Pennsylvania: 100 state lawmakers introduce important legislation protecting LGBT citizens

100 Pennsylvania lawmakers have introduced legislation in Harrisburg that would offer wide reaching protections to LGBT citizens in the state.

PGH City Paper reports:

A broad group of state lawmakers today introduced bills HB 300/SB300, which would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity or expression statewide in employment, housing, credit and public accommodations. And they cited a record high level of support for the measures.

"These identical proposals have a common goal — to end, once and for all, the last vestige of legal discrimination in Pennsylvania based on an individual's sexual orientation or gender identity or expression," said state Rep. Dan Frankel (D-Squirrel Hill), a co-sponsor of HB300 with Republican state Rep. Chris Ross, and sponsor of the bill in previous years.

Frankel noted that its the first time the bills have had such broad, bipartisan support, with 77 sponsors in the House and 25 in the Senate.

Pennsylvania's first openly gay elected lawmaker Brian Sims spoke at the introduction. Check out the video statement above.

(source)