These bills would amend the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act (PHRA) to add explicit, statutory protections from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and expression. The PHRA currently protects people from discrimination based on race, color, religion, ancestry, age, sex, national origin, and disability.

This bill aims to ban discussion of, or allow parents to sue teachers and schools for discussing, diverse genders or sexualities in public school classrooms under certain age limits. The bill is written in a vague way that makes teachers fearful of discussing even the basic existence of LGBTQ+ people. Let’s call this what it is – it’s a complete denial that trans and nonbinary people exist. Denying the existence of trans and nonbinary people in a very public way is detrimental to the mental health of this community, and just downright messed up.

Like all bills of its type, HB 216 seeks to prevent trans-student-athletes at public schools and universities from playing on sports teams that align with their gender identity and focuses on barring trans girls and women from teams.

This bill would widen the scope of when someone can file a lawsuit related to gender-affirming care. Most bills in this category aim to prevent youth under the age of majority from being able to access puberty blockers, hormones, or other medical care that alleviates gender dysphoria and allows them to present as the gender they know themselves to be. This bill is different because it aims to make doctors more liable after all of these things happen, but does not target access to care directly. This law is intended to intimidate providers.