I will be moving to Pennsylvania pretty soon; Pittsburgh to be exact. I will be seeking services at the Persad Centre in order to do some transitioning. As of right now, Pittsburgh has laws protecting against discrimination based on sexual orientation/gender identity, however, many in Pennsylvania are not so lucky.

The commonwealth has not updated its civil rights law since 1955. In 1975, governor Milton Shapp (D) signed an executive order prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation in state agencies. Through the administrations of Shapp, Dick Thornburgh (R), Robert Casey, Sr. (known for being an anti-abortion D), Tom Ridge (R), and Mark Schweiker (R), this executive order has been renewed. When governor Ed Rendell (D) was elected, he extended the protection to gender identity:

The order applies only to the 80,000 employees in the governor's cabinet agencies and bans discrimination based on "gender identity or expression," which means people whose sense of their sexual identity differs from their gender. It can include cross-dressers, people with sex-change operations, masculine women and effeminate men.
 

Note that very few transgender anti-discrimination laws actually specifically mention clothing issues, even though it would be implied that it would be inherently discriminatory to not allow someone to wear clothing consistent with their gender identity, many do not see it that way.

However, this means that those LGBTIQ people who want to use public accomodations, go to school, or get housing are at the mercy of proprietors and have no recourse if discrimination happens.

However, many locales in Pennsylvania have LGBTIQ anti-discrimination laws which are broad and far reaching. These include:

The City/County of Philadelphia
Allegheny County (Note: Pittsburgh, which is in Allegheny County, has its own anti-discrimination law)
Erie County
Allentown City
Easton City
Harrisburg City
Lancaster City
Lansdowne Borough
New Hope Borough
Scranton City
Swarthmore Borough
West Chester City
York City

Note that State College, the San Francisco of Central PA, has anti-discrimination only for sexual orientation and only for housing.

Currently, a bill, HB300, which entails amending the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act (PHRA) to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity or expression, is being discussed. Now, let it be known that if I am in PA before the election, I will likely support a third party candidate for governor, but I decided to contact both Rock 'Em Sock 'Em candidates about their positions on the issue. They are...

-Red Rocker Tom Corbett: the current attourney general of PA, who basically has no positions except for running commercials stating that "auto insuwance fwaud is weawy, weawy bad"
-Blue Bomber Dan Onorato: current Allegheny County executive, a globalization loving blue dog who is shifty on abortion rights.

Neither one includes these issues on their campaign websites.

I decided to use the webform on Tom Corbett's website to ask him if he supports HB300 and renewing the executive order. No response. I decide to go on Mr. Corbett's facebook page to ask about these two issues and I get this:
 

Jordan,
We would like to be able to answer your questions fully and sometimes the Facebook format makes this challenging. Would you mind submitting the questions above in our contact form on our website www.tomcorbettforgovernor.com/contact? The question will go directly to our policy department and they will be happy to get back to you. Thank you so much! KR
 

Does he not want his staff to reveal his positions online. It seems like he is avoiding the issue. As of today, no response has come from either the Onorato or Corbett campaigns, even though the issue is currently ripe.

Many queers in Pennsylvania are facing great discrimination and it is important that this issue be discussed. I would like to know where both officials stand on this issue, for it is most likely that either one of them will be governor (once again, I will be voting for neither)

-Jordan Gwendolyn