Urging the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's House of Representatives to pass House Bill 300, amending the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity or expression.

WHEREAS, House Bill 300 was introduced on March 4, 2009, to amend the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity or expression, and was co-sponsored by a record 79 members from both parties and from across the Commonwealth including the entire Philadelphia Democratic Delegation; and

WHEREAS, The right to live and work free from discrimination is a basic civil right that should be afforded to all Pennsylvanians; and

WHEREAS, Pennsylvanians who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender are not protected from most forms of discrimination under current state law; and

WHEREAS, In most Pennsylvania municipalities, it is legal to fire someone, pay them less, refuse to rent or sell a home to them, harass them in school or the workplace, deny them public services and more based on the persona's sexual orientation or gender identity or expression; and

WHEREAS, Similar ordinances are currently in place in 14 municipalities across the Commonwealth including the City of Philadelphia; and

WHEREAS, 20 other states and the District of Columbia currently have laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and of those 13 include gender identity; and

WHEREAS, Pennsylvania is currently the only state in the Northeast that does not have an LGBT inclusive non-discrimination act; and

WHEREAS, HR 300 presents Pennsylvania with an opportunity to end discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity or expression, and to afford the same civil rights protections that the citizens of the City of Philadelphia currently enjoy to the entire Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, The Council of the City of Philadelphia urges the Pennsylvania House of Representatives to pass House Bill 300.

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