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Mike Heath of Helping Hands Ministries in Maine interviewed Americans For Truth President Peter LaBarbera September 14, 2016. Their discussion begins around the 12:30 mark and ends around 37:45:
By the way, Mike Heath has the noble distinction of having played a leadership role in not one but two successful, statewide efforts to overturn homosexuality-based “special rights” laws, in Maine. We call them “special rights” but perhaps “false rights” is more accurate. Because unlike genuine rights, which come from God, the panoply of modern homosexualist laws are rooted in sinful, unnatural behaviors like sodomy destructive to mind, body and soul. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH.org
Fox News, media, Republican social liberals cheer on LGBTQ agenda in Cleveland
“Fake” Culture Wars? Donald Trump gave homosexual (activist) Republican and PayPal founder Peter Thiel a prime-time slot to address the Republican convention–and he used it to belittle the “culture wars” and pro-family campaigns against “transgender rights,” i.e., laws allowing men wearing dresses to use female restrooms. AFTAH does not cower to political correctness: we tell the truth: that God makes no special dispensation for Republican homosexuality as opposed to the Democrat variety.
By Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH Special Report, Part One
Quick Summary [see videos at bottom]:
Donald Trump is already taking the Republican Party in a pro-homosexual direction
Trump as a life-long New Yorker has a history of supporting homosexual “rights”
In his speech accepting the GOP presidential nomination, Trump went out of his way to affirm the “LGBTQ [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and/or Questioning] community”
Meanwhile, Trump said nothing about overturning the Supreme Courts’s Obergefell ruling imposing homosexual “marriage” on the states
Trump also ignored the battle raging between “gay rights” and freedom of conscience [see this Colorado baker case update]. And his long speech did not mention abortion and the plight of the unborn
All these issues were featured prominently in the conservative 2016 GOP Platform approved in Cleveland
Trump did champion a repeal of the Johnson Amendment inhibiting churches from political involvement. This will greatly help Christians and pastors to engage culturally if he succeeds
Trump invited openly homosexual PayPal founder and “gay” activist Peter Thiel to give a prime time address at the GOP convention [watch video at bottom]
Thiel used the opportunity to deride the “Culture Wars” as “fake”; said he was “proud to be gay”; and he belittled pro-family efforts opposing “transgender rights” laws
Fox News and other major media applauded Thiel and generally celebrated the “gay Republican” cause
Fox News’ Megyn Kelly brought on young homosexual Republican Guy Benson and a liberal Democrat–but no social conservative–to comment on Thiel’s address
Homosexualism in the name of “freedom”…is being pushed in the GOP by groups like the American Victory Fund. Shown above are (left to right): Montel Williams, Margaret Hoover and Bruce (“Caitlyn”) Jenner at a widely covered AUL event held at the Republican convention in Cleveland. Watch Jenner’s and Williams’ presentation at the AUL event here. Photo: American United Fund website.
A convention event put on by the American Unity Fund–a pro-LGBT Republican group–featuring Bruce (“Caitlyn”) Jenner and Montel Williams also received wide media attention in Cleveland
In contrast, dissident conservative voices–e.g., pro-life and pro-natural marriage voices–will likely receive little media attention at the left-leaning Democratic convention this week
Socialcons, Beware: Throughout the GOP primary campaign, some socially liberal and libertarian Republicans welcomed Trump’s rise because, to quote one writer, it “appears to have broken the stranglehold social conservatives have had on the party’s primary process”
The pro-LGBTQ appeal within the GOP is being marketed to and in part driven by millennial voters (ages 18-29)–who, polls show, favor “same-sex marriage” and are more accepting of homosexuality than older demographics
However, transcendent, biblical morality is timeless and is not determined by polls
Unlike many politically correct conservatives who walk on eggshells when discussing “gay Republicans” and the GOP’s perversion-enabling “Big Tent,” we at Americans For Truth embrace and boldly defend historic truth: homosexualism is immoral whether advanced by Democrats or Republicans, or by young people or older people.
