“The policy choice of whether Pennsylvania should extend the definition of ‘sex discrimination’ in such a manner remains just that: a policy choice,” Grove said. “As such, it is squarely and exclusively the prerogative of the General Assembly to pursue.”
Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Allegheny, a longtime proponent of LGBTQ nondiscrimination bills, said Republican opponents “have blocked every attempt that we’ve had on the House floor to do this. So that provides plenty of rationale to proceed on the regulatory basis.”
The Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, the public affairs arm of the state’s bishops, said the proposal would hurt small businesses and religious entities and would not protect religious freedom. State law permits religious organizations to hire or employ on sex-based grounds when that is a bona fide part of the job.
Commission chair Joel Bolstein said in an interview this week that the proposal won’t force religious organizations in which priests must be men to hire women, and that the state’s Religious Freedom Protection Act also provides some legal protections.
A group of 11 Republican state senators also weighed in against the regulatory change, saying it “operates in contrast to the intent of the legislature, lacks prescribed statutory authority and ultimately garners our disapproval.”
The Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry said it supports “the intent” of the commission’s proposal and that at the group’s request some changes were made, including a two-month delay on implementation.
“Generally, advancing public policy through administrative regulation, instead of codifying it in law through the legislative process, can create challenges — including potentially drastic policy swings from one administration to the next and lack of input from a broad coalition of stakeholders,” said the chamber’s government affairs vice president, Alex Halper.
Although many municipalities in the state have nondiscrimination ordinances that address sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, that is not the case statewide.
In 2018 the Human Relations Commission announced it would accept and investigate such complaints as sex-based discrimination.
Although the change was announced in a news release, and it has produced largely employment-based complaints, there are indications many people were not aware of the 2018 policy change, Bolstein said.
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This story has been corrected to show the vice president of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry is Alex Halper, not Alex Harper.
This article originally appeared here.
