Transgenderism has transformed what used to be the fight for gay and lesbian legal equality. Now, it’s something very different.
Every time the old Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) was poised to pass Congress, activists and Democratic sponsors changed it so it couldn’t win majority support. First it was a bill to outlaw employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, and once that had enough Republican support to pass, it was changed to include gender identity, which didn’t. The Equality Act is ENDA on steroids, vastly expanding the scope of “public accommodations” to include creative-services providers (such as bakers and wedding photographers), gutting the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and requiring that bio males who chose to “present” as female (no physical alteration required) be treated as women in all areas, including the right to compete as women in sporting competitions.
The GOP-led Senate won’t pass the Equality Act, and rightly so. But Democrats and LGBT progressive will say it’s because Republicans don’t oppose employment discrimination, as if it were the original ENDA.
2 Comments for “The New Culture Wars”
posted by Jorge on
One of the lessons the LGBT rights movement has learned is that in matters of legal and social change, it is more lucrative to aim very high and adopt a trickle-down approach than to build a foundation and adopt a bottom-up approach.
It is a mindset that strikes me as extremely unprincipled.
posted by JohnInCA on
Up until a few weeks ago, the anti-trans crowd said that you had to compete against your sex-assigned-at-birth, no exceptions.
Then Semenya came along, and suddenly they’re all “well, actually…”
It’s almost like their claims are — or something.
But hey, if we’re really going down the “based on testosterone and chromosomes”, then we gotta test everyone, not just the folks we don’t like. I can’t wait until parents start freaking out because their middle-schooler has to get a chromosome test before competing in student athletics.