HARRISBURG – The PA House passed House Bill 300 by a narrow 102-98 vote. The bill would add the categories “sexual orientation, gender identity or expression” to a law that empowers the state Human Relations Commission to investigate complaints of discrimination. Alexis Sneller, Policy Analyst at PA Family Council, said the measure would force conformity to a single government viewpoint on issues like marriage and sexuality; a viewpoint that would punish religious schools and ministries for hiring based on their religious mission, and would force women and girls to give up their private spaces to men who self-identify as women. Laws like House Bill 300 have been used to erase privacy rights, opening women-only spaces such as restrooms, locker rooms, shelters, and athletics to biological men who identify as women. They also have also been used to punish religious ministries and schools who hire based on their shared mission. The bill would force doctors to perform double mastectomies or hysterectomies on healthy women who want to appear more masculine, even if doing so violates a doctor’s beliefs. The bill now moves to the PA Senate.