And with God’s help, people can overcome the sin of homosexuality: see this inspiring interview with former “gay” Frank Worthen
Conservatives have long condemned “moral relativism,” but that is the essence of the new campaign by GOP moderates and social liberals to rationalize homosexualism and gender confusion in the name of freedom and conservatism
Openly homosexual Republicans and their “straight allies” may be conservative on a variety of issues, but on homosexual and transgender issues they usually echo liberal, LGBT talking points
If the GOP becomes a party espousing homosexual “marriage” and “LGBT rights”–i.e., a “Democrat-Lite” party on moral and social issues–it will cease to be truly conservative and pro-family. It will dishonor God, and become an agent of destructive change in America
AFTAH article: “Affidavit and Video: Cross-dressing Transgender Voyeur Shauna Smith – Who Shot Video of Woman Undressing at Idaho Target Store – Says It Was Like Viewing Porn
Fox News’ liberalism: Author’s in-depth report on Fox News’ Pro-Gay Bias for America’s Survival (PDF)
New York Times article (4/22/16): “Donald Trump’s more accepting views on Gay issues set him apart in GOP”
Politico article (7/22/16): “Gay Republicans want more from Trump”
AFTAH article on Trump’s liberal, “gay”-affirming past: “Trump Called For Adding Homosexuality to the 1964 Civil Rights Act – in 2000 Interview with ‘Gay’ Magazine”
Conservative pollster Rasmussen Reports on Trump breaking social conservatives’ “stranglehold” on the Republican Party (3/3/16): “Why Trump Is Good for the GOP”
Video:American Unity Fund event at GOP Convention featuring Bruce (“Caitlyn”) Jenner and Montel Williams (who compares unchangeable race to homosexuality)
Trump’s Promise to Christians: Time article (7/14/16) on Trump and the Johnson Amendment: “Republican platform calls for repeal of ban on political organizing by churches”
“Gay conservatives” get nasty like other homosexual activists: “Tammy Bruce’s Nasty Ambush Interview [of this writer], and Cliff Kincaid on CPAC and ‘Gays'”
Like Gov. Mike Pence, the Indiana governor and Donald Trump’s choice for his vice-presidential running mate, for the last 30-odd years since I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior, I have considered myself a Christian first, a conservative second and a Republican third—“in that order,” as Pence says.
I became interested in the “gay” (homosexual) revolution in America about 25 years ago. It has been fascinating to watch the interplay of homosexualism, Republicanism, media and Christianity in politics and culture even since. The treatment of homosexualism—which I define as essentially the celebration of homosexuality as a “civil right” and a proud, personal identity—is one indicator of the spiritual and moral health of a society.
As sober and biblically-minded Christians know, the news is not good in America. Like much of the West, we have a spiritual sickness—moral relativism, rooted in disrespect for God and his Laws. We love our sin and the tolerance thereof more than we love God and love Truth (capital “T,” what used to be called absolute truth).
Now that spiritual sickness has infected the Republican Party and “conservative” media, and the result can only be the further deterioration of the patient—because true “goodness” is rooted in God alone and His holy Word–not man’s fickle, transitory and self-rationalizing ideas. — @Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH
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Outstanding Resources:Order Robert Reilly’s excellent book, Making Gay Okay: How Rationalizing Homosexual Behavior Is Changing Everything, for $25 postpaid—and support Americans For Truth in the process! Give online HERE (note book in memo) or send $25/book (request “Making Gay Okay”) to AFTAH, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522.]
Also: A Gem for Just $5: Get your copy of the late Dr. Charles Socarides’ book: Homosexuality: A Freedom Too Far: A Psychoanalyst Answers 1,000 Questions Abut Causes and Cure and the Impact of the Gay Rights Movement on American Society — for any gift to AFTAH of just $5 or more postpaid. Give online here.
