No, Mr. President, the Equality Act Harms Women and Children

COMMENTARY Gender

No, Mr. President, the Equality Act Harms Women and Children

Feb 9, 2023 2 min read
COMMENTARY BY
Emma Waters

Senior Research Associate, Richard and Helen DeVos Center

Emma is a Senior Research Associate in the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family at The Heritage Foundation.
Demonstrators listen to the speaking program during an "Our Bodies, Our Sports" rally for the 50th anniversary of Title IX at Freedom Plaza on June 23, 2022 in Washington, D.C. Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images

Key Takeaways

Biden encouraged Congress to pass the Equality Act “to ensure LGBTQ Americans, especially transgender young people, can live with safety and dignity.”

If the Equality Act passes, it would spell the end of coherent protections based on sex in all aspects of public life.

The Equality Act harms women, children, and all those who understand mammalian biology.

In his State of the Union address last night, President Joe Biden affirmed “our duty to protect all the people’s rights and freedoms.” But whose rights and freedoms does he care about? Not those of women or those who believe in natural marriage.

Biden encouraged Congress to pass the Equality Act “to ensure LGBTQ Americans, especially transgender young people, can live with safety and dignity.” But we know what this is code for.

Last year, Congress passed the misnamed Respect for Marriage Act. The bill pretends to protect same-sex marriages from discrimination. Instead, it redefines marriage as between any two people—not between one man and one woman, as the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act had enshrined before it was repealed.

Since the Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, same-sex marriages have received the same rights as other marriages. This includes access to insurance, hospital visitation policies, jointly owned assets, and more.

The Respect for Marriage Act did not provide any new rights to same-sex couples. It did, however, place a target on the backs of religious institutions and organizations and people of faith.

Think about the ongoing litigation that Jack Phillips, the Christian baker, is facing from radical pro-LGBTQ groups. Or the recent Supreme Court case 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis. Here, a Christian graphic designer faced discrimination charges when she refused to design wedding websites for same-sex couples—something that would have violated her beliefs about marriage.

Similarly, if the Equality Act passes, it would spell the end of coherent protections based on sex in all aspects of public life. Males posing as females would have the right to compete (and dominate) in girls sports. It would require doctors, against their will, to perform sex-sterilization surgeries on healthy people for the purpose of “gender transitioning.”

Gender identity would replace biological sex when it comes to workplace policies, bathroom access, military drafts for combat, and more.

Women and children would bear the brunt of these policies. The Equality Act would erase their strengths and gifts by allowing men to masquerade as women.

Additionally, Biden’s address should wake up Americans to the national move to restrict “gender transition” drugs and surgeries for minors. As of today, laws passed in seven states would, if upheld by the courts, protect children from puberty blockers, mastectomies, castration, and other radical procedures done in the name of bad gender medicine. Four other states are following suit.

The Equality Act harms women, children, and all those who understand mammalian biology.

While he spoke in lofty terms about “our duty to protect all the people’s rights and freedoms” last night, Biden’s address failed to protect the rights and freedoms of women and children—the two groups most harmed by his radical agenda. 

This piece originally appeared in The Daily Signal