The Philadelphia City Council has enacted a sweeping change to the city’s nondiscrimination code meant to strengthen protections for transgender children, including prohibiting employees from revealing a child’s transgender status to their parent without the child’s approval.
The changes enshrine nondiscrimination protections for transgender youth into the city’s code and apply not only to the city’s public schools but also to charter schools, day cares, recreation centers, sports leagues, and other youth programs throughout the city. Staff for all youth organizations and schools must also undergo training on how to interact with transgender children.
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Under the rule, organizations and schools must allow children to use bathroom and locker room facilities and participate in activities, including sports, corresponding to their stated gender identity. They must also be permitted to use their preferred names and pronouns.
The Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations will enforce the new rules and will assess penalties for violations on a “case by case basis,” the commission’s executive director, Kia Ghee, said, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
“When you’re dealing with youth, that’s a completely different type of person that you want to protect,” Ghee said. “They oftentimes are voiceless and in the care of adults.”
Religious organizations can seek an exemption from the city’s new requirements but only in response to a complaint.
The city has a controversial history with religious freedom exemptions. It was previously sued by a Catholic adoption agency after it barred the agency from facilitating adoptions because it would not offer adoptions to prospective parents in same-sex relationships.
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The case eventually found its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled 9-0 in 2021 that the city had discriminated against the Catholic adoption agency by failing to provide the agency a religious exemption that was permitted by the city’s code.