“Man-made law must be consistent with God-given, natural rights,” asserts GOP’s guiding document
No Longer Free: New Mexico photographers Elaine and Jon Huguenin were fined more than $6,000 for politely refusing to shoot photos at a lesbian commitment ceremony, due to their Christian faith. The suit against them was filed under New Mexico’s “sexual orientation” law. The Huguenins appealed the decision but ultimately lost in the New Mexico Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to one day hear a case that will help decide whether “gay rights” supersedes Americans’ freedom of conscience on homosexual “marriage.” The next president could pick as many as four SCOTUS justices.
The following are extended excerpts of the newly minted 2016 Republican Party Platform, with a focus on the social issues and religious freedom (emphasis ours):
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We the People
We are the party of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The Declaration sets forth the fundamental precepts of American government: That God bestows certain inalienable rights on every individual, thus producing human equality; that government exists first and foremost to protect those inalienable rights; that man-made law must be consistent with God-given, natural rights; and that if God-given, natural, inalienable rights come in conflict with government, court, or human-granted rights, God-given, natural, inalienable rights always prevail; that there is a moral law recognized as “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God”; and that American government is to operate with the consent of the governed. We are also the party of the Constitution, the greatest political document ever written. It is the solemn compact built upon principles of the Declaration that enshrines our God-given individual rights and law, defines the purposes and limits of government, and is the blueprint for ordered liberty that makes the United States the world’s freest and most prosperous nation. …
In a free society, the primary role of government is to protect the God-given, inalienable rights of its citizens. These constitutional rights are not negotiable for any American. We affirm that all legislation, regulation, and official actions must conform to the Constitution’s original meaning as understood at the time the language was adopted.
…
Defending Marriage Against an Activist Judiciary
Traditional marriage and family, based on marriage between one man and one woman, is the foundation for a free society and has for millennia been entrusted with rearing children and instilling cultural values. We condemn the Supreme Court’s ruling in United States v. Windsor, which wrongly removed the ability of Congress to define marriage policy in federal law. We also condemn the Supreme Court’s lawless ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which in the words of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, was a “judicial Putsch” — full of “silly extravagances” — that reduced “the disciplined legal reasoning of John Marshall and Joseph Storey to the mystical aphorisms of a fortune cookie.” In Obergefell, five unelected lawyers robbed 320 million Americans of their legitimate constitutional authority to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The Court twisted the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment beyond recognition. To echo Scalia, we dissent. We, therefore, support the appointment of justices and judges who respect the constitutional limits on their power and respect the authority of the states to decide such fundamental social questions.
“Reaffirming support for marriage between one man and one woman was a key victory of the platform, and affirming the traditional family — which is where, as social science clearly shows, children thrive best.”
“Mad As Hell”: That’s how homosexual Republican Greg Angelo of the LGBT activist group Log Cabin Republicans reacted to the Republican Party platform committee’s adoption of a solidly pro-family and pro-life platform. But Angelo has plenty to cheer about with the GOP’s doormat response to President Obama’s imposition of a radically pro-homosexual and pro-transgender agenda on America.
The following is reprinted from the July 13, 2016 newsletter of Tony Perkins’ Family Research Council Action Update:
The GOP Platform: Solid, Conservative
Republicans now have a platform to stand on, a solidly conservative platform. The GOP platform committee met for two days with 112 delegates from every state and territory and came to a consensus, a conservative consensus for the principles of the Grand Old Party. There was lively discussion on a number of issues ranging from agriculture to economics, to health care, to immigration, to national security.
