How Would the Equality Act Affect the Rising Generation?

             The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday concerns the Equality Act, which presidential candidate said would a legislative priority for him. The House of Representatives passed the bill last year, but the Senate has not yet acted upon it and for good reason. According to Andrea Jones, the Equality Act seeks to “add sexual orientation and gender identity as protected categories under the Civil Rights Act.” 

            Most Americans do not want this bill to become law because it would negatively impact several areas of their lives, such as “medicine, education, sports, and parental rights.” She outlined four ways that it will affect the rising generation.

1. Curriculum: The bill could lead to federal courts or future presidential administrations imposing a nationwide mandate to incorporate sexual orientation and gender identity into the curriculum in all public schools….

2. Schools: The Equality Act would also affect children at school. First, it would mandate that schools across the country allow students who identify as transgender to access the opposite sex’s restrooms, locker rooms, and showers. It would also require them to allow biological males to compete on girls’ sports teams, where they have a clear physical advantage….

3. Medicine: The Equality Act would require medical professionals to perform irreversible gender-transition procedures on minors, regardless of conscientious objection or best medical judgment….

4. Adoption, foster care, and parental rights. Finally, the Equality Act would significantly affect the child welfare system.

Faith-based adoption and foster care providers would risk losing federal funds if they decline to place children with same-sex couples. This in turn could lead to these providers being forced to close, displacing thousands of children and further straining an already overwhelmed system.

Prospective foster parents could also be required to affirm a foster child’s stated gender identity and barred from any efforts to help a child with gender dysphoria accept his or her body.

            Anyone who opposes the bill will be labeled a bigot. Polls show that 66 percent of Americans oppose such curriculum, 60 percent oppose the bill’s provisions on medical issues, and 43 percent oppose the requirement to use preferred transgender names and pronouns.

            The bottom line is that our children and teenagers are tomorrow’s leaders. We cannot allow people who cannot accept their own bodies to determine what our children will be taught, or to force our children into uncomfortable situations. This bill should be rejected for the safety and welfare of the rising generation.