Gone awry

America was founded on the ideal that all people are created equal and that we are all endowed by our creator with the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. While our nation hasn't always lived up to this collective creed, we continually strive to make America a more just and equitable nation.

Unfortunately, in the pursuit of equality, some in our government have gone awry and chosen to infringe on First Amendment rights by supporting a bill erroneously called the Equality Act.

Let me be perfectly clear: All people are created in God's image and should be treated with respect and dignity. That is a universal value that all patriotic Americans should share. Sadly, the Equality Act doesn't support that value. Instead, it pits our First Amendment rights against every American's innate sense of fairness.

According to House Democrats, the purpose of the Equality Act is to protect the LGBTQ+ community from discrimination. While we can all agree that Americans' rights should be protected by the law, the law becomes more complicated when the rights of others are infringed upon.

The Equality Act redefines the term "sex" to include a sex stereotype, pregnancy, childbirth or related condition, sexual orientation, gender identity, or sex characteristics, and in turn applies those new definitions to existing civil rights laws so that they become protected classes.

If you're confused about what this means for your life, your church, or your livelihood, you're not alone. It's possible and probable that this bill, should it become law, would dramatically increase abortion access, nullify the Hyde Amendment which prohibits taxpayer funds from being used for abortions, weaken conscience protections for doctors, and promote male participation in female sports, just to name a few.

Regardless of intentions, this bill will have severe consequences for vulnerable members of our society. With this legislation, battered women's shelters and homeless shelters that provide sex-separated accommodations for the safety of women and girls may be forced to accept biological men into their facilities. Imagine how unsafe a woman and her daughter might feel if they just escaped a physically or sexually violent situation with a man and were forced to share a room with a biological male at the domestic violence shelter. Protecting women and girls from this injustice should be a priority. There is no excuse for such irresponsible policymaking.

House Democrats did not bother to hold a single hearing, mark-up, or meeting with Republicans where we could gain clarification and express concerns. Without the safeguards of hearings and consultation, I'm sure we won't know all the problems with this bill until it's implemented and challenged in court. This is in no way good governance.

By going it alone, Speaker Pelosi and her fellow Democrats have put the wishes of the few above the constitutional rights of the many. This bill endangers the freedoms of too many Americans and I pray it never becomes law. We were not elected to throw ideals on a piece of paper and wait to see what happens.

For our system of government by free people to function, we must not only protect our own rights, but we also have a responsibility to protect the rights of others. The Equality Act carves out a special class of rights which clearly infringes on the rights of others. It's more along the lines of the type of liberty espoused in the French Revolution than the freedom that is the basis for the United States of America.