Update on PHRC Lawsuit
Plus some PA legislators filed excellent bills!
Beth Ann Rosica, whom you may recall from a previous PA4SBR post, is a plaintiff in the lawsuit against the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission (PHRC) and Governor Josh Shapiro. Briefly, the plaintiffs allege that PHRC has no authority to change the definition of sex discrimination to include “gender identity” and “gender expression.” PA4SBR covered this lawsuit here.
Ms Rosica has written the article “Pennsylvania culture wars to be waged in the courtroom” for Broad + Liberty. You can read it here. She includes many helpful links, the text of the lawsuit, and a letter from Springfield Township School District regarding its compliance with PHRC. As she writes,
“The importance of overturning the PHRC regulations cannot be overstated. School districts are caught in the middle of an untenable situation where they must choose to follow the executive orders or state law and subsequently risk losing federal funding. Perhaps even more important, these unconstitutional regulations need to be voided to reveal the true nature of every school district and its school board… it remains to be seen whether they will comply with the executive orders to keep their funding or choose to ignore them based on ideological reasons.”
Meanwhile, PA women state legislators have filed excellent bills related to this lawsuit. Representative Barbara Gleim and her cosponsors filed HB 158, the Protect Women's Sports Act, which would “protect opportunities for women and girls in athletics by ensuring women are not forced to compete against biological males playing on women’s sports teams.” Senator Judy Ward and her cosponsors have filed a companion bill, SB 9, the Save Women’s Sports Act. If passed, HB 158 and SB 9 might negate PHRC’s revised definition of sex discrimination in athletics.
Second, Representative Stephenie Scialabba has issued a memorandum titled Human Relations Commission Reform. While not addressing PHRC’s changes in defining sex discrimination, Representative Scialabba intends to replace the current PHRC nominations system with one that will have a “representative and democratically legitimate makeup of Commissioners.” Perhaps new commissioners will return PHRC to reality and delete all preferences for “gender identity” and “gender expression.”
What we can do:
Tell Representative Gleim, Senator Ward, and Representative Scialabba that you SUPPORT their bills.
Tell your state senator and representative to SUPPORT these bills, especially if they are Democrats. If you are a Democrat and/or have daughters, nieces, know other girls, or if you are forced to compete (and undress!) in front of boys, tell them.
Sex-denialists are definitely contacting their state legislators. If we’re going to win the battle for women’s sex-based rights, we must contact ours as well.
Thank you, Beth Ann Rosica, for sharing the link to your article!