Pa. lawmaker is 'confident' state will maintain its DEI initiatives amid Trump's policies

Fallon Roth, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Jan 23, 2025

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PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania state Sen. Art Haywood is “confident” that with the help of the state legislature and Gov. Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania can maintain its diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in the face of President Donald Trump’s executive order targeting DEI and affirmative action programs at the federal level.

“What we look to do is to make sure that our laws here in Pennsylvania have the protections that we once relied on the federal government to produce,” Haywood said during a news conference Thursday.

The Democratic senator, who represents parts of Philadelphia and Montgomery County, offered his hopes for the state legislature’s actions during a news conference at Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church, a historic Black Methodist Episcopal church in Society Hill.

He was joined by clergy and activists in denouncing Trump’s recent executive orders. One order, issued Monday, directs federal agencies to terminate “illegal DEI and ‘diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility’ (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in the Federal Government, under whatever name they appear,” and another, issued Tuesday, revoked President Lyndon B. Johnson’s executive order requiring government contractors to use affirmative action in adopting nondiscriminatory hiring and employment policies.

Haywood said the legislature will need to mull legislation to compensate for the president’s affirmative action directive. He added he’s confident that Shapiro will “take whatever (executive action) needs to be taken to make sure that we have a state that is inclusive.”

“That’s the leadership that we have, and we want to be clear, we want to support the governor in these initiatives, that he’s not alone,” Haywood said.

Shapiro has said he’s willing to work with Trump as long as he does not compromise Pennsylvanians’ “fundamental freedoms.”

There are indications that Trump’s other executive orders will have a direct impact on Pennsylvanians. In Philadelphia, the president’s directive mandating a hiring freeze and total in-person work will further strain the city’s already stretched-thin federal worker population.

The Rev. Gregory Holston, a representative of the Coalition to Defend Democracy — which includes the NAACP and unions — said unity is important to face Trump’s sweeping executive orders because “when excellence is removed from government, that endangers white people as well.”

“So let us stand together and work together and believe together that we can push back against these kinds of initiatives, and let even Donald Trump know and all dominions around him that America is really stronger when we stand for diversity,” Holston said.

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