The U.S. Bishops’ Conference (USCCB) has again voiced its opposition to the Equality Act, warning it would “discriminate against people of faith” and “inflict numerous legal and social harms on Americans.”
In a strongly worded letter to the U.S. Congress, the bishops assert the Equality Act would impose “novel and divisive viewpoints regarding ‘gender’ on individuals and organizations” while “dismissing sexual difference and falsely presenting ‘gender’ as only a social construct.”
The Feb. 23 letter, signed by five leaders of the USCCB, notes sex and gender “can be distinguished but not separated,” while denouncing underlying “ideologies that attempt to sunder what are inseparable aspects of reality.”
“Rather than affirm human dignity in ways that meaningfully exceed existing practical protections, the Equality Act would discriminate against people of faith,” they insist.
Because of its abolition of real sexual differences in favor of subjective “gender identities,” the proposed legislation would “force girls and women to compete against boys and men for limited opportunities in school sports, and to share locker rooms and shower spaces with biological males who claim to identify as women,” the bishops contend.
Moreover, the Act would “exclude people from the careers and livelihoods that they love, just for maintaining the truth of their beliefs on marriage and sexuality” and “discriminate against individuals and religious organizations based on their different beliefs,” they argue.
In their litany of the many problems with the proposed law, the bishops also assert it would “punish faith-based charities such as shelters and foster care agencies, and in turn their thousands of beneficiaries, simply because of their beliefs on marriage and sexuality.”
The letter was signed by New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, chairman of the Committee for Religious Liberty; Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development; Oakland Bishop Michael Barber, chairman of the Committee on Catholic Education; Tulsa Bishop David Konderla, chairman of the Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage; and Kansas City Archbishop Joseph Naumann, chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities.
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