The Pennsylvania House of Representatives has passed a bill that would establish anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people, with H.B. 2103 narrowly clearing the chamber in a 101-100 vote on Tuesday.
Republicans who opposed the legislation argued that its definitions were too broad and could clash with religious freedom, despite the bill including religious liberty protections. Some also raised concerns that the classification of “public accommodations” could allow transgender women and girls to use facilities that align with their gender identity.
“If the whole point here is to protect people in special classes, we just denigrated all young women,” state Rep. Craig Williams said during debate, according to City & State Pennsylvania.
State Rep. Scott Barger claimed the legislation was “weaponising degeneracy against our faith communities”.
State Rep. Mark Anderson also argued the bill would “give uninhibited equal access to biological boys or biological girls to use the bathrooms they want, to participate in whatever sports that they want”.
Democrats, however, defended the measure as a basic matter of fairness and equal treatment.
“Today, at its core, is about fairness,” said queer state Rep. Jessica Benham. “The right to exist as your full self without fear that you’ll lose your job or your apartment. I believe that Pennsylvania is better when it’s fairer, and I know that most Pennsylvanians believe that, too.”
Benham said that, as a queer woman, she understood what it meant to experience discrimination.
“I know what it’s like to experience discrimination, to be told I’m ‘less than,’ that I’m a degenerate, that I am perverse – and treated like that too… I believe that both the right to be free from discrimination and to practice one’s religion can coexist.”
Gay state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta said lawmakers had spent decades trying to enshrine these protections into law because LGBTQ+ Pennsylvanians continue to face discrimination.
“Pennsylvanians are recognising that they don’t have full access to their God-given inalienable right to be treated with dignity and respect,” Kenyatta said, “to have full access to this American Dream.”
Kenyatta, who was the main sponsor of the original version of the legislation, recently told Fox 43 the protections were urgently needed.
“You have a system right now in Pennsylvania where you can marry the person that you love on Sunday, and then if you go to work and put up that photo of your wedding, somebody could still take away your employment, your access to a family-sustaining job. I think to anybody who’s listening to that, that sounds wrong.”
The current version of the bill grew out of legislation proposed by state Rep. Ben Waxman, who initially sought to prevent white supremacist organisations from establishing “whites only” communities in Pennsylvania. Waxman said he was motivated by the actions of a group called Return to the Land, which attempted to create such a community in Arkansas and had signalled plans to expand.
The original bill covered “race, colour, national origin or ancestry”, but was later amended to include gender identity and sexual orientation. Waxman said he was “thrilled” by the expansion.
The bill passed largely along party lines, with one Democrat, state Rep. Frank Burns, joining Republicans in voting against it.
The legislation now heads to the state Senate, which is controlled by Republicans.
