US — . Twenty-one Congressional Republicans are seeking to make a backdoor deal with transgender campaigners, supporting a bill that would prohibit discrimination on the “basis of […] gender identity,” even “while providing certain benefits and exemptions to religious providers.” Recent incidents that received national attention have stirred up increased public interest in the potential ramifications of the bill becoming law.
The Fairness For All Act (FFA), which was introduced to the House by Republican Utah Congressman Chris Stewart on February 26, 2021, will amend Section 201 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include gender identity, along with sex and sexual orientation, as a protected class. The bill also seeks to expand the public accommodations to which anti-discrimination laws would apply.
If passed into law, the FFA would prohibit establishments that providing services or accommodations to the public to treat individuals differently on the basis of declared gender identity. Among those bound by the bill would be retailers, places of exercise, recreation or amusement, providers of medical, mental financial or transportation services and any organization receiving federal funding, including educational institutions and religious corporations.
The FFA grants exceptions for religious institutions, which would continue to be permitted to take gender identity into consideration during the hiring process, and would not be subject to the law’s speech regulations:
The bill (1) exempts a church or religious organization from claims of employment discrimination because of sexual orientation or gender identity under specified circumstances; and (2) prohibits sanctions for certain employee speech regarding the employee’s religious, political, or moral beliefs in the workplace.
Priests, pastors, rabbis, imams and ministers would not be required to provide marriage or mental health services under the FFA, except in the event that the individual seeking counsel does not present an imminent danger to self or others.
The FFA “preserves the Religious Freedom Restoration Act so it can continue to protect the First Amendment right of all persons to freely exercise their religion,” says Rep Stewart’s
press release advertising the bill.
While Republicans who back the FFA have described it as an alternative to the Equality Act that would protect religious liberty while safeguarding women, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender-identifying individuals from discrimination, recent events have sparked a renewed
outcry over what the proposed “compromise” could actually mean for the rights of girls and women.
In July 2021, there were massive protests in Los Angeles after a man who exposed his naked body and erect genitals in the women’s section of Wi Spa was defended by staff, transgender campaigners and the mainstream media. As public outrage grew, the media and transgender campaigners began suggesting there had never been a male patron in the women’s section, and the incident was a hoax. It later came to light that the man was convicted sex offender
Darren Agee Merager, who identifies as a woman. Mr Merager was ultimately charged with
several felony offenses of indecent exposure after four women and a minor girl filed a complaint about the incident.
More recently, a young girl was
violently rapedin a Virginia school restroom by a male student who identifies as “gender fluid” and was wearing a skirt at the time of the attack. The incident, which took place in May, came to public light in October. Despite sending an email to the school board in May notifying them of the sexual assault allegation, Loudoun County Public Schools Superintendent Scott Ziegler claimed during a meeting in June: “We don’t have any record of assaults occurring in our restrooms,” and “the predator transgender student or person simply does not exist.” When the father of the rape survivor attempted to correct the misinformation, Supt Ziegler had him arrested for disorderly conduct, and threatened other enraged parents with punishment. Students, parents and staff say Supt Ziegler hid the incident so the transgender restroom policy would be pushed through, and have since been staging protests calling for his and the school board’s
firing. The male student has since been found guilty of the restroom attack, and admitted guilt in the sexual molestation of another girl in the classroom of a school he was later transferred to. The media is now calling the male student a “boy” and the mother is now insisting her unnamed son “is not transgender” but experiments with wearing clothing made for both sexes.
In addition, the public is getting a closer look at how gender identity policies may affect female sports, especially following the
lift last week by the IOC of a testosterone restriction for male athletes competing in women’s sports at the professional level. Many social media users are calling it “the end of women’s sports,” suggesting the women’s category may as well be done away with altogether.
With the pending deal between Democrats and some Republicans, it is unknown whether girls and women will be left out in the cold.
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