LGBT rights in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania has repealed its sodomy statutes incrementally. In 1972, legislation legalized consensual sodomy for heterosexual married couples. In 1980, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania ruling in Commonwealth v. Bonadio found Pennsylvania's sodomy law unconstitutional as violating the equal protection guarantees of both the state and federal constitutions.[4] Pennsylvania repealed its remaining sodomy laws in 1995.

Map of Pennsylvania counties, cities, and boroughs that offer domestic partner benefits either county-wide or in particular cities.

  City offers domestic partner benefits

  County-wide partner benefits through domestic partnership

  County or city does not offer domestic partner benefits

Same-sex marriage was legalized in Pennsylvania on May 20, 2014, when U.S. District Court Judge John E. Jones III ruled in Whitewood v. Wolf that the state's statutory ban on such marriages was unconstitutional.[5] After the ACLU filed the lawsuit in federal court on July 9, 2013, Attorney General Kathleen Kane said she would refuse to defend the statute.[6]

Previously, Pennsylvania did not recognize same-sex marriages, civil unions, or domestic partnerships. Attempts had been made in recent years to allow for such unions. There had also been attempts to amend the State Constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage.

Pennsylvania allows a single person to adopt without respect to sexual orientation.[11]

Until 2002, Pennsylvania did not permit stepchild adoption by a person of the same sex as the first parent. A 6-0 ruling by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania established the right of same-sex couples to stepchild adoptions.[12] No statute prohibits a same-sex couple from adopting a child jointly.[11]

Pennsylvania passed a hate crime law in 2002 that covered LGBT people,[13] but the Pennsylvania Supreme Court struck it down in 2008 on a technicality: legislators inserted the language into an unrelated bill on agricultural terrorism, changing that bill's purpose during the legislative process, which violates the Pennsylvania Constitution. Legislation was introduced in several sessions to reinstate the law, but it never made it out of committee.[14][15][16]

Map of Pennsylvania counties, cities, townships, boroughs, and unincorporated communities that have sexual orientation and/or gender identity anti–employment discrimination ordinances

  Sexual orientation and gender identity with anti–employment discrimination ordinance

  Sexual orientation with anti–employment discrimination ordinance and gender identity solely in public employment

  Sexual orientation and gender identity solely in state employment

There are statewide executive orders protecting LGBT individuals from workplace discrimination. In 1975, Pennsylvania became the first U.S. state in which an executive order was issued providing for discrimination protection on the basis of sexual orientation in state employment.[17] In 2003, gender identity was added to this executive order and the order has been reissued by every governor since then. On April 7, 2016, Governor Tom Wolf signed two executive orders, the first order prohibiting discrimination against state employees based on their sexual orientation, gender identity, HIV status and other factors and the second mandate banning state contractors from discriminating against their LGBT employees.[18]

For more than ten years, legislation that would protect LGBT people statewide from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity has awaited action in the Pennsylvania General Assembly.[19] On December 17, 2013, Governor Tom Corbett announced his support for such legislation with respect to sexual orientation after learning that federal law did not already provide such protection as he had previously thought. He said he anticipated bipartisan support for the legislation.[20]

Many Pennsylvania municipalities and counties, including the five most populous cities, have enacted ordinances implementing such discrimination protections.[21]

Since August 2018, discrimination based on both sexual orientation and gender identity has been interpreted by the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission as being banned under the category of sex of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act.[22] LGBT people who have been discriminated against in employment, housing, education, and public accommodations can now file complaints with the Commission, which will investigate each complaint and can advise those responsible to stop a discriminatory practice, implement training, or award economic damages.[1] Pennsylvania was the second state to achieve statewide LGBT protections this way, following Michigan in May 2018.

In May 2020, Pennsylvania became the only US jurisdiction to include both sexual orientation and gender identity in COVID-19 statistics and data collection.[23][24]

Sex reassignment surgery is legal in the state.

In August 2016, the Pennsylvania Department of Health changed requirements for transgender people to change their gender on their birth certificates. Sex reassignment surgery is no longer a requirement. Instead, transgender persons will just have to present a note from a physician stating that they have had appropriate clinical treatment for gender transition. Additionally, children under 18 who wish to change their gender on their birth certificate will need their parents to make the request.[28]

Since July 1, 2020, Pennsylvania has a third gender option (known as "X") available on driver's licenses and state IDs - but not birth certificates.[29][30]

In November 2019 three legal ordinances related to gender identity were signed into law by the Mayor of Philadelphia, Jim Kenney. These laws prohibit youth-serving organizations from discriminating against trans, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming youth; require every city-owned building to have at least one gender-neutral bathroom; and clarify that the city's Fair Practice Ordinance protects nonbinary and gender-fluid people against discrimination. These laws only apply within the City of Philadelphia.[31][32]

Mylan CEO Heather Bresch at the 2016 Pittsburgh Pride parade

A bill to ban the use of conversion therapy on LGBT minors in Pennsylvania was introduced in the General Assembly in April 2015. The bill had 20 sponsors, all of whom were Democrats, but it died without any legislative action.[33]

On December 14, 2016, Pittsburgh became the first city in Pennsylvania to pass an ordinance that bans conversion therapy on minors. The ban was passed 9-0 and took effect on January 1, 2017.[34] Philadelphia and Allentown followed suit in July 2017.[35][36] Reading and Doylestown both enacted conversion therapy bans in December 2017.[37][38]

State College passed a ban in February 2018,[39] and Yardley did so the following month.[40] Both Bellefonte and Bethlehem followed suit in July 2018.[41][42]

Newtown Township, in Bucks County, unanimously voted to ban conversion therapy in November 2018.

A 2017 Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) poll found that 64% of Pennsylvania residents supported same-sex marriage, while 27% were opposed. 9% were undecided. Additionally, 69% supported an anti-discrimination law covering sexual orientation and gender identity. 23% were against. The PRRI also found that 62% were against allowing public businesses to refuse to serve LGBT people due to religious beliefs, while 30% supported such religiously-based refusals.[43]

• Law of Pennsylvania
• Equality Pennsylvania
• LGBT rights in the United States