Court: SEPTA Can Discriminate Against You For Your Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

Photo | Ben Schumin under a Creative Commons license.

NBC 10 is reporting that a Pennsylvania appeals court has ruled that SEPTA isn’t subject to Philadelphia’s city ordinance which bans discrimination against sexual orientation and gender identity.

The report goes on to note the following:

“The Commonwealth Court ruled Friday that only the state’s anti-discrimination law applies to the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. That law doesn’t cover sexual orientation and gender identity…The court says applying local law to SEPTA would be unwieldy because it operates in many jurisdictions.”

The initial case stemmed from SEPTA’s practice to mark a rider’s gender on his or her bus pass. However, back in 2013, the organization stopped issuing bus passes with the gender designations. Whether or not this ruling would change this has yet to be determined.