This Week in Congress: Part Two

Conservatives are united in strong opposition to both the Equality Act and the Fairness for All Act. The titles of these bills belie their consequences, which will undermine parental rights, and the pro-life and conscience rights of medical professionals, make environments inherently unfair, unequal, and unsafe for women and curtail religious freedom for both religious organizations and people of faith.

The Equality Act will elevate transgender theory and “gender-affirming” care to the level of a civil right. Counselors will be prohibited from helping gender-dysphoric children become comfortable with their own bodies. Medical professionals will be vulnerable to lawsuits if they decline to perform hormonal or medical procedures on patients who identify as transgender. In public schools, curriculum could teach children that their sex is not a biological reality, but subjectively self-perceived. Ultimately, parents’ rights to educate their own children and seek the best medical treatment for them would be undermined. In Ohio, a judge terminated a couple’s custody of their 17-year daughter when they disagreed with the recommendations of a gender clinic and county agency that she take testosterone injections.

Despite its title, the Equality Act actually undermines the rights of women and girls, forcing them to share private facilities with anyone claiming to “identify” as a woman. It also diminishes the ability of women to, quite literally, compete on an equal playing field. Males who identify as women are already beginning to dominate women’s sports and strip female athletes of the opportunity to fairly compete for medals and scholarships. This will only increase as colleges, universities, and franchise sports teams begin to prioritize men identifying women above biological women.

The Equality Act explicitly nullifies the Religious Freedom Restoration Act as a defense to a claim under any portion of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. This exacerbates already troubling trends which are silencing people of faith and limiting the autonomy of religious organizations. The ability of churches, synagogues, and mosques to employ people according to their religious beliefs will be severely limited. Even without the law, religious institutions and individuals have come under sustained fire for living out their religious beliefs that marriage is between a man and a woman and that we are born male and female. Under the Equality Act, individuals and institutions could see increased lawsuits for failing to affirm same-sex marriage (in foster care and adoption),make single-sex private facilities co-ed, and use preferred pronouns for individuals who identify as transgender.

Language within the Equality Act could also have the effect of jeopardizing longstanding conscience protection laws. Specifically, the law’s public accommodation language could require health care providers to perform abortions over their religious objections. Pro-life groups are also concerned that the language could impact federal policy which prohibits taxpayer funding for abortion.

Though the Fairness for All Act attempts to square this circle by providing exclusions for religious institutions, it is an unsuitable substitute, and at best, would amount to only a temporary delay to full enactment of the Equality Act.

We urge conservatives to reject the Equality Act when it comes to a vote in the House of Representatives, and further oppose the Fairness for All Act as an appropriate alternative.

The Honorable Edwin Meese III

Attorney General

President Ronald Reagan (1985-1988)

Tom McClusky

President

March for Life Action

The Honorable Colin A. Hanna

President

Let Freedom Ring, Inc.

The Honorable T. Kenneth Cribb, Jr.

Chief Domestic Advisor

President Ronald Reagan (1987-1988)

Jessica Anderson

Vice President

Heritage Action for America

Rachel Board

Policy Director

Senate Steering Committee (2014-2015)

The Honorable J. Kenneth Blackwell

Chairman

Constitutional Congress, Inc.

Cleta Mitchell, Esq.

Partner

Foley & Lardner LLP

The Honorable Bob McEwen

U.S. House of Representatives

Former Member, Ohio

William L. Walton

Chairman

CNP Action, Inc.

David Bozel

President

ForAmerica

Karen England

Executive Director, Capitol Resource Institute & Nevada Family Alliance

Ellen F. Grigsby

Director of Institutional Partnerships

Open Doors USA

L. Brent Bozell, III

Founder and President

Media Research Center

Susan A. Carleson

Chairman/CEO

American Civil Rights Union

Penna Dexter

Co-host

Point of View Radio

Elaine Donnelly

President

Center for Military Readiness

James C. Dobson Ph.D.

Founder & President

Dr. James Dobson Family Institute

Rod D. Martin

Founder and CEO

The Martin Organization, Inc.

Haley E. Martin

President

The Martin Foundation

Shawn A. Mitchell

Former National Chaplain, National Federation of Republican Assemblies

Norm Singleton

President

Campaign for Liberty

Kelly Shackelford

President/CEO

First Liberty Institute

Ron Pearson

Executive Director

Conservative Victory Fund

Richard Wright

CEO

AAndrews Consulting

James L. Martin

Founder/Chairman

60 Plus Association

Willes K. Lee

President, National Federation of Republican Assemblies

Rick Manning

President

Americans for Limited Government

The Honorable George K. Rasley, Jr.

