As a public interest legal organization devoted to gender justice, we applaud the passage of The Equality Act in the U.S. House. The legislation heads to the U.S. Senate next.
If passed into law, The Equality Act would amend existing civil rights laws, including the 1964 Civil Rights Act, to protect people from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The Act makes explicit that existing Federal statutes prohibiting sex discrimination in employment (including access to benefits), healthcare, housing, education, credit, and jury service also prohibit sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination.
After four years of witnessing a seemingly endless list of executive and administrative anti-LGBTQ actions at the federal level and listening to harmful, cruel rhetoric about LGBTQ+ people, today’s passage is a welcome step back toward progress.
The final vote was 224 – 206. Unfortunately, only three Republicans—including Pennsylvania’s Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick—voted to support equal rights for the one in six young people who identify as LGBTQ+ and their elders, who have been forced to wait entirely too long for such protections.
Pennsylvania Still Lacks Adequate LGBTQ+ Protections
Leadership of the Pennsylvania Legislature has so far refused to enact similar protections against discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations in the Commonwealth.
“People are often surprised to discover that Pennsylvania law still does not explicitly protect LGBTQ+ Pennsylvanians in our main antidiscrimination law, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act,” says staff attorney Christine Castro. “Frankly, it’s a disgrace.”
“We have an appropriate interpretation from the U.S. Supreme Court of Title VII that recognizes that discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity is a form of sex discrimination in Bostock,” says WLP Director of Policy & Advocacy Amal Bass. “However, the rights of LGBTQ+ Pennsylvanians should not depend on whether future courts will follow this interpretation in the future. The application of precedent depends on the judge. The best protection is clear language in the statute.”
Pennsylvania Rep. Dan Frankel’s PA Fairness Act (HB300) would fix that.
Frankel and co-sponsors, including three openly gay members of the Pennsylvania Legislature, will re-introduce the Fairness Act in the near future.
We strongly support this bill and will fight for its passage.
We Stand with Dr. Levine #TransLivesMatter
As some members of Congress gave impassioned speeches about the need for the Equality Act, others demonstrated the dire need for such protections by publicly demonstrating the casual cruelty of transphobic hostility.
President Biden nominated Dr. Rachel Levine, a transgender woman and former Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Health, to be assistant health secretary in his Administration. As lawmakers debated The Equality Act in the House, Dr. Rachel Levine underwent questioning in the Senate.
Senator Rand Paul pushed transphobic talking points and falsely equated gender-affirming surgery to a human rights violation while questioning Levine.
Meanwhile, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia went out of her way to hang an anti-transgender sign outside the door of a colleague who is the mother of a transgender child.
Dr. Levine routinely endured insults while serving as a Pennsylvania official, including from Rep. Jeff Pyle, who subsequently stated he “had no idea” people would be upset by an elected official’s blatant transphobia in a country where transgender people face systemic oppression at nearly every turn—and a state that lacks adequate anti-discrimination protections.
The treatment of Dr. Levine only underscores how badly we need more transgender people in office and the public eye.
If confirmed, Dr. Levine will be the first openly transgender federal official to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
The Women’s Law Project is a public interest law center in Pennsylvania devoted to advancing and defending the rights of women, girls, and LGBTQ+ people in Pennsylvania and beyond.
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