PA GOP Seeks Sweeping Gay Rights Ban

February 19, 2004

HARRISBURG—Legislation that gay advocates say would devastate same-sex families will be introduced in the Pennsylvania legislature when it reconvenes next month.

The bill would outlaw taxpayer-funded same-sex benefits, ban adoption by gays and reaffirm a 1996 law barring same-sex marriages.

The author of the bill, Rep. Jerry Birmelin (R-Wayne), says the legislation is not only in reaction to the recent Massachusetts court ruling allowing gays to marry and San Francisco's decision to give marriage licenses to same-sex couples but also to what he calls interference by Gov. Ed Rendell in a contract between the state university system and its employees that grants spousal benefits.

What [Rendell's] doing is redefining marriage and giving benefits to people that historically were given only to people who were married, he said.

If passed the legislation would nullify those benefits and make Pennsylvania only the second state in the nation, after Florida, to have a blanket ban on gay adoption.

GOP legislators are supporting the bill.

Democrats are accusing them of an election-year distraction.

It's ridiculous, said Mike Manzo, chief of staff to House Minority Leader H. William DeWeese, D-Waynesburg. But Republican leadership has made it clear that one way or another, they will force a vote on this.

Pennsylvania's Center for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights called the Birmelin amendments a waste of resources.

What I'm hoping is that legislators will understand that this is an issue about fairness and equality, and that they will not support these amendments, said Stacey Sobel, the center's executive director.