Managing Editor

ConservativeHQ.com

Jenna Ellis

Constitutional Law Attorney

Floyd Brown

Chairman

America Fighting Back PAC

Ed Martin

President

Phyllis Schlafly Eagles

Allen Hebert

Chairman

American-Chinese Fellowship of Houston

Jack Park

Conservative Activist and Donor

Randy M. Long

Founder

Long Business Advisors , LLC

John F. Tate

President

America’s Liberty PAC

Bailey Amaral

Director

The Windrose Project

Brian S. Brown

President

National Organization for Marriage

Dr. Frank Wright

President & CEO

D. James Kennedy Ministries

C. Preston Noell III

President

Tradition, Family, Property, Inc.

The Honorable Tom DeLay

Former Majority Leader

U.S. House of Representatives

Amapola Hansberger

President

Legal Immigrants for America

Sal Russo

Co-Founder and Chief Strategist

Tea Party Express

Nancy Schulze

Founder & President

Women Impacting America

Steve Berger

Pastor

Grace Chapel

Kevin Freeman

Founder

NSIC Institute

The Honorable Gerard Kassar

State Chairman

NYS Conservative Party

Christie Glesener

President/Founder

Shofar International Foundation

Jeff Hunt

Director

Centennial Institute

Alfred S. Regnery

Chairman, Conservative Action Project

Chairman, Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund

Penny Y. Nance

President & CEO

Concerned Women for America

Jenny Beth Martin

Chairman

Tea Party Patriots Citizen Fund

Diana Banister

President and Partner

Shirley & Banister Public Affairs

The Honorable Jim DeMint

Member, South Carolina

United States Senate (2005-2013)

Ed Corrigan

Vice Chairman, Conservative Action Project & Executive Director, Senate Steering Committee (2003-2012)

Thomas Fitton

President

Judicial Watch, Inc.

The Honorable Tony Perkins

President, Family Research Council

President, Council for National Policy

Myron Ebell

Director, Center for Energy and Environment, Competitive Enterprise Institute

Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin (Ret.)

Executive Vice President

Family Research Council

Michael P. Farris, J.D., LL.M.

President, CEO, and General Counsel

Alliance Defending Freedom

Kristan Hawkins

President, Students for Life of America & Students for Life Action

Rebecca Hagelin

Secretary

Council for National Policy

The Honorable Donald P. Hodel

Sec. of Energy & Sec. of Interior

President Ronald Reagan

The Honorable James C. Miller III

Budget Director

President Ronald Reagan

Joan Holt Lindsey

President

Lindsey Communications

Anne Schlafly Cori

Chairman

Eagle Forum

The Honorable Gary L. Bauer

President

American Values

Sherri R. Martin

Executive Vice President

The Martin Organization, Inc.

Nicholas Stehle

Campaign for the American Future

Jerry Melvin

Former Dean

Florida House of Representatives

Ralph Benko, Esq.

Political Columnist

Tim Wildmon

President

American Family Association

Paavo Ensio

Chairman

Universal Minerals Group

Bill Shaker

CEO

Washington Marketing Group

Dr. Jerome R. Corsi

Founder and CEO

CorsiNation.com

Saulius "Saul" Anuzis

President

60 Plus Association

E.C. Sykes

General Partner

Aslan Ventures

Benjamin R. Case

CEO

Focused On Fundraising

Rebekah Gantner

Executive Director, Eagle Forum Education & Legal Defense Fund

Gary Allan Marx

President

Madison Strategies

Sean Noble

President

American Encore

Tom Giovanetti

President

Institute for Policy Innovation

Richard D. Hayes

Partner

Hayes, Berry, White & Vanzant, LLP

Andresen Blom

President

Hawaiian Values

Kay R. Daly

President

Coalition for a Fair Judiciary

Charlie Copeland

President

Intercollegiate Studies Institute

Judson Phillips

Founder

Tea Party Nation

William W. Pascoe, III

Board Member

Tea Party Patriots Action

Mark Fitzgibbons

President of Corporate Affairs

American Target Advertising

The Honorable Terrence Scanlon

Retired Chairman and CEO

Capital Research Center

Dr. Richard Rounsavelle

Trustee

Media Research Center

Mario Navarro da Costa

Director, Washington Bureau

Tradition, Family, Property

Barry Meguiar

President

ROTW/Ignite America

The Honorable Mike Hill

Representative

Florida State House

Faith Crowley

Assistant to the MJAA General Secretary/CEO, Messianic Jewish Alliance of America

Tim Macy

Chairman

Gun Owners of America

Jonathan M. Alexandre, Esq.

Senior Counsel for Governmental Affairs

Liberty Counsel