HARRISBURG, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — Legislation that would offer LGBTQ Pennsylvanians the same safeguards against discrimination as members of other protected groups took an important step in the Pennsylvania House as it cleared the Judiciary Committee on a party-line vote.
Philadelphia Democrat Malcolm Kenyatta is the prime sponsor of the Fairness Act, first introduced in 2001.
“Right now, too many Pennsylvanians can legally be discriminated against — because of who they are, because of how they identify — in critical aspects of their lives, including housing, including education, including public accommodations,” Kenyatta said.
The bill passed committee 12-9 — with all nine Republicans voting against it. Paul Schemel, R-Franklin, argued the outlined protections are too broad.
“This legislation requires those in certain occupations and professions to do things which they might find philosophically, morally, religiously, ethically, medically impossible,” Schemel said.
Kenyatta said there once was a time when that line of thinking was used to justify the oppression of Black people.
“There used to be, in the Jim Crow South, doctors who would say, ‘You know what? No, I don't want to actually operate on this African American because it is against whatever view I hold.’ It took a long time, but we're much further away from where we were then.”
The bill doesn’t create any special privileges for LGBTQ Pennsylvanians, Kenyatta said.
“All this bill is doing is saying that, if folks feel like they have been victims of discrimination, they can now file a complaint with the Human Relations Commission.”
The Commission, he noted, is already at work for a number of protected classes, including race and people with disabilities.
Republicans also pointed to a California medical provider that was censured for refusing to provide gender-affirming care based on a similarly worded law, and a women’s shelter in Canada that lost funding for refusing access to transgender women.
Kenyatta called those examples scare-tactic talking points that distract from the goal of his legislation.
“Right now, for so many people, they are being treated just as previous generations were because of what their difference was at the time. And so if we're going to learn from history, let's learn from it. Let's treat everybody with a baseline of dignity and respect.”
The bill heads to the House floor.
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