The So-Called “Equality Act”

Constitutional Government
Written By Victoria Cobb

Last Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the extremely dangerous H.R. 5 by a vote of 236-173. This so-called “Equality Act” will now move to the Senate for consideration.

Here is how your Representatives voted last week:

Representatives voting “Yes:”

  • Elaine Luria (D-2nd District)

  • Bobby Scott (D-3rd District)

  • Donald McEachin (D-4th District)

  • Abigail Spanberger (D-7th District)

  • Donald Beyer (D-8th District)

  • Jennifer Wexton (D-10th District)

  • Gerald Connolly (D-11th District)

Representatives voting “No:”

  • Robert Wittman (R-1st District)

  • Denver Riggleman (R-5th District)

  • Ben Cline (R-6th District)

  • Morgan Griffith (R-9th District)

The so-called Equality Act, which adds sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes in the 1964 Civil Rights Act, not only harms women, but will also lead to utter chaos in other areas of public life:

Violates the fundamental freedoms of speech and religion:

  • It would force faith-based charities, non-profits, and private schools to compromise their deeply held religious beliefs in order to affirm a person’s sexual behavior or preferred gender status, or risk punishment or loss of federal funding/tax exemptions.

  • Professionals that specialize in creative services — like bakers, photographers and florists  — would be compelled to communicate messages (typically associated with weddings) that directly contradict their religious beliefs and violate their conscience or be forced out of a profession genuinely love.

  • It would expressly prohibit anyone from applying the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to defend against the intrusions imposed by this bill. 

Undermines parental rights:

  • The bill would eliminate all parental authority related to the training and well-being of their children by prohibiting parents from ever interfering with a child’s access to transgender medical procedures. 

  • It could also lead to parents losing custody of their child if they do not adhere to their child’s desire to take puberty blocker and cross-sex hormones.

  • Public schools would be legally required to provide instruction on transgender ideology, regardless of parental opposition.

Mandates transgender policies:

  • The Equality Act could impose nationwide policies on transgender bathroom use, pronoun usage, and a nationwide sex-reassignment health care mandate.

  • According to Dr. Michelle Cretella, a pediatrician and executive director of the American College of Pediatricians, the bill would force physicians to prescribe toxic hormones and drugs for adults and even children that can produce severe side effects, or even to perform serious medical procedures, all to “change” a person’s physical features to conform to their self-prescribed gender identity.

Overrides all abortion restrictions:

  • The so-called Equality Act provides that “pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition” cannot be treated any differently than other physical conditions, which would override all state and federal abortion restrictions.  This means anybody or any group who doesn’t want to fund or commit an abortion at any stage will be subject to punishment.

Additional Resources on the “Equality Act:”

Despite this unfortunate news, we remain hopeful that the U.S. Senate will stand strong against this dangerous legislation and act to uphold religious liberty, free speech, parental rights and the life of the unborn.

Victoria Cobb
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