Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) said on the Senate floor Wednesday the Equality Act would treat millions of Americans as anything but equal by punishing those whose beliefs do not fall in line with the far-left ideology driving the legislation.
Among other things, the legislation includes language that Cotton says threatens people of faith — and even those with common sense — because “they believe men are men, and women are women.”
The bill blurs the division between biological males and females to put in protections for people who do not believe in the two genders.
Under the Democrats' "Equality" Act, battered women's shelters could be sued for refusing to admit men. Religious schools could be cut off from federal funding. Millions of Americans could be threatened by lawsuits.
All for believing that men are men, and women are women. pic.twitter.com/uV46KCdP85
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) March 17, 2021
“So the Democrats are calling this bill the Equality Act,” Cotton said:
Let’s look a little more carefully about what this kind of equality would be. All across America today, you will find millions of people who have dedicated their lives to caring for the most vulnerable Americans. They are playing with foster kids who are orphaned or have never known their parents; sheltering women who have been badly abused by a boyfriend or a husband.
Cotton spoke about people who help others because of their religious conscience.
“Making a children with Down syndrome smile and know that they are fearfully and wonderfully made,” Cotton continued. “You may not know the names of these Americans. You may never know the name of them because they don’t seek the spotlight — they don’t have slick publicists or glossy profiles written in the liberal media.”
“But these extraordinary Americans pour their time and energy every day in charities, clinics, and schools,” Cotton affirmed. “Whether out of simple kindness or deep religious faith — 40 percent of the top 50 charities in the United States are faith-based and religious institutions provide more than $1 trillion in societal benefit every year.”
Cotton said, if the bill passes, Americans will be forced to accept the Democrats’ leftist agenda:
If this bill passes, a bureaucrat in Washington, however, may show up at their doorstep one day… and the bureaucrat will ask whether the charity operates according to beliefs about gender identity — that were totally and completely novel, until just yesterday — and when they become mandatory, even though they remain deeply-unpopular with the American people.
“If these citizens refuse whether out of faith, or common sense, or both, they will be punished,” Cotton said:
Their religious schools will be cut off from federal aid, their battered women’s shelters will be sued for supposed discrimination for refusing to admit men. Millions of Americans will be treated as second-class citizens and threatened with lawsuits simply for believing that men are men, and women are women.
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