Pa. still has a dormant ban on same-sex marriages, and lawmakers want to eliminate it

Pennsylvania lawmakers last week took a step toward eliminating its dormant prohibition on same-sex marriage, under a bill that passed the state House of Representatives.

State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D., Philadelphia), the bill’s sponsor, said his legislation would preempt theoretical federal action removing such protections, which activists and members of the LGBTQ+ community have raised concerns about since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the federal right to abortion two years ago.

“Pennsylvania could be at risk of having trigger language on the books that doesn’t reflect the desires of a majority of Pennsylvanians,” Kenyatta said.

Two-thirds of Pennsylvanians support same-sex marriage, according to one recent poll.

But the bill faces an uncertain future in the Republican-controlled state Senate. A separate House bill that would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, also sponsored by Kenyatta, has languished there for over a year.

A Senate spokesperson did not comment on the bill’s future, other than to say it would be assigned to a committee. A spokesperson for state Sen. Cris Dush (R., Jefferson), who chairs the committee assigned to the antidiscrimination legislation, did not respond to a request for comment.

“I don’t understand the controversy here,” said state Rep. Jessica Benham (D., Allegheny), one of the bill’s sponsors. “Nobody should be discriminated against because of who they are or who they love.”

Prohibitions on same-sex marriage were ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2015 and President Joe Biden signed legislation in 2022 formally recognizing and protecting marriage equality. Even with broad bipartisan support for same-sex marriage both in Congress and among the American public, LGBTQ+ advocates said they want to cover their bases.

“Just because something is currently in law, doesn’t mean that it will always be in law,” Benham said.

Pennsylvania’s same-sex marriage ban was signed into law in 1996 by then-Gov. Tom Ridge after it sailed through the legislature. Ridge and some of the legislators who supported the ban have since changed their stances.

The bill to overturn the ban received the support of a third of the Republican caucus and all but one Democrat in the House last week.

“It’s unfortunate that getting the type of bipartisan support that we got with this legislation is not as commonplace as I think it should be in the legislature,” Kenyatta said.

Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, supports the measure and looks forward to signing it, according to a statement from his office.

Trebor Maitin is an intern with the Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents Association. He can be reached at trebormmaitin@gmail.com.