Issues effecting the national moral and cultural climate were also prominently discussed among the delegates from all 50 states and U.S. territories. I am very happy to say that the final platform document overwhelmingly approved by the delegates maybe the strongest statement of conservative principles by a GOP platform to date. As Gayle Rozika, a Utah delegate for whom this was the 6th platform, told me this is the most conservative platform in her experience. Her efforts, along with those of delegates like Carolyn McLarty (Okla.), Len Munsil (Ariz.), David Barton (Texas), Jim and Judy Carns (Ala.), Kris Kobach (Kan.), Sandy McDade (La.) and a host of other conservative leaders were effective in ensuring the GOP platform provides a clear and compelling understanding of the core conservative principles that those associated with the Republican party prioritize and pursue.
Our coalition of delegates — including FRC Action and other groups like the March for Life Action, Eagle Forum, and Concerned Women for America — proved invaluable. The platform is an important document, showing the Party of Lincoln continues to respect freedom, and the rule of law, the idea that all humans deserve respect, not because of some category, but because we have inherent dignity and are made in the image of our Creator. The platform is a useful document, a standard, for the party in local, state, and federal elections, use in town halls, and provides standards to which we should hold our elected officials. Platform Chairman Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), led by co-chairs Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-Va.) and Governor Mary Falin (R-Okla.) all did an excellent job allowing delegates to offer amendments and debate the issues with sincerity and respect. They deserve much respect for their efforts.
Fox News stars — Megyn Kelly excluded — lavish attention on Trump and treat him with kid gloves, turning off many conservatives
TED SLIGHTED: Conservative Republican Sen. Ted Cruz has received far less media coverage than Donald Trump in the GOP race. Many conservatives are troubled by the adoring coverage that Trump has received from “conservative” journalists and the influential Fox News. Trump’s decidedly anti-conservative past pro-“gay” advocacy has barely been covered by either the “mainstream” or conservative media.
Folks, to say this is an odd election season might be the political understatement of the century. I saw this graphic on the left-wing Media Matters site, which is running articles about how weird it is that conservatives are complaining about “conservative media” (e.g, Fox News and Rush Limbaugh) going too easy on GOP front-runner Donald Trump. I have followed this election closely, and I too am appalled at the “conservative” media’s sycophantic treatment of Trump. (I have my favorite, but Americans For Truth does not endorse candidates–and in interviews I have criticized them all on some point or another.) I believe that Republican voters and the American public in general have been cheated by media coverage that has shown incredible deference to “The Donald” (with some key exceptions, like Wisconsin radio host Charles Sykes’ tough interview of Trump).
Seasoned pro-family observers will note that while Trump’s past support of abortion-on-demand (including “partial-birth abortions”) has been well-covered by the media, his radically pro-homosexual positions as a New York businessman have not. [See Randy Thomasson’s and SaveCalifornia.com’s “Presidential Scorecare on the Natural Family” comparing the remaining three GOP candidates’ records HERE.] In fact, in a 2000 interview with the homosexual Advocate magazine, Trump came out for adding homosexuality to the Civil Rights Act, but this has received barely any serious media coverage.
Note how many Fox News hosts and “contributors” (paid commentators like Laura Ingraham) are in the Trump camp. It has gotten to the point where I cut back watching Fox News because of biased “Trump cheerleaders” like Eric Bolling, Greta Van Susteren and Sean Hannity (whose wimpy Trump interviews are criticized on the (#NeverTrump) Red State site HERE). I don’t normally pass on Media Matters material, but this graphic is pretty accurate in identifying the Trumpsters versus the Anti-Trumps. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH.org
Rubio Aide Supports Radically Redefining Marriage: Rubio campaign aide Rich Beeson signed on to an amicus brief for the Supreme Court Obergefellcase supporting the legalization of “marriage” based on homosexuality. Graphic: AFTAH; photo by Fox News.
Folks, Sen. Marco Rubio is known as a social conservative, so this revelation of a top campaign staffer (Rich Beeson) signing on to a Republican PRO-homosexual-“marriage” friend-of-the-court brief–for the Obergefell SCOTUS case nationalizing “gay marriage”–is a big deal.
