When US Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy created a non-existent constitutional right to same-sex marriage out of thin air in Obergefell v. Hodges, justices in the minority of the 5-4 decision “legalizing” the practice warned of the inevitable threat it created to the First Amendment right to religious freedom.
“Aside from undermining the political processes that protect our liberty, the majority’s decision threatens the religious liberty our Nation has long sought to protect … It appears all but inevitable that the two will come into conflict, particularly as individuals and churches are confronted with demands to participate in and endorse civil marriages between same-sex couples.” – Justice Clarence Thomas
We got a taste of what Thomas feared with the notorious Masterpiece Cakeshop case in Colorado where a baker was nearly driven out of business for refusing to bake a same-sex “wedding” cake because it violated his faith. Owner Jack Phillips appealed to the Supreme Court and won, and even though he ruled with the majority, Justice Kennedy stated that the conflict between the LGBT agenda and religious liberty created a “difficult situation” and would require “further elaboration” from the courts.
Putting aside the fact that the “difficult situation” Kennedy spoke of is the direct result of the High Court’s judicial tyranny, the clash between the LGBT agenda and the First Amendment wasn’t only inevitable, it was part of the plan:
“The legal struggle for queer rights will one day be a struggle between freedom of religion versus sexual orientation.” – Canadian lesbian lawyer Barbara Finlay, quoted by columnist John Leo and Janet Folger (Porter), “The Criminalization of Christianity”
The “zero-sum game” is how homosexual activist, law professor, and former Obama EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) member Chai Feldblum once described the legal battles between modern “rights” based on homosexual “orientation” (read: behavior) and the traditional American principle of religious liberty.
“Gays win, Christians lose,” Feldblum said, predicting homosexuals would win most of the legal contests.
Feldblum’s prediction may have moved a step closer to becoming a reality with the re-introduction of the so-called Equality Act (H.R. 5) in the House last week, a bill that openly targets religious liberty for elimination and codifies via a revision the Civil Rights Act.
In testimony given in a hearing held by the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) stressed that under the Act, everyone must fall subject to the LGBT agenda — with churches and religious employers, organizations and colleges being afforded no exemptions whatsoever.
“Religion is no excuse for discrimination when it comes to sexual orientation or gender identity,” Nadler asserted.
The threat to genuine civil rights and religious liberty is so obvious, even voices within the LGBT community are speaking out against the Equality Act for reasons outside of religious liberty. One such person giving testimony against the pro-LGBT bill was Julia Beck, a self-described radical lesbian feminist and the former law and policy co-chair for Baltimore’s LGBTQ Commission. She gave the following warning:
“[The Equality Act] would eliminate women and girls as a coherent legal category worthy of civil rights protections. There is no way to tell if someone is lying about being transgender.”
She went on to say that if gender identity becomes recognized under federal law, Americans can expect to see the following scenarios regularly play out:
- Male rapists will go to female prisons and will likely assault female inmates as has already happened in the UK.
- Female survivors of rape will be unable to contest male presence in women’s shelters.
- Men will dominate women’s sports and girls who would have taken first place will be denied scholastic opportunity.
- Women who use male pronouns to talk about men may be arrested, fined and banned from social media platforms.
- Girls will stay home from schools when they have their periods to avoid harassment by boys in mixed-sex toilets.
- Girls and women will no longer have a right to ask for female medical staff or intimate care providers — including elderly or disabled women who are at serious risk of sexual abuse.
- Female security officers will no longer have the right to refuse to perform pat-down or intimate searches of males who say they’re female.
- Women undergoing security checks will no longer have the right to refuse having those searches performed by men claiming a feminine identity.
Her warning is not hyperbole. “It’s already happening,” Beck insisted. “And it’s only going to get worse.”
Before some of you jump on Democrats for being Democrats and hurling your anti-Democrat insults, it’s important to remember that many Republicans support the LGBT agenda in the name of “equality,” including the Democrat with an “R” after his name occupying the White House.
Leading up to the Republican National Convention where Trump gave an LGBT-friendly acceptance speech, Milo Yiannopoulos called Trump “the most pro-gay [Republican] candidate in American history.”
In one of Trump’s first actions as president, he and Ivanka reaffirmed an Obama-era executive order legalizing discrimination against faith-based businesses by requiring government contractors to embrace the LGBT agenda or lose their right to do business with the federal government. Shortly afterwards, Mike Pence — who has a history of his own when it comes to caving to LGBT radicals — came to the rescue and defended Trump’s pro-LGBT decision.
“I think throughout the campaign, President Trump made it clear that discrimination would have no place in our administration. I mean, he was the very first Republican nominee to mention the LGBTQ community at our Republican National Convention and was applauded for it. And I was there applauding with him”
More recently, Trump launched an effort earlier this year aimed at ending the criminalization of homosexuality across the globe. The effort is being headed by U.S. Ambassador to Germany Ric Grenell, the highest-ranking openly homosexual official in the Trump administration.
The Equality Act has been tried before and failed, but we’re in the 2020 election season now. All bets are off when it comes to how Trump and the GOP will handle it this time around. Personally, I’m not all that hopeful they’ll do the right thing.
David Leach is the owner of The Strident Conservative. His politically incorrect and always “right” columns are also featured on NOQReport.com.
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