PHILADELPHIA -- Critics fear that a new Pennsylvania law giving homosexuals statewide legal protection from verbal harassment and hate crimes targets church leaders who preach against homosexual lifestyles.

The law could be enforced too liberally to include pastors who often quote passages from the Bible that denounce homosexuality, said Laurel Petolicchio, a constitutional activist from Columbia, Pa.

"Those especially at risk are conservative religious people who may very well find themselves hauled into court unless they keep their mouths shut for being politically incorrect," Petolicchio told The Washington Times.

"This legislation basically sets up for a lawsuit against any minister or religious leader who publicly states that certain sexual behavior is immoral or improper," she said. "That is in direct violation of the state Constitution."

The legislation was drafted by Philadelphia-based Center for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights. The state House passed the measure 118-79 in late November, and the state Senate passed it 32-15 in 2001.

Kathleen Daugherty, director of Lutheran Advocacy Ministry, which supports the measure, said the law is not meant to take away the free speech rights of preachers and church leaders.

"What a minister is doing is not a crime," Daugherty said. "This measure is about the people who go after persons like Matthew Shepard and harm them. Pennsylvania needs to make a statement that we will not tolerate hate."

Shepard was a homosexual college student killed during a hate crime in Wyoming in October 1998.