Wolf urges LGBT non-discrimination bill

Pennsylvania Tom Wolf is using the public outrage over Indiana’s potentially discriminatory religious freedom law to push for anti-discrimination law in this state.

Wolf writes in an email to campaign supporters that he doesn’t “understand what the Governor of Indiana was thinking when he signed a bill that allows discrimination against people based on who they love.”

“Pennsylvania is the only state in the Northeast that doesn’t prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity and expression — and that needs to end,” Wolf writes.  

In Indiana, legislators have scrambled to amend the Religious Freedom Restoration Act after being subject to a wave of criticism that it could allow businesses to discriminate against gays, lesbians and transgender people.

In Pennsylvania, Wolf asked people to sign a petition in support of a new state law that would prevent discrimination against LGBT people.  

He says that without such a law gay people and their families “can be fired, denied a mortgage, or refused service at a hotel, library, or even a hospital.”