Last Sunday, CBS News featured a segment on its “60 Minutes” program that highlighted the dangerous trend of quickly affirming gender dysphoria and rushing individuals through the process of sexual “transitioning,” much of which (including breast and testicle removal) can never be reversed, though they may regret their radical decisions later.
Abigail Shrier, a writer for the Wall Street Journal and author of “Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters,” reported on Twitter that “60 Minutes” acknowledged “the role of peer influence and social media in encouraging trans identification in teens, the rising population of de-transitioners, and a medical system that ‘affirms’ self-diagnoses of gender dysphoria in place of adequate oversight.”
Transgenderism is a dangerous, destructive ideology. And, it is about to be used to transform civil rights legislation and affect us all. Earlier this year, the so-called “Equality Act” was reintroduced into the House as H.R. 5, after failing to receive Senate approval in 2019. This time it passed the Democrat-dominated House and now waits to be considered in the Senate. The new H.R. 5 amends Title VII of our civil rights law, among other laws, to explicitly redefine and add sexual orientation and gender identity as outlawed forms of discrimination.
That may sound like a good idea to most; who would want to make discrimination legal? But H.R. 5 actually proposes profound, far-reaching changes to the 1960s Civil Rights Act that directly threaten religious liberty, free speech and freedom of conscience.
How do we know? Because it explicitly exempts itself from the Religious Freedom Restoration Act designed to protect religious individuals and organizations against government interference in the practice of their faith. H.R. 5 will force faith-based organizations to adjust programs, open up privacy facilities to transgender (opposite-sex) persons and revise employment policies, or be subject to liability.
H.R. 5 would erase biological reality (male and female) and actually reduce, not expand, protections against discrimination, contrary to the original intent of Congress. Sanctity of life laws, parental rights, and the privacy and safety of women and girls may all be in jeopardy.
Contact your senators today at senate.gov.
Gary Curtis
Newhall
