Today, December 10, Commonwealth Court will hear arguments in one of the most important—and least talked about—state cases about gender equality: South Side Area School District v. Office of the Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission (PHRC).
South Side is scheduled as the fourth case so there is not an exact starting time, but a good guess is about 11AM.
In this case, petitioners are challenging the PHRC’s 2023 regulations affirming that Pennsylvania’s anti-discrimination protections based on “sex” includes gender identity or expression, pregnancy status, childbirth status, breastfeeding status, sex assigned at birth, affectional or sexual orientation, and differences in sexual development.
Petitioners are the South Side Area School District in Beaver County, Knoch School District in Butler County, and individuals their attorneys describe as “concerned parents and taxpayers.” Those individuals include Rep. Aaron Bernstine and Rep. Barbara Gleim—state lawmakers who have supported anti-trans legislation in the General Assembly.
Their lawsuit claims that the PHRC exceeded its constitutional authority and that gender-inclusive protections violate the Pennsylvania Equal Rights Amendment.
In other words, they’re arguing that the Pennsylvania Constitution’s guarantee of equality should be twisted into a tool for mandating inequality.
In reality, well-established legal precedent recognizes that protections against sex-based discrimination include gender identity. And the Pennsylvania Equal Rights Amendment is a broad, powerful state-based guarantee of equality—not a weapon to strip rights away.
Pennsylvania’s anti-discrimination protections—including protections for transgender and gender-expansive people—remain fully in effect while the lawsuit moves forward.
