Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania State Legislature aims to broaden LGBTQ+ protections with House Bill 319
![Pennsylvania State Legislature aims to broaden LGBTQ+ protections with House Bill 319](https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2023/06/18/c28747fd-0a4c-4fdd-8285-16d69cadd42f/thumbnail/1200x630/7237dfbbc65e98fcc8b6eafd22405116/snapshot-43.jpg?v=23da2bed74e9783333cf303fba619e89)
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Two bills are making their way through the Pennsylvania State Legislature involving the LGBTQ community, with two very different perspectives.
In recent polling, 90% of Democrats and 66% of Republicans support extending anti-discrimination laws to the LGBTQ+ community. However, that’s still not the case in Pennsylvania – but it could change with a bill that just passed the state House.
“What this bill does is simply enshrine the same non-discrimination protection that people already have on the basis of race or sex to also cover sexuality as well, the LGBTQ+ community,” State Rep. Jessica Benham, the co-chair of the LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus, said. “So, it doesn’t create any new rights or special privileges. It just brings another group of people under the umbrella of those protections.”
ALSO SEE: Philadelphia Council to vote on a resolution to recognize June as LGBTQ+ Pride Month in the city
Benham, who is bisexual, is optimistic the Republican-controlled Senate will act on this bill.
“I would love to live in a state where I am protected from discrimination in housing and employment,” Benham said.
While this bill moves in the legislature, other bills on transgender rights in sports, bathroom use, teaching, libraries, and parental rights are being introduced in Pennsylvania, including a stronger version of Florida’s “don’t say gay” bill that would prohibit discussions of sexuality and gender identity in grades K-5.
“Those are times when kids should be talking about, reading and learning how to write, colors and letters, and stuff like that,” State Rep. Aaron Bernstine said. “This is not the time to be talking about sexual-type things with children, specifically without their parental consent.”
Bernstine, a cosponsor of House Bill 319 on parental rights in education, said conversations about sexuality belong at home, not schools, and he said these bills are not anti-gay.
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“This isn’t a straight or gay, Black or white, or any other type of issue,” he said. “This is an issue making sure the most vulnerable citizens are protected from those who may intend to do them harm.”
However, what one parent may find offensive in the classroom, others may see as normal.
“You’re going to have kids in these classrooms who have two moms or two dads, and if a kid mentions that, I think it’s perfectly appropriate for a teacher to say, ‘Hey, that’s normal,’” Benham said.
If that comment is considered “instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity,” then it would be prohibited under this bill.
“Hopefully, these conversations are happening at home but these are not things children should be hearing about,” Bernstine said.
So far, there no hearings yet on this bill.
ALSO SEE: Voters elected Philadelphia’s first openly gay candidate to win a city council nomination
Pennsylvania is the only state left in the Northeast that does not provide anti-discrimination protection to its LGBTQ+ community.
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Pennsylvania
Bill to ensure access to contraception advances in Pennsylvania, aided by dozens of GOP House votes
![Bill to ensure access to contraception advances in Pennsylvania, aided by dozens of GOP House votes](https://whyy.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/04-27-2023-k-paynter-downtown-harrisburg-pa-captial-building-dome-weather-vane-4.jpg)
Planned Parenthood PA Advocates executive director Signe Espinoza called the proposal “an enormous shift toward control over our bodies.”
“We must have control over if and when we decide to start our families, but Pennsylvania has for too long allowed loopholes, exemptions and oversights to stand between us and our autonomy,” Espinoza said in a statement.
Rep. Krueger said in an interview Monday that she also was concerned about Justice Clarence Thomas’ concurring opinion in the U.S. Supreme Court decision on abortion access two years ago. Thomas wrote that the Supreme Court “should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents,” including cases that found married people have the right to obtain contraceptives, people can engage in private, consensual sex acts and the right to same-sex marriage.
A state law could help people obtain contraceptives if federal law changes, Krueger said.
“We have seen that access to reproductive health care, including contraception, is coming down to a state’s rights issue,” Krueger said.
In other states, contraception has been a politically contentious issue. A review earlier this month by the Guttmacher Institute, which advocates for abortion access, found several states have proposed or enacted laws to reduce access to contraception this year.
KFF, a nonprofit that studies health care issues, said in May that 14 states have legal or constitutional protections for the right to contraception, with six states and Washington, D.C., enacting them since the high court’s decision on abortion in June 2022.
Pennsylvania
Pa. woman who drowned after being swept over waterfall in Glacier National Park is ID’d
![Pa. woman who drowned after being swept over waterfall in Glacier National Park is ID’d](https://www.lehighvalleylive.com/resizer/v2/ENNPVT7HEBAILPOJTGZWNTBSLM.jpg?auth=ae6ee71154605f3d0d14626ee27547b52589449aff7199c62704aa067d22f7ab&width=1280&quality=90)
A 26-year-old Pennsylvania woman drowned after being swept over a waterfall on the east side of Glacier National Park in Montana, park officials said.
National Park Service officials on Tuesday identified the victim as Gillian Tones from North Apollo in western Pennsylvania’s Armstrong County. She was remembered as caring and kind, triblive.com reported.
Tones fell into the water above St. Mary Falls at around 5:20 p.m. Sunday. She was washed over the 35-foot (11-meter) tall waterfall and trapped under water for several minutes, the park said in a statement.
Bystanders pulled Tones from the water and administered CPR until emergency responders arrived. She was declared dead at 7 p.m., park officials said.
The death is under investigation, and an autopsy was planned.
Her name was initially withheld until family members could be notified.
Drowning is one of the leading causes of death in Glacier National Park, according to the National Park Service.
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Pennsylvania
Conestoga Road Closing Weekdays For 2 Months In Radnor: PennDOT
![Conestoga Road Closing Weekdays For 2 Months In Radnor: PennDOT](https://patch.com/img/cdn20/users/22896833/20240625/103022/styles/patch_image/public/roadclosed___25103005562.jpg)
RADNOR TOWNSHIP, PA — Conestoga Road in Radnor Township will have a weekday closure due to Aqua Pennsylvania work for about two months, PennDOT said.
According to PennDOT, a weekday closure is scheduled on Conestoga Road between Lowrys Lane and Glenbrook Avenue in Radnor.
The closure will be in place weekdays, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. from Monday, July 1 to Friday, Aug. 30,
During the closure, drivers will be detoured, using Sproul Road/Route 320, Lancaster Avenue/U.S. 30, and County Line Road.
Local access will be maintained up to the work zone.
Drivers are advised to allow extra time when traveling through or near the work area because backups and delays will occur.
All scheduled activities are weather dependent.
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