Following is the public comment the AFA of PA sent to the PA 
Human Relations Commission’s in response to their efforts to redefine ‘sex’ in the PA Human Relations Act and the PA Fair Educational Opportunities Act to mean “sex stereotyping.” This is an effort to do an end run around the legislative process-
PA Human Relations Commission:
In case you didn’t know — the separation of powers is in place for a reason! One of these reasons is so unelected/unaccountable individuals , such as members of the PA Human Relations Commission, cannot take it upon themselves to change laws or change the original intent of the legislators when a law was passed. That is exactly what the PAHRC is attempting to do through its so-called “guidance” concerning LGBT individuals. It is not within your power to reinterpret the word “sex” in the PA Human Relations Act.
Legislators, when the PA Human Relations Act and PA Fair Educational Opportunities Act first became law, as well as those who voted for the amendments that followed, understood the word ‘sex’ meant male and female. There was no question in their minds. Even today in 2017 those in the medical field who look at the evidence and are not tainted through political biases or political correctness know that, except in extremely rare cases, every baby is easily identified as either male or female at birth.
Science doesn’t agree on a definition for homosexuality, bisexuality or even sexual orientation, Dr. Paul McHugh, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s current Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry and former psychiatrist-in-chief for Johns Hopkins Hospital, said recently. He also noted, “A legally protected classification must be ‘discrete’ and determined solely by accident of birth, like race or national origin. Sexual orientation fails that test.”
Dr. McHugh, author of six books and at least 125 peer-reviewed medical articles, said that transgenderism is a “mental disorder” that merits treatment, that sex change is “biologically impossible,” and that people who promote sexual reassignment surgery are collaborating with and promoting a mental disorder.
Are you making this change to prevent suicides of those who identify as transgender or “for the children”? There’s a new study showing that the suicide rate among transgendered people who had reassignment surgery is 20 times higher than the suicide rate among non-transgender people. Studies from Vanderbilt University and London’s Portman Clinic of children who had expressed transgender feelings show that over time 70%-80% “spontaneously lost those feelings.”
Earlier this year, Dr. Joseph Berger, a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and a past president of the Ontario District Branch of the American Psychiatric Association, states that from “a scientific perspective,” being “transgendered” is a psychological issue – “emotional unhappiness” – and “cosmetic surgery” is not the “proper treatment.” “The proper treatment of emotional unhappiness is not surgery. Cosmetic surgery will not change the chromosomes of a human being. Cosmetic surgery will not make a man become a woman, capable of menstruating, ovulating, and having children. Cosmetic surgery will not make a woman into a man, capable of generating sperm that can unite with an egg or ovum from a woman and fertilize that egg to produce a human child. These are the scientific facts.”
Changing the definition of “sex” in the PA Human Relations Act to “sex stereotyping” is an attempt to make an end run around legislators, who have listened to their constituents who do not want “sexual orientation and gender identity or expression” added to the PA Human Relations Act.
The findings from “Pride and Prejudice: Employment Discrimination against Openly Gay Men in the United States,” published in the September 2011 issue of the American Journal of Sociology noted ” In New York, Pennsylvania, and California, the gap between callbacks for gay and heterosexual “applicants” was insignificant.”
Even ignoring the fact the PAHRC has overstepped its authority, there is NO evidence that such a change is necessary. Homosexuals, bisexuals and transgenders have not suffered real discrimination such as African Americans have. They have not been prevented from voting, have not been forced to drink from separate water fountains or go to separate theatres, attend segregated schools or been forced to sit at the back of the bus. They have never been considered three-fifths of a person in the US Constitution.
Parents do not want their children to be forced to share private facilities with the opposite sex. The majority of Pennsylvania students do not want the state to step in and demand that they share the bathroom, locker /shower rooms, sports teams, hotel rooms during overnight/away games with the opposite sex. Such a demand would create dangerous scenarios for those who may want to take advantage of such a change in policy.
Pennsylvanians do not want to be forced to allow men in the women’s restroom, locker and shower rooms or face complaints filed against them. Businesses in PA do not want to be forced to open their bathroom doors to whomever. Christian business owners do not want to be forced to use their God-given talents i.e. baking a cake, providing flowers or photography/videography, etc. — to celebrate a same-sex “wedding.” The changes you propose would open the door to such discrimination against Christians and others with deeply held religious beliefs that engaging in homosexual acts is sinful.
Where would such a change leave religious schools that do not fall under the direct control of a church? It would force them to hire homosexuals/bisexuals /transgenders and, of course, open their bathroom doors to whomever!
Bottom line — the proposed “guidance” is wrong and above your pay grade.
Diane Gramley
President
American Family Association of Pennsylvania
P.O. Box 1048
Franklin, PA 16323
814-271-9078
Loading ...