The Equality Act
promises to promote tolerance, respect and — of course — equality.
Instead, it would
promote inequality by undermining parental rights, forcing the hand of medical
professionals, and erasing women.
How? By imposing
government-mandated gender identity policies in schools, hospitals and women’s
spaces across the country.
The Equality Act
would add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” as protected classes in
the federal Civil Rights Act. It would also expand the definition of “public
accommodations.” While this bill may sound harmless, these changes would have
far-reaching negative effects on average Americans.
For example, the
Equality Act could be used as a tool to force schools nationwide to teach kids
about LGBT ideology without parental consent.
Judges have
interpreted the 1964 Civil Rights Act, a landmark bill that ended segregation
and served as a direct response to racism in America, as requiring schools to
implement black history curriculum.
If activist judges
interpret the Equality Act in the same way, schools would have no choice but to
implement LGBT curriculum, not only in sex education classes, but across the
board — in literature, history, etc. — without an option to opt out.
When it comes to
sensitive and personal topics such as sex, parents should be free to decide
when and how to talk with their children. A change like this would rob parents
of their right to make those decisions, with potentially damaging consequences
for kids.
In Rocklin County,
California, children came home crying and afraid that they were going to change
sex after a teacher hosted a “gender transition celebration” for a kindergarten
student. The teacher read two books to the class, including "I Am Jazz"
to students, a picture book about a transgender reality TV star named Jazz
Jennings. The teacher then asked the kindergartner to leave the room. When the
student returned in girl’s clothing, the teacher instructed children to refer
to the boy by a new female name. Parents were given no prior notice of the
event and no chance to weigh in with any concerns.
The Equality Act
would also politicize medicine for adults and children. By expanding public
accommodations to include health care, this bill would impose a nationwide
gender identity mandate. It would require doctors and nurses to perform and
provide sex-reassignment procedures and hormone therapy against their
conscience or even their best medical judgment. It would require hospitals to
offer these procedures and insurers to cover them.
This would also
affect pediatrics and parental rights. If the government can force providers to
offer hormonal and surgical interventions for adults, the expectation will come
to include those same interventions for children.
Activists promote
social transition to children as young as 4, puberty-blocking drugs as young as
9, cross sex-hormones as young as 14, and surgery at 18 or younger. These
therapies come with serious medical risks, including include increased risk for
cancer, liver and cardiovascular disease, and of course, sterility. These side
effects ought to make any parent take pause.
What about women’s
rights? The Equality Act would erase women and effectively end any women’s-only
spaces.
When biological
males can claim entry into women’s facilities, including locker rooms,
bathrooms and so on, women can no longer expect privacy in these places. Gender
identity policies endanger women by making it more difficult to establish
malicious intent when sexual predators take advantage of self-identified gender
identity policies to access female spaces.
Women will also
lose the opportunity to participate in fair and equal athletic competitions.
Enduring biological differences between the sexes — in hormones, bone structure,
and musculature — give biological males a competitive advantage over females in
most sports
When males who
identify as women are allowed to compete against females, women lose. Just ask
Selina Soule, a 16-year-old track athlete who lost her spot to compete at the
state championship to two transgender athletes.
“It’s very
frustrating and heartbreaking when [we] girls are at the start of the race, and
we already know that these athletes are going to come out and win no matter how
hard you try,” she said.
The Equality Act
is anything but harmless. It would undermine parents’ ability to do what is
best for their children. It would force medical professionals to offer
procedures and prescriptions even when they conflict with their professional
opinion about what is best for a given patient. It would erase women by opening
up women’s spaces and sports to men nationwide.
Do not be fooled
by a name. The Equality Act would only promote inequality.
Monica Burke is a research assistant in the DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society at The Heritage Foundation. This article originally appeared in The Detroit News.
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