Opposing the Equality Act With Transphobia and "Special Privileges"

Travis S. Weber, a VP of Family Research Council is an anti-LGBTQ bigot who seems to be particularly obsessed over transgender people.

via The Advocate circa 2016

Family Research Council, an anti-LGBTQ hate group has mixed feelings about the Equality Act:

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  On one hand the Equality Act is great for fundraising. Prime motivators to get people to open their wallets are fear and anger. FRC has always been expert at pissing people off and making them fear LGBTQ people.
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  On the other hand Hate Group Leader Tony Perkins is wed to the proposition that he has, not just a right, but an obligation to discriminate against LGBTQ people. The Equality Act, in his view, punishes him for his religious beliefs prejudice.

The folks at FRC have apparently concluded that nothing raises the ire and fears of its constituency like the existence of transgender people. Never mind that they constitute a minuscule minority. FRC raises the ante a bit with abortion. “Killing babies” has proved to be a reliable lever:

House taking up Equality Act – Tell your Rep to vote NO!

The Equality Act would overhaul our federal civil rights framework to mandate abortion access and special privileges for sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI), leaving many to suffer the consequences, including women, children, medical professionals, and people of faith.

The Equality Act will add gender identity and sexual orientation as protected classes to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That would not seem to affect reproductive rights in any meaningful way. The Christian right has, for decades, claimed that nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people are Special Rights™.

If anyone in our society has special rights it would be religious conservatives. In fact, Perkins has a set of balls. My document request in regards to FRC's re-classification as a church affiliate by the IRS is now complete. FRC claims to be “an association of churches.” As such it is no longer required to file a tax return and it has become virtually audit-proof. Those are “special privileges.” Fraud with impunity is also a special privilege unless, of course, you believe that FRC really is an association of churches

Last week I sent off a detailed letter to the IG regarding the fraudulent claim. Other actions are in the works. I digress.

An appeal to transphobia

Transgender women pose a peril to cisgender women:

The Equality Act jeopardizes women’s privacy and safety.

The Equality Act’s expansion of the Title II “Public Accommodations” definition means that females would no longer have privacy in public bathrooms, locker rooms, showers, or even battered women’s shelters.…

Transgender girls have an unfair athletic advantage of cisgender girls:

The Equality Act unfairly penalizes female athletes by allowing biological men to compete in women’s sports. For example, biological boys won first and second place at a Connecticut girls’ high school indoor track championship. …

Transgender women compromise the civil rights of cisgender women:

The Equality Act would undermine real civil rights gains women have made.

For example, the Small Business Administration Office of Women’s Business Ownership, whose mission is to “enable and empower women entrepreneurs through advocacy, outreach, education and support,” would have to give biological men who identify as women access to its programs.

Transgender people force doctors to adopt a specialty for which they are otherwise unqualified:

The Equality Act would interfere with the medical profession.

It would force doctors and others who provide legitimate hormone treatments and surgical procedures for patients with certain physical conditions to offer those treatments for individuals with gender dysphoria. …

Trans kids punish their parents:

The Equality Act could erode parental rights.

When Ohio parents declined hormone treatment for their child, the Children’s Hospital of Cincinnati involved child protective services, and the parents were ultimately stripped of their parental rights. …

(For the record, the parents were not stripped of parental rights but lost custody to the hospital for a month. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld the hospital's actions as reasonable.)

Transphobia replaced (in part) with bullshit:

The Equality Act would severely erode religious freedom.
[…]
ansion of public accommodations could require churches and houses of worship to violate their beliefs regarding how they use their facilities.

The above is the “Spaghetti Sunday” dilemma. A church pastor might believe that I am going to hell for being Jewish (and gay). Nevertheless, he has to accept my presence at a fund-raising dinner. However, my presence in no way violates his religious beliefs. Yeah, a transgender person gets to use a gender-appropriate restroom. Big deal. The possible presence of what might be one person isn't going to cause frog rain.

The Equality Act requires state contractors paid with taxpayers' funds not to discriminate:

The Equality Act would inhibit faith-based charities’ ability to operate.

Faith-based organizations and others play a vital role in the adoption and foster care system and generally receive funding under Title IV of the Social Security Act to help do their important work. …

Religious beliefs about marriage do not require an adoption/foster care agency to discriminate. When they do discriminate it is the kids who are victimized by reducing the pool of eligible foster and adoptive parents. These are nonprofit agencies. Nondiscrimination does not hamper competitive commerce.

The nonsense about abortion makes no sense whatsoever:

The Equality Act could be the most pro-abortion legislation to pass the House in a decade.

Not only would this bill expand “public accommodations” to include health care providers, but it would add sex discrimination as a protected class. It would then define prohibitions on “sex discrimination” to include preventing treating “pregnancy…or a related medical condition” …

Aside from the faulty legal “logic,” in no way does this affect the number of women who choose to terminate a pregnancy.

Finally, another cynical attempt to “drive a wedge” between the Black and LGBTQ communities:

The Equality Act shamefully attempts to usurp the civil rights movement’s history and legacy.

In no way are one’s sexual conduct and inclinations equivalent to skin color. Suggesting or implying as much diminishes the hard-fought gains of this movement. Indeed, scientific evidence shows that “sexual orientation” is quite fluid and that “gender identity” is not fixed.

1. Every major civil rights icon of that era elected to Congress has been a proponent of LGBTQ equality. That included the late John Lewis, Barbara Jordan and others. Jesse Jackson was a robust proponent of marriage equality. 
2. The current chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep Joyce Beatty of Ohio, is a cosponsor of the Equality Act.
3. The LGBTQ community does not compare its struggle with that of African-Americans. Usually, the only people who do make that comparison are anti-LGBTQ bigots opposed to equality and nondiscrimination.
4. It is outrageous for a group headed by Tony Perkins to express concern for Black civil rights. Mr. Perkins has direct ties to David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan.
5. Sexual orientation is not “quite” fluid. Some people experience some variations in attractions but usually not enough to change them from, say, gay to straight.
6. The same is true of gender identity. According to science gender identity and sexual orientation are immutable.
7. However, religion is a clear choice and it is certainly not fixed. Religion is a protected class under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It is protected, not because people like Tony Perkins have a problem, but because people like those at Family Research Council routinely discriminated against Jewish people and other religious minorities.

This dishonest missive is signed by FRC's Travis S. Weber. Weber sports a law degree from Pat Robertson's Regent University. Very impressive.

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