A spokesperson for Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf told PGN Wednesday that the governor is looking into a response to Indiana’s controversial new “religious-freedom” law, but stopped short of saying whether he would issue a ban on state-funded travel to the state.
“What happened in Indiana is wrong, and Gov. Wolf is exploring all ways to stand with the people of Indiana and those opposed to this law,” Wolf spokesperson Jeff Sheridan told PGN Wednesday, noting that the occasion sheds light on Pennsylvania’s need for an LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination law. “Just as important, the governor knows we need to advance equality right here in Pennsylvania. Indiana’s actions should serve as a call for Pennsylvania to pass nondiscrimination legislation right now. All people — regardless of sexual orientation — should be treated equally under Pennsylvania law. This fundamental right is essential, and it is the very principle on which our Commonwealth was founded by William Penn, who envisioned a Pennsylvania that is open, diverse and inclusive for all people. Now is the time for real progress.”
The governors of Connecticut, New York and Washington this week issued a moratorium on non-essential, state-funded travel to Indiana, which late last month adopted a law that critics say gives businesses authority to discriminate against LGBT people.
Mayors of several American cities have issued similar bans. Mark McDonald, a spokesperson for Mayor Michael Nutter, said the mayor opposes the law but did not comment on whether he would take any action to restrict city-funded travel to the state.
“Mayor Nutter has stood firm against any kind of discriminatory laws, whether in the overt language of Jim Crow laws in past centuries or the covert language used most recently by the Indiana General Assembly,” McDonald said. “In the name of protecting religious freedom, this new Indiana law would enable a business owner to deny service to groups he or she did not wish to serve simply by asserting his religious practice was ‘substantially burdened’ or likely to be so. The mayor believes laws like this must be repealed or completely changed.”
Nellie Fitzpatrick, director of the Mayor’s Office of LBGT Affairs, added that the wave of “bias and hate-driven legislation [being] drafted, proposed, discussed, promoted and, in far too many instances, passed” makes her “grateful to live in and honored to work for a city that has taken historic steps to protect our LGBT citizens. As our nation moves forward, we must work to make Philadelphia’s laws, ordinances, beliefs and culture the norm and not the exception.”