In the next few weeks AFTAH will be reporting facts about the remaining candidates in the Republican (and Democratic) primaries. [See our report on Trump’s past radical pro-homosexual advocacy HERE.] We are non-partisan and do not endorse any candidate–nor do we refrain from pointing out pro-homosexual advocacy wherever we find it. (AFTAH does not carry water for Republicans: this writer once caught a lot of GOP flak for co-authoring a report for Concerned Women for America about President George W. Bush’s “Homosexual Agenda.”) As I have said many times, God does not make a special provision for Republican homosexualism compared to the Democratic variety.
Moreover, GOP establishment big shots are pushing the Party to ditch social issues–and include the homosexual activist “Log Cabin Republicans” in the Party’s “big tent.” As you can read below, Rubio staffers have met regularly with Log Cabin Republican staffers, and the head of CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference; 202-347-9388) just allowed Log Cabin Republicans to serve as a sponsor for next year’s gathering. The following is an excerpt from our friends at LifeSiteNews (which relies heavily on The Baptist Message, which broke the story). — Peter LaBarbera, AFTTAH
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LifeSiteNews reports:
Marco Rubio’s deputy campaign manager is a gay ‘marriage’ activist
First published by LifeSiteNews Feb. 18, 2016; to read full article, click HERE; sign up for LifeSite daily updates HERE
CHARLESTON, South Carolina, February 18, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – A pivotal member of Marco Rubio’s campaign actively encouraged the Supreme Court to impose gay “marriage” on the entire nation by judicial fiat.
Senator Rubio’s deputy campaign manager, Rich Beeson, signed a legal brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to redefine marriage in last summer’s Obergefell v. Hodges case.
The amicus curiae brief, which was signed by 300 Republican operatives whose names spill over 24 pages, argued that having the court discover a nationwide right to same-sex “marriage” served “conservative values.”
New York values: Trump bragged that he came up with homosexual “civil rights” idea before Democratic presidential candidate Bill Bradley
Donald Trump’s interview with The Advocate magazine in 2000. Trump boasted that he was ahead of Democratic presidential candidate Bill Bradly in crusading for adding homosexuality to the 1964 Civil Rights
Dear AFTAH Readers,
This is our first foray into the positions past and present of the leading presidential candidates in the 2016 race. AFTAH is non-partisan–we expose all politicians by the same principled standard without deference to party–so these articles will be factual. We begin with the current GOP front-runner, Donald Trump, who back in 2000 sat down with the editors of the nation’s leading homosexual magazine, The Advocate.
Interestingly, as you can read below, Trump bragged about being ahead of Democratic presidential candidate (former U.S. Senator)Bill Bradley on “gay rights”–by calling for the addition of “sexual orientation” to the landmark 1986 Civil Rights Act. That proposal is embodied today in the so-called LGBT “Equality Act” (HR 3185), which was backed exclusively by Democrats until it received its first two Republican co-sponsors this week: Sen. Mark Kirk and Rep. Bob Dold, both from Illinois. AFTAH has renamed the HR 3185 the “Criminalizing Christianity Act,” since it would negate religious freedom protections in the name of LGBT “equality.”
Of course, many candidates have changed their position on issues, but Trump among all the GOP contenders holds several past positions that are more in line with “progressive” Democrats than Republicans–on key issues like abortion, homosexuality, and national health insurance. In a much talked about 1999 interview with the late Tim Russert [partial YouTube video HERE], he chalked that up to living in liberal-dominated New York City.
