Politics

Republicans want to give transphobic employees more legal protections

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), a pudgy light-skinned salt-and-pepper haired man with a silvery beard, wears a suit and tie while pointing his finger upward as he talks in Congress, surrounded by formally dressed colleagues
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) Photo: PBS screenshot

Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) have introduced bills in the House and Senate, respectively, that would prevent federal agencies and departments from punishing anyone who refuses to use a person’s correct name or pronouns. Anyone punished for misgendering or misnaming someone could sue the federal official who disciplined them for up to $100,000.

The bill, which has no chance of passing the Democratic Senate, was created in opposition to an October memo from the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) directing employees to use the names and pronouns that others use to describe themselves. It’s co-sponsored by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and numerous other far-right anti-LGBTQ+ Republicans who regularly oppose so-called “woke” LGBTQ+-inclusive policies.

However, queer civil rights lawyer Alejandra Caraballo pointed out that the bill would also require people to refer to Sen. Cruz by his legal first name, Rafael, instead of his preferred nickname, Ted.

The Safeguarding Honest Speech Act would “prohibit the use of funds to implement, administer, or enforce measures requiring certain employees to refer to an individual by the preferred pronouns of such individual or a name other than the legal name of such individual, and for other purposes,” WZTV reported.

In a statement, Cruz wrote, “Forcing anyone to use pronouns that don’t accord with a person’s biological sex is an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment…. The government has no business compelling anyone to use pronouns that contradict biological reality.”

In his own statement, Rep. Ogles wrote, “Can you imagine getting reprimanded or fired from your job for not using an individual’s ‘preferred pronouns’? Unfortunately, that is exactly what the Biden regime has imposed in its latest guidance from the Department of Health and Human Services. The radical Left is actively coercing the speech of individuals – all in service of a delusional woke agenda.”

Rep. Boebert’s statement about the bill criticized the DHHS for “imposing radical gender ideologies.” She has previously said that affirming trans people’s identities causes school shootings.

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) wrote, “Our nation is already faced with woke, left-wing propaganda,” and added that requiring federal employees to use people’s correct names and pronouns “further[s] a division amongst the American people.” He has posed for a picture with the anti-LGBTQ Proud Boys and once supported racist former Rep. Steve King’s (R-IA) bill to prevent trans people from using bathrooms matching their gender identity, suggesting that trans people suffer from a “psychosis.”

In addition to the aforementioned Republicans, the bill is also co-sponsored by Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Jeff Duncan (R-SC), Mary Miller (R-IL), Andy Harris (R-MD), Doug LaMalfa (R-CA), Randy Weber (R-TX), Eli Crane (R-AZ), Ralph Norman (R-SC), Andrew Clyde (R-GA), and Clay Higgins (R-LA). All of the bill’s co-sponsors voted against the Respect for Marriage Act, a bill requiring the federal government to recognize legal same-sex marriages.

The bill is also supported by the anti-LGBTQ+ group Concerned Women for America, which has a long history of anti-LGBTQ+ hatred, and CatholicVote, a group that encouraged its members to check out LGBTQ+ books at local libraries so that children couldn’t read them.

In a Department of Health and Human Services video released last month, Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Rachel Levine, who was described in the video as “an out and proud transgender woman,” said the department’s policy requiring employees to use other’s correct names and pronouns ensures that “all [HHS] employees, including transgender and nonbinary employees, have equal protections in the workplace.”

Over 75% of trans people have experienced some form of workplace discrimination, including deliberate misgendering, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality. “Transgender employees [are] also significantly more likely to experience discrimination based on their LGBT status [including verbal and physical harassment] than cisgender LGB employees,” the Williams Institute reported.

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