LGBTQ people live, work and raise families in every U.S. state, including swing states like Pennsylvania, which holds its primary on April 23.

Campaign coverage should inform voters about relevant candidates and their stances on LGBTQ issues. Reporters must take extra care to be accurate and inclusive when reporting on conversations or proposals that can harm marginalized people.

The safety of LGBTQ Americans and their ability to live free from discrimination are at stake.  

LGBTQ Pennsylvanians: Context to Know and Report

• 4.1% of adult Pennsylvanians are LGBTQ, with 27% of them raising children.
  
• Under the new PA Fairness Act, LGBTQ Pennsylvanians now have statewide nondiscrimination protections. The law, which passed with bipartisan support in May 2023, reflects the pro-equality views of most Pennsylvanians across party lines. In 2023, state lawmakers introduced numerous pro-equality proposals, including a legislative package that would safeguard transgender students’ rights and require LGBTQ-inclusive curricula in schools. Presently, pro-equality legislators hold a razor-thin majority in the Pennsylvania State House. The results of this election cycle could change that.
• Also in 2023, Pennsylvania state lawmakers proposed three anti-LGBTQ bills. In the style of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay/Trans” law, PA HB 319 seeks to ban LGBTQ-inclusive classroom discussion and curricula in grades K-5. PA House Bills 138 and 216 take aim at medical care for trans people and trans inclusion in school sports, respectively. All three proposals are active in the state legislature.
• Moms for Liberty, which was identified as an anti-LGBTQ extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center in June 2023, has at least one local chapter in each of Pennsylvania’s 17 congressional districts. Despite this, Pennsylvania voters largely rejected Moms for Liberty-aligned candidates in last November’s local school board elections.
• Incumbent U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr., who has represented Pennsylvania in Congress since 2007, will likely be challenged by Dave McCormick. During his failed 2022 Senate campaign, McCormick expressed support for policy changes that would harm transgender Americans, including the elimination of federal funding for best-practice medical care. Sen. Casey has a complicated record on abortion rights; however, amid the reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022, he shifted stances and said he would support legislation to codify abortion access into federal law. During his tenure in the Senate, Casey has consistently backed pro-equality policies, including the LGBTQ Equality Act, which he co-sponsored.
• Pennsylvania state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta is running for PA Auditor General. If Kenyatta wins, he will become the first Black out LGBTQ statewide official in Pennsylvania history.
• In 2020, President Joe Biden won Pennsylvania with just 50.01% of the vote—a fair electoral victory that former President Donald Trump baselessly contested. As a swing or “purple” state, Pennsylvania will be pivotal in the outcome of the 2024 presidential election, and election officials are already bracing for an influx of national scrutiny. 
• The LGBTQ records of Republican presidential candidates Nikki Haley and Donald Trump are documented on the GLAAD Accountability Project. Trump has amassed more than 200 attacks in policy and rhetoric against LGBTQ Americans throughout his one-term presidency and 2024 campaign.
• The Biden-Harris administration’s LGBTQ record includes more than 320 appointments, nominations, statements and policies of support, as documented via GLAAD’s Biden Accountability Tracker.

Best Practices

• Stories about or that mention LGBTQ people should include LGBTQ voices. 
• In stories specifically about transgender people, seek and include a transgender person. GLAAD can connect you.
• Prioritize facts, expertise, and LGBTQ lived experience over candidate and campaign opinion in your reporting. If a candidate comments on LGBTQ people, always include facts and context. For example, any discussion of transgender healthcare must note this care is supported by every major medical association (30+ statements here). Additional resources linked below. 
• Review and report a candidate’s LGBTQ record and support from anti-LGBTQ groups. Ongoing documentation is available on candidates, other public figures, and anti-LGBTQ groups via the GLAAD Accountability Project.
• Avoid shorthand descriptions of political conversations about LGBTQ people as a “culture war debate.” This dehumanizes marginalized people as a “side” and allows oppressive policies and politicians to escape accountability for creating and fueling the “war.” Furthermore, this language adds to voter apathy by alienating viewers and readers who find vaguely defined “culture wars” irrelevant to their lives. Focus your reporting on the policies, consequences to all taxpayers and the people directly harmed, and the candidates proposing them and their LGBTQ records.
  
• Be factual and clear with your language: “[Candidate name] has proposed policies restricting healthcare for transgender people, despite the fact this care is supported by every major medical association.”
  
• Do not repeat “groomer” rhetoric, or clearly label it as false. Experts in child abuse prevention have raised alarms that this rhetoric undermines understanding of actual child abuse and endangers innocent people and children.
• Include broader context: In 2023, 500+ anti-LGBTQ bills were proposed in state legislatures. This is a broad-scale, coordinated attack against LGBTQ Americans’ growing visibility and acceptance, via targeting healthcare, and banning LGBTQ-inclusive books and school curricula, participation in school sports, and bathroom access. Inform your readers and viewers about this larger pattern of LGBTQ animus as you report on individual topics and bills and candidates supporting them. Note also how healthcare and drag ban bills have been blocked in court as unconstitutional and discriminatory.
  
• Report connections between anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and policies to violent and extremist incidents: The ADL Center on Extremism has documented at least 700 attacks against LGBTQ people through 2023, including murders, assault, harassment, and vandalism. The report notes increasing connections of anti-LGBTQ violence by people from extremist groups like Oath Keepers and Proud Boys. Anti-LGBTQ posts on extremist media, further amplified on extremist cable programs, have been followed by bomb threats against children’s hospitals, libraries, and schools, endangering and inconveniencing all students, families, and residents in these communities.
  
• Report connections between anti-LGBTQ extremism and other attacks on freedoms: States proposing bills targeting LGBTQ people have also banned abortion, enabled extremist hate groups, and denied and denigrated fair elections. In March 2023, Pennsylvania’s neighboring state, West Virginia, enacted a law that allows religious beliefs to be used as an excuse for anti-LGBTQ discrimination. The state has also outlawed abortion. As recently as January 10, 2024, lawmakers in nearby Ohio voted to override the governor’s veto of a law banning healthcare for trans youth.

Additional resources:

GALLUP: 7.2% of U.S. adults are out as LGBTQ, including 20% of Gen Z, the most out generation in history; a projected 14% of voters will be out as LGBTQ by 2030.

GALLUP: Record high 71% support for marriage equality. Pennsylvania legalized marriage equality in 2014, when a federal judge struck down the state’s statutory  ban on same-sex marriages.

GLAAD: 84% support equal rights for LGBTQ people.

GLAAD Media Reference Guide: Terminology and 20+ topic areas to learn about and accurately report on LGBTQ people.

Medical Association Statements Transgender Health Care: 30+ statements from every major medical association and world health authority, across specialities and patient lifespan, supporting healthcare for transgender people. Healthcare for transgender people is mainstream care with widely held consensus of both the medical and scientific communities.

Factsheet for Reporters Covering Transgender Health Care: What to know about transgender healthcare and how to responsibly include trans voices in your coverage.

About GLAAD:

GLAAD rewrites the script for LGBTQ acceptance. As a dynamic media force, GLAAD tackles tough issues to shape the narrative and provoke dialogue that leads to cultural change. GLAAD protects all that has been accomplished and creates a world where everyone can live the life they love.