The Patriot Post® · A Clash Act: Dems Push LGBT Takeover
The original U.S. Constitution can survive a bomb, a massive fire — even a nuclear blast. But can it survive the House majority’s agenda? Based on their latest bill, no one is quite sure.
Some reporters at Wednesday’s Equality Act press conference wondered if they were at a party. And in retrospect, maybe they were — the Left’s farewell to the First Amendment. Religious liberty and free speech have had a good run, but as far as Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) concerned, they’ve stood in the Left’s way long enough. It’s time to get back to the business of controlling how every American thinks, speaks, and acts on issues of human sexuality. (How ironic that these same people accused Republicans of being fixated on America’s bedrooms!)
Most people were outraged by Barack Obama’s nationwide bathroom mandate, but that’s a conservative love pat compared to the boom Democrats are trying to lower on mainstream morality. If you can imagine a country without women’s sports, boys and girls restrooms, gender-specific pronouns, privacy, parental rights, workplace dress codes, business autonomy, Christian wedding vendors, and conscience protections — you’ve got the Equality Act. It’s a world that hunts down and punishes anyone who thinks differently from the Left on gender or sexuality. And that includes schools, businesses, food banks, adoption agencies, homeless shelters, day cares, faith-based ministries, and government offices.
Picture walking into your child’s preschool for mandatory transgender story hour. Or think about your teenage daughter finishing gym class and being forced to shower and change with biological boys. Imagine being fired for calling someone “him.” Or maybe you’re standing over the counter of your new store, holding a subpoena because the “nonbinary” you interviewed wasn’t the best candidate for the job. These aren’t hypotheticals. This is the reality of a nation that embraces the phony “equality” liberals are selling.
But this about tolerance, the Left will say. The country is on board! Liberals will point, as so many did Wednesday, to the polls. Look! Americans want to end discrimination, they argued. Well, of course they do. We all do. But how the country defines “discrimination” and how the Left does are two very different things. One man’s “intolerance” is another man’s religious freedom. The surveys Democrats trotted out Wednesday didn’t ask people how they felt about transgender restrooms or slapping thousands of dollars of fines on bakers and florists. They didn’t poll small businesses to see if they could afford transgender health coverage or the money it will take to make their facilities gender-free. That’s because Democrats know, like we do, that once they start talking about the realities of the plan, they can’t win. See here, here, and here for proof.
Still, Big Business seems intent on carrying the water for a bill that would destroy the very climate that makes companies successful in the first place. Forty-four groups, including the National Association of Manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, sent a letter to the House and Senate urging members to “combat discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the workplace… We look forward to working with Congress to promote and perfect the Equality Act.”
Of course, they say all of this without any acknowledgement of the crushing burden this law would force on every unwilling corner of corporate America. While they walk lock-step with the Left, do they realize they’re endorsing a proposal that would put new mandates for health care coverage on business? Mandates that could cost in the tens of millions for hormones, psychotherapy, and gender reassignment surgery? We’re talking about a price tag of $89,050 for female-to-male procedures and $110,450 for male-to-female procedures alone. Do they know the implications of these countless new regulations — or the overwhelming costs of compliance? What about the legal fees for settling workplace disputes, the higher taxes that will inevitably come from more government oversight, or the loss of competitiveness that comes with more regulation?
Big Business is desperately trying to have its cake — and make you bake them too. They want the admiration of the Left and the favorable economic policies of conservatives. And while they embrace this miserable excuse for fairness that robs every Americans of their speech, privacy, and beliefs, where will they look to bail them out when their profits start tanking? To conservatives. But they can’t have it both ways. Big Business can either embrace the social structure that leads to growth, or they can sit and watch their revenues implode because they cared more about political correctness than the future of their corporations.
Originally published here.
Vice Verses? Ohio School Suspends over Scripture
We’ve come a long way in America when the Bible that used to be the curriculum in schools is suddenly the reason you can be kicked out of one! Ohio’s Gabby Helsinger found that out last week, when she got to school and saw walls of LGBT propaganda covering the school. If that was okay, she thought, then the high school shouldn’t mind if she put up some Scriptures too. But they minded all right — so much that she got suspended.
It was just an ordinary day, but when Gabby walked into school, there was nothing ordinary about the pride flags and posters all around her school. “I felt the need to write down some Bible verses, so I could put them around my school. And I wrote them down, and I put them around the lockers [and] walls.” The next day, she was called to the office where she was informed that she had in-school suspension. The reason? Because the verses “abused and disrespected” others. It was considered “targeting” of the GSA, the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance.
Her mom, Tina, was furious. On Facebook, she asked parents what they would do if this was their son or daughter. “Please listen to her story. If you feel she is being unjustly punished please flood emails and calls to the Principal and Assistant Principal of Lebanon High School.”
When the principal asked Gabby why she did it, she said “to spread the word of God.” “Seeing that there [were] people in my school that needed help…” she told Fox News. “They don’t need to be living in the confusion of wondering if they should be gay, bi, lesbian, trans — anything like that. And I know that God is the only way that they can be healed by that, and that’s why I did it.”
Gabby’s pastor, Lawrence Bishop of Solid Rock, told me Wednesday night on “Washington Watch” that he isn’t surprised by her courage — or the school’s reaction. “I’m not surprised by anything on the liberal Left as it pertains to God. The Bible is very offensive to anyone on the Left. But I was surprised that there aren’t any Christian teachers at Lebanon High School — and if there are, they’re secret agents. They’re afraid to lose their jobs. I tell you what, as goes the leader, so goes the flock.”
Like a lot of Bible-believing pastors, he’s tired of people not showing the courage the gospel requires. “We believe that if you’re a man of God or woman of God, you have to know what you’re for and know what you’re against… It breaks my heart to see pastors — and some of the biggest in the nation — that are stone silent about abortion, silent on gay marriage, silent on everything except the happy parts of the Bible, because they’re afraid they’re gonna lose somebody. I tell you, it’s time pastors stand up for what is right and stand against what is wrong… Yes, we love the homosexual [community], but the Bible is very clear on the sin of homosexuality.”
“It’s simple,” he said. “Read any book of the Bible. The champions for God stood up and didn’t just try to give people a religious massage on a Sunday morning and go home feeling good about themselves no matter how they’re living. We challenge people.” And with any luck, so will Gabby — just by finding her voice to speak the truth that matters.
Originally published here.
This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.