The Senate State Government Committee has postponed a public hearing that was scheduled for this month on the Pennsylvania Fairness Act and a separate bill that would only extend LGBT nondiscrimination protections in public accommodations.
Gwenn Dando, executive director of the committee, said members have not yet selected a new date for the hearing that was supposed to take place Sept. 26 in Harrisburg.
“We want to look at the testimony that’s already been given and see what holes need to be filled,” she told PGN this week.
The Labor and Industry Committee held a hearing last month at which 18 people were invited to testify and more than 700 people sent written comments.
“We want to make sure we have good panels put together,” Dando said. “We don’t want to repeat exactly what Labor and Industry did.”
Several times during the Labor and Industry hearing, the committee chair, Sen. Lisa Baker, a Luzerne County Republican, had to remind panelists not to discuss transgender people’s access to restrooms and instead keep their talk focused on employment concerns.
Because public accommodations include bathrooms, it’s likely the State Government Committee hearing will feature a fair amount of talk about the issue, particularly from conservative groups that oppose adding LGBT-nondiscrimination protections to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act.
When asked if the committee was worried about long and heated discussions about bathrooms, Dando said, “We haven’t brought up that concern yet.”
She said the committee wants to figure out what focus the hearing should have, noting the Pennsylvania Fairness Act proposes protections in public accommodations as well as housing and employment.
Dando said her boss — Sen. Mike Folmer, the Lebanon County Republican who chairs the State Government Committee — mainly has concerns about religious liberty. She said the committee has been doing continuous stakeholder needs assessments to make sure all viewpoints are represented with the panelists who are invited to speak.
A bill that would extend nondiscrimination protections to the LGBT community in housing made it out of the Housing and Urban Affairs Committee in June. It awaits action from the full Senate.