“The right to discriminate”: do not be so confident that the religious rights of citizens will be respected by the government

Pennsylvania Agency Goes Around Legislature to Impose Gender Ideology

by Monica Burke


A Pennsylvania agency has made an end run around citizens to impose gender ideology.

Last month, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission released new guidance reinterpreting the category of “sex” in state anti-discrimination law to include “sex assigned at birth, sexual orientation, transgender identity, gender transition, and/or gender expression.”

The commission circumvented the state Legislature, which never added categories like sexual orientation and gender identity into law, thereby circumventing voters as well.

This new policy could significantly curtail the First Amendment rights of citizens, as a similar policy has already done in Philadelphia.


But what does this change in policy mean for the average Pennsylvanian?

Look no further than what is happening to adoption agencies in Philadelphia.

Back in March, Philadelphia put out an urgent call for 300 families to provide foster care to help the flood of children coming into the system due to the opioid crisis. Just a few days later, the city halted the child placements of Catholic Social Services.

The reason? To investigate whether Catholic Social Services had violated the city’s Fair Practices Ordinance, a policy that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity—categories that the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission now considers to be “built in” to the definition of sex in state anti-discrimination law.

Catholic Social Services, like many other religious adoption agencies, opts to place children in homes with both a mother and a father in accord with their religious convictions.

Now, the city is effectively shutting down Catholic Social Services for its beliefs about marriage and the family. As a result, several hundred children will be displaced and the city will have one less agency available to meet the dire needs of the city’s children.

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