A committee of the Pennsylvania Senate today approved legislation to ban LGBT discrimination in housing matters.
The Pennsylvania Senate Urban Affairs and Housing Committee approved Senate Bill 1307 in a 7-4 vote.
There was one amendment added by a 6-5 vote that would also prohibit LGBT discrimination in employment. An amendment to allow a religious exemption failed in a 5-6 vote.
The amended bill will now move to the Senate floor. LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination legislation has only seen a committee vote in Pennsylvania once before.
Voting in favor of the measure were Democratic Sens. John Blake, Wayne Fontana, Art Haywood and Shirley Kitchen. They were joined by Republican Sens. Camera Bartolotta, Thomas Killion and Scott Wagner, chair of the committee. Voting against the measure were Republican Sens. David Argall, Michele Brooks, Mario Scavello and Joseph Scarnati.
Applause followed from the more than 50 people in the room, including Rep. Brian Sims, the first elected openly gay state lawmaker.
“It’s really great,” said Mara Keisling, a Harrisburg native and executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. “There are seven members of this 11-person committee that believe in equality and moving the bill forward. There are still some obstacles to overcome, but this was the first big one.”
Earlier this month Sen. Patrick Browne, a Lehigh Valley Republican, broke the Pennsylvania Fairness Act into three separate measures to get the issues in front of new committees in hopes of further action.
The Fairness Act was constructed to address comprehensive LGBT protections from discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodation. It had stalled for nearly a year in the State Government Committee.
“This bill would simply take our current platform against discrimination and add three classes,” Browne said at the housing committee meeting, referencing sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. “I think it’s a necessary improvement.”
Sens. Fontana, an Allegheny County Democrat who introduced the employment amendment, and Scavello, a Northampton County Republican who introduced the religious-exemption amendment, had several mildly heated exchanges about the housing-protections bill.
Scavello said the Labor and Industry Committee should review the bill for LGBT employment protections. Fontana said it was unnecessary to include an amendment with language that stipulated religious organizations do not have to open their bathrooms and showers to people regardless of “biological sex.”
Scavello said he agreed with LGBT discrimination protections, but wanted to allow for privacy and religious concerns.
Two other bills are pending in the Senate. One, called SB 1306, would prevent LGBT discrimination in employment. It’s being evaluated by the Labor and Industry Committee. It’s not clear how this committee will proceed since Fontana’s employment amendment was added to the housing-protections bill.
Another, called SB 1316, would prevent LGBT discrimination in public accommodations, which transgender activists have said would most impact their community. It’s being evaluated by the State Government Committee, where comprehensive LGBT-discrimination protections have stalled in the past.
Ted Martin, executive director of Equality Pennsylvania, said, “Our position is we want all of it, but we’re willing to talk with different people about different things.”
Four hours before the vote, Gov. Tom Wolf stood in the Capitol Rotunda in Harrisburg and called nondiscrimination an “American demand.”
“Let’s be clear of what we’re talking about,” he said. “None of us is asking for anything special … The Declaration of Independence says all of us, every one of us, is endowed with certain unalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. What we are asking here is for nothing less than that and nothing more.”
Hundreds of supporters listened to the governor and other state legislators speak. Chris Bartlett, executive director of the William Way LGBT Community Center, said he saw many of the advocates get on the train that left Philadelphia this morning at 7:20 a.m.
“When we stopped in Paoli and Lancaster and every town, more people got on,” he said. “We had allies, we saw incredible transgender activists boarding the train and we saw LGBT seniors. We’re willing to come back again and again to make sure we get these LGBT protections on the books.”
Some in the crowd had mixed feelings about the Senate breaking the Pennsylvania Fairness Act into three proposals.
“It’s not the best,” said Arissa Brown, 24, from Carlisle, said
“I mean, it’s a step in the right direction,” she added, “but eventually we’ll need everything. LGBT people lead full lives and they deserve protections in more than just housing.”
State Rep. Dan Frankel, the lead sponsor of the Pennsylvania Fairness Act in the House, said, “There are those in this chamber who say the sky will fall if we pass this.”
But, the Allegheny County Democrat noted, 19 states in the country have comprehensive protections from discrimination for LGBT people and no fallout has occurred. Pennsylvania is the only state in the Northeast without LGBT protections.
“We’ve got to change that,” Frankel said. “It’s an embarrassment.”
State Sen. Larry Farnese of Philadelphia echoed that sense of embarrassment and said he was frustrated that the General Assembly has considered LGBT nondiscrimination protections for years, but not moved on it. The bills normally stall in committee.
“I would say we’re sick of waiting,” Sims said, “but we haven’t waited. We’ve demanded this change for years and years and years and yet it has still not happened. But we’re here today because there is a critical mass of support.”
Michael Testa, board president of Equality Pennsylvania, said the advocacy organization has worked to get 35 municipalities in the state to pass LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination ordinances with the hope that it would build momentum for state legislators to understand the need.
Rue Landau, executive director of the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations, said Philadelphia is one of those municipalities that has been “doing it right” for over 30 years. The city established discrimination protections for lesbian, gay and bisexual people in 1982 and for transgender people in 2002.
“But we travel and we visit other parts of the state,” Landau said, referencing trips that she, her wife and their 8-year-old son take to Hershey Park and Knoebels Amusement Resort. “We need to make sure Pennsylvania is not just a patchwork of 35 jurisdictions that protect LGBT people and their families.”
