HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s next governor could play a key role in determining the protections and rights available to the commonwealth’s LGBTQ residents.
While same-sex marriage has been legal across the country since 2015, Pennsylvania still has a law on the books recognizing marriage as a “civil contract by which one man and one woman take each other for husband and wife.” The law isn’t enforceable, but it’s still there.
State lawmakers routinely try to change that statute, both to symbolically affirm same-sex marriages and to give them an extra layer of protection. The effort always stalls in the divided General Assembly — and it’s not the only one.
Dozens of bills are introduced every session that could impact LGBTQ Pennsylvanians. There’s a wide range, from explicitly guaranteeing nondiscrimination protections in housing and employment to banning transgender girls from playing school sports.
These bills, too, always stall despite some receiving bipartisan support.
But if any proposals were to clear the legislature, the governor would have the final say.
Incumbent Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro has vocally supported LGBTQ rights throughout his career, though he has yet to accomplish at least one major campaign promise.
It’s unclear where Republican challenger Stacy Garrity, who serves as state treasurer, stands on many LGBTQ issues. Her campaign would not answer questions from Spotlight PA. She has, however, been outspoken that transgender girls shouldn’t participate in women’s sports.
Pennsylvania’s dormant statute
Though the federal courts appear unlikely to reconsider the landmark ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges that legalized same-sex marriage, there remain efforts from some conservative and religious activists to repeal same-sex marriage. As a safety net, President Joe Biden signed bipartisan legislation in 2022 that requires same-sex marriages to be recognized across state lines.
But a group of bipartisan state lawmakers, many of whom are members of the LGBTQ community, are still pushing to remove Pennsylvania’s prohibition for good measure. Such proposals have cleared the Democratic-led state House, but have stalled in the GOP-controlled state Senate.
Garrity told Spotlight PA in an interview that she was “not so sure it’s necessary” to change state law.
“Well, aren’t they already allowed to get married?” Garrity said. She then shared a story about speaking to her cousin after he came out as gay.
“I said, ‘Well, you never told me’ — although I knew,” Garrity said. “And he said, ‘Because I knew you didn't care and you loved me.’”
Garrity’s campaign did not respond to a list of questions from Spotlight PA, including one asking her to elaborate on her position on same-sex marriage. Other questions included whether she would support nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ Pennsylvanians; if healthcare providers should be able to assert religious or moral objections to turn people away; what she thinks of legislation to ban instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation in elementary classrooms; or if her administration would maintain a policy discouraging licensed providers and commercial insurers from conducting conversion therapy.
Instead, a spokesperson shared the following statement from Garrity: "We are all children of God, and every person regardless of their race, their gender, or their sexual orientation should be treated with dignity and respect. Period. Full stop.”
Shapiro often posts on social media saying Pennsylvanians should be allowed to marry who they want, and that he would defend that right if it were threatened.
His support of gay marriage goes back to at least 2006 when, as a member of the state House, he opposed a failed amendment that would have enshrined the “one man and one woman” marriage definition into the state’s constitution. In 2012, as a Montgomery County commissioner, he supported the local register of wills in granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples before it was legalized nationally.
As governor, Shapiro relaunched an advisory commission on LGBTQ affairs, and regularly attends Pride parades across the state. When the Trump administration shut down the LGBTQ youth suicide hotline last year, Shapiro directed the state Department of Human Services to train 988 operators to provide specialized counseling for LGBTQ callers.
“Governor Shapiro has made clear that as long as he is Governor, no matter who you are or who you love, you have a place in Pennsylvania — and he fights every day to protect real freedom in this Commonwealth,” said Sam Reposa, a spokesperson for Shapiro’s campaign. “The Governor has a long track record throughout his career of fighting to advance equality and protect LGBTQ+ Pennsylvanians’ rights, and he is committed to continuing that work.”
Reposa also said Garrity “can’t be trusted to protect LGBTQ+ Pennsylvanians or stand up for their rights,” calling the Republican a “MAGA loyalist who can’t even clearly state whether she’ll protect marriage equality.”
