PA Votes To Define Gender, Sex, Added Protection For LGBTQ Individuals

PENNSYLVANIA — Pennsylvania has approved a new regulation that formalizes protections for LGBTQ individuals from discrimination in the workplace, schools, housing, and elsewhere. Supporters say the move from the state's regulatory board under Gov. Tom Wolf's adminstraiton was neccessary because the Republican controlled legislature had blocked efforts to advance bills that would have codified similar protections.

The vote from the state's regulatory board also provides detailed definitions of gender and race. A total of 21 other states have formal laws providing such security from discrimination.

"Hate has no place in Pennsylvania," Gov. Wolf said in a statement. "This includes protecting the rights of individuals facing discrimination by a school, landlord, or employer based on who they love or their gender identity."

Republican detractors maintain that the move is a governmental overreach and that only legislation should broach the topic.

The chagnes were proposed by the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission back in April. Sex discrimination now covers issues like breastfeeding, sex assignment at birth, gender identity, and more. They're protections and definitions based on the 2020 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Bostock v. Clayton County, according to Spotlight PA. That ruling found that federal law protects employees from being fired for being gay or transgender.

Race discrimination guards individuals from discrimination based specifically on ancestry, ethnic characteristics, hairstyles associated with specific races, interracial marriages, and more.

The regulatory change is the latest unilateral move by the Wolf administration to skirt a conservative legislature on sex issues. In August, Gov. Wolf signed an executive order banning conversion therapy.

LGBTQ issues have been at the forefront in Pennsylvania in recent months and the past eleciton cycle. Republicans pushed back against the verbage used on the Department of Education's site describing gender identity and providing resources for schools. A group of 21 GOP lawmakers in the state House labeled the website — which explains terms like transgender, assigned gender, binary gender and includes links to federal agency pages on gender-based violence and equality — as "Gender Theory Student Indoctrination."

Wolf's order means the state will take steps to "discourage" conversion therapy, and outlines broad but numerous guidelines aimed at protecting the LGBTQ community.

The state's discrimination laws are handled by the Human Relations Commission, which accepts and investigates complaints. Contact information is available online here.