The House of Representatives voted on Thursday to pass the Equality Act, a bill that would ban discrimination against people based on sexual orientation and gender identity. It would also substantially expand the areas to which those discrimination protections apply.
The Civil Rights Act covered discrimination in certain areas, like employment and housing. The Equality Act would expand that to cover federally funded programs, as well as "public accommodations" — a broad category including retail stores and stadiums, for example.
Importantly, the bill also explicitly says that it trumps the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (commonly known by its acronym RFRA). The law, passed in 1993, set a higher bar for the government to defend laws if people argued those laws infringed upon religious freedom.
I wonder what is to stop a lawsuit against a pastor who objects to performing a same sex marriage.
I have read the actual legislation that passed in the House. This is my read.
The Equality Act extends established protections to one's gender identity. The Bill literally inserts wording into existing laws in order achieve that. The effects and implications of the Equality Act go further.
Gender as defined by genital developed in the womb is irrelevant legally. Biological sex is subordinate to choice.
In effect the child (minor) has superiority over their parents in making the choice of their sex. It would be presumptuous for a parent to assume the sex of their child at birth. I wonder, if in the future it will be legal for a doctor to tell an expecting parent that they are having a "boy" or a "girl."
Biological males will be free to compete in "women's sports" and biological males are free to enter "ladies" rooms. So long as they "identity" as women.
Where is the issue? It depends on who you ask and on the situation. Some see this as a matter of personal freedom and the right one has to non-discrimination. In that respect, it may seem that America is moving down the path toward being a more progressive and just Nation. But that depends on whose rights are being protected.
If one thinks otherwise, is to be considered a bigot and phobic. To act otherwise is to risk committing a Federal discrimination or hate crime.
The biblical view of the sexes is in effect immoral at best and quite possibly may lead to illegal behavior.
Are we a more just nation if a biological man who identifies as a female can take out his penis in the shower with your daughter? Ask the biological man and you get one answer. Ask the father of a little girl and you might get another.
Are we a more just nation if a 9 year old child can be counseled and prescribed puberty blocking drugs without parental consent? And what if that child grows up to regret their decision? What will the politicians who superseded their parents response be then?
Are we a more just nation if women's sports and records of achievement are decimated by biological men? Ask the biological male MMA fighter who nearly killed his female opponent and you get one answer. Ask her and you might get another.
Women have struggled for centuries to get to where they are today in sports. With the stroke of a pen, the Left threatens their gains. A women who worked tirelessly her entire life for an athletic achievement can have that taken away from her permanently because of radical politics. It's happening already.
Are we a more just nation if we force people to act against their religious beliefs to please the view of people who think that God's definition of Man and Woman is trumped by the United State's legal view?
Like I said, it depends on who you ask and on the situation.
None of this speaks to the science. None of this speaks to studies of the failures of gender reassignment. None of this speaks to the psychological damage of altering one's gender through drugs and surgery. None of this speaks to the rights of parents.
The Equality Act puts government above parents, science and God.
None of this speaks to love either. The thing that creates the most dissonance for me personally is the following. While I disagree with the Equality Act, I still may love a person who suffers from Gender Dysphoria. My heart can empathize with their confusion, fear, pain and other struggles, even though I support the rights of those who dissent with the Equality Act.
To me personally, the great injustice of the Equality Act is what Liberals believe it turns anyone who disagrees with it into.
THERE, DOES IT MAKE SENSE NOW?
