News ReleasePA House Chambers
For Immediate Release:  June 7, 2016
Contact:  Diane Gramley  1.814.271.9078 or 1.814-437-5355

Remaining Republicans Asked to Remove Their Sponsorship from HB 1510 and SB 974

(Harrisburg) — Today letters were hand-delivered to Republican state senators who are still listed as co-sponsors of SB 974 and Republicans state representatives who are still listed as co-sponsors of HB 1510.  The letters were asking them to remove their sponsorship of those dangerous bills which would add sexual orientation and gender identity or expression to the PA Human Relations Act.

“The issue of advancing the homosexual agenda, and now the transgender agenda, has very much become a Democrat vs. Republican issue with the Democrats whole-heartedly working to remake our societal structure.  Several Republicans have already dropped their sponsorship of these dangerous bills in recent weeks. We applaud those and hope the remaining Republicans can see the danger also,” commented Diane Gramley, president of AFA Action of PA.

The letters noted several points of fact:

  • 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 notes: In New York, Pennsylvania, and California, the gap between callbacks for gay and heterosexual “applicants” was insignificant.
  •  Philadelphia added “gender identity” to the Philadelphia Fair Practices Ordinance in 2002.  Rue Landau, executive director of the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations, notes,  “Bathroom issues came up far too frequently in the commission’s employment and public-accommodations cases.”
  • In June 2011 Ted Martin, executive director of Equality PA, the largest homosexual lobby group in PA said, “This is about some really basic stuff. . . . even use of a public bathroom.” His group was “encouraging” Bethlehem to add “sexual orientation and gender identity or expression” to their local anti-discrimination ordinance, which also dealt with employment, housing and public accommodation.

“We’ve seen across the country the negative impact these type bills have – whether it be business owners being fined hundreds of thousands of dollars for not allowing “transgender women” – really men’– into the women’s bathroom or Christian business owners being forced out of business.  We do not need any of that in Pennsylvania,” concluded Gramley.

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