Trump says he is now conservative but does not appear to be so on the homosexual issue–see the LGBTQ lobby group Human Rights Campaign’s analysis of his record HERE. Unlike several other Republican 2016 contenders, he has not committed to signing the “First Amendment Defense Act” in his first 100 days as President—-but did say he would support it. And the real estate magnate-turned politician–though a longtime opponent of homosexual “marriage”–now opines that due to the Supreme Court’sObergefell ruling, the issue is over; he told the Hollywood Reporter that “anybody that’s making that an issue is doing it for political reasons. The Supreme Court ruled on it.” We will have more on Trump and other presidential candidates in future posts.–Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH; @PeterLaBarbera
So-called LGBT “Equality Act” will surely escalate State oppression against people of faith
Will Speaker Ryan Back the Anti-Christian LGBT Agenda? As a Republican Congressman, Paul Ryan voted in 2007 for the pro-homosexual ENDA bill–the precursor to today’s HR 3185 (Homosexual Superiority Act aka LGBT “Equality Act”). Contact House Speaker Ryan at 202-225-0600 and urge him to OPPOSE the radical “Equality Act” (HR 3185)–which would only escalate State oppression against people of faith across America.
The following is an excellent summary by Matthew Kacsmaryk of dangerous new LGBTQ legislation, HR 3185 (S. 1858), which AFTAH is labeling the “Homosexual Superiority Act”–or perhaps the “Criminalizing Christianity Act”–but which congressional sponsors (all Democrats) propagandistically refer to as the “Equality Act.” Kacsmaryk’s analysis first appeared in the outstanding website, “Public Discourse,” which I highly recommend (sign up for their emails HERE).
NOTE: I do have one quibble with the writer: the phrase “sexual liberty” is unfortunate Newspeak and the latest semantic invention by “progressives” that perverts historic notions of ordered liberty. It does so by attaching immoral and unnatural sexual conduct condemned in the strongest terms by God Himself to “liberty.” That connection–which is now employed by the most extreme libertines in the LGBTQueer coalition–e.g., the pro-sadomasochism National Coalition For Sexual Freedom–should be avoided at all costs, especially by social conservatives. Postmodern “sexual liberty” is in reality sexual license. Also, we usually affix quote marks to the word homosexual “marriage” but did not add them in Kacsmark’s article below.
Words matter. A lot of leftist harassment, intolerance and oppression is now being carried out in the lofty name of “equality.” The bottom line: when people caught up in homosexuality and/or gender rebellion are given superior (special) rights based on their aberrant lifestyles, moral-minded people lose their free-conscience rights. We already see escalating government prosecution–read: persecution–of faith-motivated Americans–mostly people who do not want to participate in same-sex “marriage” ceremonies–under local and state “sexual orientation nondiscrimination” laws. Now try to imagine the expanded assault on citizens’ religious freedom and First Amendment liberties if the ACLU and the rest of the Homosexual-Transgender Lobby were to be given the added power of the federal bureaucracy and the U.S. Attorney General’s Office to enforce their pro-homosexual-transgender groupthink.
This “LGBTyranny” bill must be stopped if Americans are to remain free to be moral and follow God as they see fit. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH; @PeterLaBarbera
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TAKE ACTION: 1) Contact Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (202-225-0600) and urge him to oppose HR 3185–the “Homosexual Superiority Act,” aka the LGBT “Equality Act.” (The other phone numbers for Speaker Ryan–who is now “America’s Congressman”–can be found HERE.) In 2007, as a Republican Congressman from Wisconsin, Ryan voted FOR the pro-homosexual Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), the precursor bill to HR 3185. It is disturbing that Ryan, a self-styled “conservative,” would support growing federal homosexual-agenda power at the expense of faith-based Americans who defend natural marriage and Judeo-Christian morality. Ominously for Bible-believing Americans, the LGBT “Equality Act” is ENDA on steroids–and even more dangerous than ENDA to our cherished religious and First Amendment liberties.
2) Call Your Congressman and Senators, too: and urge them to oppose HR 3185. Find your Congressman HERE.
Target Corporation has backed the anti-Christian homosexual activist “Equality Act”–which AFTAH has dubbed the “Homosexual Superiority Act.” Contact Target at 800-440-0680 or write them at guest.relations@target.com.
