ students in schools.
“This is not Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill,” Sen. Lindsey Williams, D-Allegheny, said during debate. “It is worse.”
Under the legislation, schools must notify parents about any changes to a student’s services and monitoring, unless it can be “reasonably demonstrated” that notifying parents would “result in abuse or abandonment of a minor.”
With parent or guardian permission, school personnel can provide support to a student who has “initiated communication” with educators about sexual orientation or gender identity.
The bill would also allow parents to sue school districts for violation of the law.
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One sponsor, Sen. Ryan Aument, R-Lancaster, said the bill empowers parents to initiate conversations of a sensitive nature, rather than teachers.
Another sponsor, Sen. Scott Martin, R-Lancaster, said parents should be involved when children are faced with difficult issues.
“Our parents want to be involved, they deserve to be notified and anything else isn’t acceptable,” Martin said.
Wolf’s LGBTQ Affairs Commission has criticized the legislation as a “cruel attempt to politicize LGBTQ people and deny their humanity in order to score cheap political points.”
Opponents attacked the bill on sexually explicit content in curriculum, classroom materials and books as a “book ban,” saying it was an attack on LGBTQ people.
Sen. Maria Collett, D-Montgomery, said it’s unclear who determines what books would be considered explicit.
“We're clutching our pearls and turning back the clock with this unpopular, potentially illegal legislation to allow the censorship of books," she said.
"It feels like we have gone back in time. While we're stuck debating the moral quandaries of centuries past, the ones so many of us thought we've evolved beyond, the majority of Pennsylvanians are concerned with the very real problems of 2022."
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Aument insisted the bill is not a book ban, asserting that explicit material is in schools all over the state.
“The more I speak about this proposal, the more I hear from families who provide additional examples,” Aument said during debate.
Amid criticism that the bill is an attack on LGBTQ people, senators had earlier amended the bill to remove a reference to an obscenity law in Pennsylvania that prohibits the exposure of minors to materials that include “homosexuality.”
Despite that, Democrats attacked the bill as homophobic and transphobic.
“Make no mistake, despite repeated denials, homophobia and transphobia are at the heart of this legislation, and a targeted attack on LGBTQ-centered books and an attempt to erase LGBTQ people will occur if this happens,” Collett said.