Pgh Lesbian Correspondents

For years, I have ranted about several facts. Two of them are 1) Pennsylvania legislators have never successfully passed any LGBTQ affirming legislation and 2) they haven’t cleaned up their mess around anti-LGBTQ actions.

One such mess is closer than ever to being cleared. The Pennsylvania House of Representatives has approved legislation to remove the same-sex marriage ban from state law.

Let me explain. First of all, Pennsylvania legislators did approve a ban on same-sex marriage and passed legislation to affirm their stance. There were several attempts to amend the PA Constitution with a so-called ‘Defense of Marriage Act’ but that did not happen. Important to note that the General Assembly also made ‘common law’ marriage illegal in Pennsylvania, punishing lots of heterosexual couples.

In the 2014 case Windsor v. United States, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government cannot discriminate against married same sex couples for the purposes of determining federal benefits and protections.

This required Pennsylvania to invalidate portions of state law that discriminated against same sex married coupled. DOMA was unconstitutional. But what happened is that Pennsylvania simply stopped enforcing the law. It was never removed from the books. Good legislatures don’t leave bad law languishing around to cause problems.

In 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges determined that marriage equality was the law of the land in all 50 states.

Then in 2022, the Surpreme Court struck down Roe v Wade, a horrifying decision for millions of people. But also a terrifying precedent that marriage equality could be overturned.

What would happen in that case is that each state would revert to their own laws. That’s what I mean about keeping bad law in the books – if SCOTUS overturned Windsor/Obergefell, Pennsylvania law would declare same sex marriage invalid.

In 2022, the federal government passed a law to preserve federal rights if such a thing were to happen. But that’s federal. Marriage is a state right.

Most likely, all of us married before such a thing happened would be grandfathered, but no new marriages and no recognition of marriages from other states. That’s simply speculation on my part. I am much more confident that it would generally suck for everyone. Obviously, there would be two tiers of marriage and open season to kick around those of us on the lower level.

The Pennsylvania House is trying to fix this.

From the Capital Star

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives on Monday passed a bill that would protect same-sex marriage in the commonwealth, by repealing an invalid section of state law that defines marriage as between one man and one woman. 

Now, it has to clear the Senate, a difficult place where conservatives and those who conflate the Bible with the Constitution roam. The one good thing is that this is where the business/economic bigwigs spend time. Corproate America seems to value marriage equality because they need to reduce recruitment barriers as much as possible. No one is going to be a rocket scientist, pediatrician, or tycoon-in-training if they have to reconfigure their marriage. They’ll just stay where they are or perhaps move to another company in a friendlier state.

This isn’t creating new rights, it is clarifying existing rights. Only those who gleefully anticipate a SCOTUS change would cling to bad law. And that’a what is really terrifying.

The other problem with Pennsylvania legislators is that they have simply not done the work to pass affirming legislation. They’ve changed policy, they’ve interpreted federal dictates, they’ve worked tirelessly at the municipal level to advocates for local law. But there has been, to my knowledge, only one successfull LGBTQ affirming bill, one that bans conversion therapy for LGBTQ youth. This was the spring of 2024. And while very important, it is not nearly enough.

Take a look at this report card from the Movement Advancement Project. Pennsylvania is fair, largely in part due to the actions I mentioned above. Fair. Is that good enough?

• No statewide nondiscrimination protections
• No hate crimes protections (also not for disability)
• No anti-bullying laws, protections for kids in child protective services,
• No bans on panic defensees
• No state laws for second parent adoption and similar measures

All of our rights in this Commonwealth are due to court decisions and administrative policies/interpretations except for thee recent ban on conversion therapy for minors.

Further, we are likely to see this play out in the trial for the murder of 14 year old Pauly Likens. The DA in Mercer County has already taken hate crimes off the table because the alleged murderer is gay and Pauly was trans. That makes no sense, but he would have to go for a federal hate crimes charge anyway. Moreover, the alleged murderer could claim that he panicked because Pauly was trans. Not because she was 14 and he raped her. Not because she made him buy a saw and butcher her body. Not because he lied to investigators.

Now, one might assume that because he identifies as a gay man, he cannot claim he panicked about her gender identity. I don’t know how that would play out.

But I shouldn’t have to. And neither should the community grieving this child.

Pennsylvania is a state of oppression for BIPOC residents, LGBTQ+ residents, poor residents, disabled residents, and more. If removing bad law is progress, it is going to be a long road to haul. Thank goodness for the legislators and advocates who find the creative work arounds.