Nondiscrimination and access
Pennsylvania statute makes it illegal to discriminate against someone based on a host of traits, including race, skin color, sex, age, religion, and more. After winning office in 2022, Shapiro continued a regulation adopted under former Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration that interpreted “sex” to cover sexual orientation and gender identity.
(That regulation sparked the Thomas More Society, a Chicago-based Catholic, conservative law firm, to sue to block the addition on behalf of a group of parents and school districts. The case is awaiting consideration in Commonwealth Court.)
During his first run for governor, Shapiro also pledged to use “political capital” to convince the divided General Assembly to pass the Fairness Act, which would codify adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the state’s list of protected classes. So far, he has failed to do so.
“We’re going to get it done when I’m governor, because I give a damn, and I’m willing to put capital behind getting the nondiscrimination bill passed,” he told Philadelphia Gay News during his first gubernatorial campaign.
The Shapiro administration has blamed the Republican-led Senate for the lack of movement on the legislation.
This year, Shapiro caught flak for appointing former state Rep. Seth Grove (R., York) to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, which enforces the state’s civil rights and anti-discrimination laws. Advocates were quick to point out that Grove supported bills to prevent Medicaid from covering gender transition services and to restrict instruction related to sexual orientation and gender identity in schools. He also wrote a letter in 2022 urging a regulatory group to reject the Human Relations Commission’s interpretation of “sex” discrimination to include sexual orientation and gender identity because, he said, it overstepped the commission’s legal authority.
Again, the Shapiro administration pointed to the state Senate, saying the majority insisted on Grove’s appointment and noting that the chamber’s approval is necessary to confirm members.
The administration also highlighted a bipartisan bill Shapiro signed in July updating a variety of sex work laws, including a provision that eliminated the possibility of a felony charge against someone who failed to disclose an HIV diagnosis while working in prostitution. (Some advocates for sex workers and people with HIV oppose the law, saying it shifts criminalization onto sex workers and cancels out gains made for people with HIV.)
Also, the Shapiro administration touts its work through the Pennsylvania Insurance Department to try to ensure that health insurers are not discriminating against LGBTQ patients.
Garrity’s campaign did not respond to questions about nondiscrimination protections.
Transgender rights
Garrity has taken a strong public position on stopping transgender athletes from competing in women’s and girls’ sports. It is listed as an issue on her campaign website and is among her frequent talking points on the campaign trail.
For instance, her campaign posted a clip to social media where she appears to tell a crowd that she would “protect girls’ sports” and “girls’ spaces” as governor.
“Boys don't belong in girls' sports,” Garrity said. “Pennsylvania's daughters should not have to train for years, sacrificing and fighting for every inch of success, only to be told when they reach the finish line the rules no longer matter.”
Garrity also jabbed at Shapiro for, she claimed, not taking a position on transgender athletes being allowed to compete in women’s and girls’ sports.
Republicans often note that such a policy is popular among voters, and it’s gained the support of some Democrats in the legislature. A Pew Research Center poll last year found that nearly three quarters of U.S. adults were “uncomfortable” with transgender athletes participating in sports that don’t align with their sex at birth, and two-thirds support a law or policy to restrict their competing to those teams.
Speaking with public media station WITF last year, Shapiro called politicians who support such a ban “extremist,” though he did not commit to vetoing a bill if it reached his desk. Legislation to do so was passed by the Republican-led Senate last year, but House Democrats have not brought it to a floor vote.
The Shapiro administration has said the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association should be allowed to continue to work with local school districts to determine students’ eligibility in sports.
Last year, the PIAA changed its policy to direct schools to consult their lawyers on complying with a Trump executive order that requires athletes to compete on teams based on their biological sex. That decision sparked outrage from some advocacy groups, and it has been left to schools to determine their own policies.
Shapiro, who has filed or joined more than two dozen lawsuits against the Trump administration since last year, sued over a policy to restrict access to gender-affirming care for people under the age of 19. As attorney general, Shapiro also signed onto a lawsuit challenging Trump’s attempt to ban transgender soldiers from serving in the military.
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