Pgh Lesbian Correspondents

Pennsylvania’s relationship with LGBTQ affirming legislation has been awkward at best. Most importantly, the PA General Assembly has never managed to extend nondiscrimination protections in employment, housing, and public accommodations to include sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.

There are municipal protections in about a third of the Commonwealth. And there had been some federal leeway to allow the state Human Relations Commission to investigate anti-LGBTQ complaints through a regulation that provides for LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections under the definition of sex.

Now two public school districts and several parents have sued Pennsylvania. The plaintiffs include two districts — South Side Area and Knoch, both in western Pennsylvania — and two Republican state lawmakers, Reps. Aaron Bernstine and Barbara Gleim, as well as three parents and seven students.

In 2024, South Side Area made the local news when they changed school policies to harass trans students.

From the Pennsylvania Youth Congress in response to the legal action.

A Pennsylvania state agency aligning its regulations with a US Supreme Court ruling and other key legal precedents is hardly controversial. In Pennsylvania’s regulatory process, the legislature had the chance to block this policy but chose not to. Regulation #52-13 was properly promulgated.

If the lawsuit is successful, the State HRC would not be able to investigate allegations of discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. Also, it would bar transgender student athletes from competing in women’s high school sports in Pennsylvania.

Also Pennsylvania has

• no hate crimes protections
• no legislation affirming parental rights for LGBTQ families that were recognized in federal court in 2006
• a so-called Defense of Marriage Act banning marriage equality still ‘on the books’ even after Supreme Court rulings recognizing marriage equality in 2013 and 2015. Pennsylvania’s DOMA is inactive, but if the SCOTUS rulings were weakened as happened with Roe v Wade – it would become the law of the Commonwealth unless it were to be formally repealed.

Everything is piecemeal. There is no overriding commitment to the rights of LGBTQ+ Pennsylvanians. There’s no statewide arc of justice, just this patchwork approach to equality and fairness. And too many opponents who seek to weaken our community whenever possible. Stripping away or weakening any LGBTQ right is a victory for people who want to erase us.

The state HRC relying on the federal guidance is the latest target.

So now these school districts, parents, and legislators are challenging a vital pathway to protect and preserve LGBTQ families. That’s their goal – dismantle our protections with the obligatory smackdown of transgender children along the way.

In my experience, most people assume there are statewide protections in place. When I explain, they often refuse to believe me. “How could that be?” they say.

It can be because too many people assume instead of paying attention. I’m pretty sure I blog about this quite a bit so you could start by regularly reading my blog – subscribe here. Or following local LGBTQ advocacy groups. Read the various assessment tools.

Movement Advancement Project Equality Profile

HRC State Equality Scorecards

Equaldex – International Perspective

Family Equality Snapshot Pennsylvania

Now you know.

The actual solution is for the General Assembly to expand protections, negating the reliance on sleight of hand. That is unlikely to happen soon.

Follow this case and others. We can’t force the General Assembly to pass the legislation. We can – we can control something. We can keep a close eye on school boards. We can go to meetings and read agendas and monitor other attempts to undermine our rights and the rights of our children.

It is time to suit up, Pennsylvania LGBTQ+ folx. This is a first significant blow, but it will be far from the last.

Damn it. These small vicious people who treat our children, our entire community as pawns in their control game. They kick us over and over again just because they can. They are gleeful in their cruelty, salivating with a desire to punish us for existing. And trying to manipulate all of us L, G, and B folx to abandon our trans neighbors and friends.

Protect Trans Kids, my friends. That’s really how simple this is.