| We can give House Speaker Nancy Pelosi this—she doesn't hide her priorities. True to her word, this week Pelosi and Representative David Cicilline, an openly gay Democrat from Rhode Island, introduced H.R. 5, the so-called "Equality Act." The bill adds the classifications of "sexual orientation and gender identity" as special protected classes in federal Civil Rights statutes—giving those classifications the same level of protection in law as "race" or "religion."
House leadership typically reserves the top ten bill numbers (H.R. 1 – H.R. 10) for bills they consider to be highly important. That means that Pelosi and House Democrats believe that enshrining "sexual orientation and gender identity" into Civil Rights law is in their top five priorities for the whole country. Please make your voice heard today!
Pelosi, Democrats, and leading national LGBT activist groups believe H.R. 5 is essential to prevent "discrimination" against individuals identifying as LGBTQ+. For most of us Americans who aren't busy advancing a radical sexual ideology, "discrimination" means we don't want anyone being made fun of or physically assaulted, denied a table at a restaurant (unless their own bad behavior warrants it), being told to sit in the back of the bus, or forced to attend a separate school.
That's probably why, according to polling released by Public Religion Research Institute, faith groups of all denominations, including white evangelicals, support "nondiscrimination protections" for LGBT-identifying individuals.
But here's the rub. To quote The Princess Bride—that word doesn't mean what you think it means.
To Pelosi and supporters of H.R. 5, "discrimination" means something entirely different. "Discrimination" means that your Christian beliefs about sex, sexuality, marriage, parenting, education, and your calling to live out your faith are the same as Nazism and lynchings in the South—and must not be tolerated.
And that is why H.R. 5 is, in our opinion, the most dangerous piece of legislation put forward by Democrat leadership.
Since H.R. 5 is at the top of the Democratic agenda, we have 5 practical ways the bill could seriously harm all of us:
 1. Schools
States with laws or regulations similar to H.R. 5 already require men and boys to have access to girls' locker rooms, restrooms, and athletic teams. Girls will also likely be forced to compete against boys for female scholarships and awards.
We are also seeing states with language similar to H.R. 5 forcing LGBT-specific sexual education curriculum on every public school in the state, requiring LGBT lessons to be woven into all curriculum (e.g., history, social studies, math, etc.), and even allowing schools to keep private files on students who identify as LGBT that not even parents can access.
In most cases, parents do not have the option to opt-out their children from the curriculum. And, children themselves who are uncomfortable with sharing private spaces with the opposite sex or who don't want to be forced to refer to a "her" as a "him" will likely be punished and subject to "LGBT sensitivity training."
 2. Parenting
Perhaps most disturbing of all, states and countries with language similar to H.R. 5 are stripping parents of custody when they do not want their children to undergo experimental hormone regimens for the purpose of "gender transition."
Supporters of H.R. 5 believe that children must have access to gender transition services—and that parents who are uncomfortable with altering their child's natural sexual development, even to the point of causing sterilization in their child, are child abusers! Parents in Ohio recently lost custody of their biological daughter for refusing to consent to gender-transition hormones.
A Canadian father was also told he can't object to his daughter taking testosterone, he must refer to her as a "him," and he must not try to persuade her to consider other options besides gender transition. Doing any of those things would be a form of child abuse under Canadian law.
H.R. 5 carries very serious risks to parents and their ability to act in their children's best interests.
 3. Businesses
H.R. 5 will likely require employees and business owners to refer to one another with a person's "preferred pronouns." In other words, if a female employee identifies herself as male, all employees may be forced to refer to her as a "him."
Business owners will also likely be forced to open up bathrooms to the opposite sex, opening the door to serious privacy violations or even sexual assault for female employees and patrons.
Business owners may even be forced to provide "gender transition" medical coverage for employees.
And the punishment for business owners and employees who don't comply with these forced speech or policy changes? Risk losing your job or facing heavy fines. In states that already have a state version of H.R. 5, some business owners even risk criminal charges.
 4. Ministries
H.R. 5 puts even nonprofit, faith-based ministries at risk. Ministries will likely be forced to affirm same-sex marriage, open up their restroom or other private facilities to the opposite sex, require their employees and those they are serving to affirm gender transition, and much more.
And, if ministries can't comply because of the teachings of their faith? They risk their nonprofit status, being sued for "discrimination," and even their ability to serve at all.
Faith-based adoption agencies were already forced out of several states with laws similar to H.R. 5. Ministries risk their license to operate and their ability to work with the state to provide services such as placing foster children in forever homes.
 5. Medical Professionals
H.R. 5 will likely have a devastating effect on medical professionals. Counselors, even Christian counselors, will be forced to provide therapy guiding a young person toward same-sex attraction or gender transition—while being forbidden by law to provide counseling to help young people manage unwanted same-sex attraction or affirm God's design for their body's sex.
Doctors will likely be required to provide gender transition hormones and even sex-change operations, regardless of the doctors' religious beliefs or even their professional judgment that such changes would not be in the best interest of their patients.
The punishment for doctors who don't comply? They risk being sued for "discrimination," losing their professional license and their career, and even being labeled as "child abusers."
Pelosi's H.R. 5 would be the most sweeping and devastating legislation to impact children, parents, schools, businesses, ministries, the medical profession, and people of faith as a whole (regardless of denomination) that our country has ever seen. The importance of stopping H.R. 5 cannot be overstated.
So what can you do?
We are asking each one of you to contact your U.S. Representative now to ask them to VOTE NO on H.R. 5. This bill needs to stop in the House right now. American families need to send a strong message to our leaders that this type of legislation has no place in our country.
Please join with us to take action now!
Standing together in faith,
Autumn Leva, Esq.
Vice President of Strategy |
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