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New Pa. regulation strengthens protections against LGBTQ, racial discrimination

Pa. is one of 21 states without a law banning LGBTQ discrimination; Gov. Wolf said the new regulations were “another important step to ensure all Pennsylvanians can live with dignity and freedom."

Audience members wave Pride flags while a parent speaks during the public comment period of the Central Bucks School District meeting May 10. A new state regulation offers protection to LGBTQ students. The action drew praise from Gov. Tom Wolf and comes as instances of bias against LGBTQ students are on the rise locally and in the U.S.
Audience members wave Pride flags while a parent speaks during the public comment period of the Central Bucks School District meeting May 10. A new state regulation offers protection to LGBTQ students. The action drew praise from Gov. Tom Wolf and comes as instances of bias against LGBTQ students are on the rise locally and in the U.S.Read moreTOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer
    by Kristen A. Graham
    Updated 
    Published 

LGBTQ people living and learning in Pennsylvania now have another layer of protections thanks to a regulatory changes recently made at the state level.

The changes ordered by the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission and codified last week by the state Independent Regulatory Review Commission also offer safeguards to ensure students are not discriminated against based on their hair texture or hairstyle.

Pennsylvania is one of 21 states without a law specifically banning LGBTQ discrimination, but Gov. Tom Wolf said in a statement last week that the new regulations were “another important step to ensure all Pennsylvanians can live with dignity and freedom.”

“I have been clear — hate has no place in Pennsylvania,” Wolf said. “This includes protecting the rights of individuals facing discrimination by a school, landlord, or employer based on who they love or their gender identity.”

Kristina Moon, staff attorney with the Education Law Center, said the new regulations were significant.

In the last two years, there’s been an “increasing number of attacks on the rights of gay and transgender and nonbinary students, in the form of various different proposed and enacted school district policies, as well as proposed legislation at the state level,” Moon said. These have taken the form of exclusion of transgender students from sports teams, bans on pride flags in classrooms, and even the mention of gender identities in instruction.

The regulation dovetails with federal and state court rulings, Moon said, and gives families who experience such discrimination another avenue besides filing a federal Title IX complaint: filing a complaint with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.

The regulation change also broadened the definition of the term race in a way that specifically protects policies that target ethnic characteristics, such as hairstyles typically associated with Black culture, like Afros, locs, braids, or wigs.

“There have been for far too long policies in school grooming codes and uniform codes that unjustly target Black and brown students,” Moon said. “This will clarify and affirm that such policies are racially discriminatory.”

The regulations offer protections under the state Fair Education Opportunities Act and Human Relations Act, which prohibits discrimination in schools, employment, housing, and public accommodation.