3) Contact Target Corporation [(800)440-0680; guest.relations@target.com], which just endorsed HR 3185, and urge them to reverse their support of this anti-Christian “Equality Act”; suggest to Target that they would be smarter to at least stay neutral in the Culture War over redefining marriage and civil rights rather than side with homosexual and transgender activists. The latter now openly embrace anti-Christian bigotry and make shameful comparisons between anti-women “transgender” behavior (e.g., men in dresses using Female restrooms) and racist Jim Crow persecution of Black Americans. [AFTAH will have more on this story.]
4) Support FADA! Contact all the same legislators above and urge them to SUPPORT the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA), HR 2802, which would prohibit the federal government from taking any punitive action against an American who believes that marriage solely between a man and a woman.
If enacted, the deceptively titled Equality Act would punish dissenters, giving no quarter to Americans who continue to believe that marriage and sexual relations are reserved to the union of one man and one woman.
On June 26, 2015, five justices of the Supreme Court found an unwritten “fundamental right” to same-sex marriage hiding in the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment—a secret knowledge so cleverly concealed in the nineteenth-century amendment that it took almost 150 years to find. Facebook and the White House were awash in rainbow flags proclaiming the arrival of “marriage equality.”
Just three weeks after Obergefell, congressional Democrats filed House (H.R. 3185) and Senate (S. 1858) versions of the “Equality Act,” seeking to add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to the protected classes listed in the federal code. Americans are on an “equality” roll. What could go wrong?
As it turns out, quite a bit. If enacted, the deceptively titled Equality Act would punish dissenters who disagree with same-sex marriage by using the enforcement tools of the amended Civil Rights Act of 1964, but with even greater force and scope. The Equality Act seeks to weaponize Obergefell, moving with lightning speed from a contentious five-to-four victory on same-sex marriage to a nationwide rule that “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” are privileged classes that give no quarter to Americans who continue to believe and seek to exercise their millennia-old religious belief that marriage and sexual relations are reserved to the union of one man and one woman.
The Contents of the Law
So, in concrete terms, what would the proposed law do? Here are just a few of the potential areas of impact, given how the Equality Act would amend various provisions of the Civil Rights Act:
Employment: would amend Title VII to create new protected classes for “sexual orientation” and “gender identity,” with no countervailing exemptions for faith-based organizations that maintain internal standards of sexual conduct rooted in longstanding religious tenets.
Federal Programs: would amend Title VI, historically limited to race, color, and national origin, to create new protected classes for “sex, sexual orientation, gender identity,” with no countervailing protections for faith-based providers who willingly serve every program-eligible person but maintain internal standards of sexual conduct rooted in longstanding religious tenets.
Public Accommodation: would drastically expand the Title II definition of “public accommodation” to cover “gatherings” and facilities historically owned and operated by churches or religious organizations—“shelters,” “food banks,” and “care centers”—extending far beyond the categories at issue during the Civil Rights Movement: common carriers (freight, bus, taxi, train, and air lines), public utilities, hotels, restaurants, and entertainment venues.
Public Education: would amend Title IV definitions of “desegregation” to include new protected classes for “sexual orientation” and “gender identity,” placing in the litigation crosshairs all sex-restricted facilities like dormitories, restrooms, or locker rooms.
Religious Freedom Restoration Act: would omit exemptions for religious organizations contained in prior drafts of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), and expressly state that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) may not be used as a defense or a basis for challenging the Equality Act.
Sex: would enter a congressional finding that “federal agencies and courts have correctly interpreted [] prohibitions on sex discrimination to include discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex stereotypes,” thereby adopting the EEOC’s most aggressively extra-textual recent rulings.
Bona Fide Occupational Qualifications: would amend Title VII exemptions for employers who have sex-based “bona fide occupational qualifications” (BFOQ) for specialized jobs—for example, male security guards in a maximum security prison or female undercover officers in a sex-trafficking sting operation—to require recognition of persons “in accordance with their gender identity.”
