Get ready for more attacks on people of faith if Joe Biden is elected president. Biden announced at an event in Ohio on Saturday that his number one priority, if elected, will be to enshrine LGBTQ rights into federal law via the Equality Act, a contentious, Orwellian effort by left-wing bullies to silence Christians who believe biblical teachings on marriage and reject the view that boys can be girls and girls can be boys.
During a half-hour speech at the Human Rights Campaign’s annual gala in Columbus, Ohio, Biden said, “It’s wrong and it is immoral what [the Trump administration] is doing,” citing efforts to bar transgender troops from the U.S. military and protect medical providers from being forced to violate their consciences.
“Just like with racial justice and women’s rights, we are seeing pushback against all the progress we’ve made toward equality,” Biden added.
“You know, you’ve done as much for straight folks as you’ve done for gay folks and lesbian folks,” said Biden, crediting the LGBTQ advocacy group with changing the attitudes of Americans on sexual issues. “This is how you’ve freed so many non-homophobic straight guys,” he said.
Biden bragged to the group about how he “came out” in support same-sex marriage in 2012, before most other Democrats. (In fact, Biden evolved on the issue before President Obama and Hillary Clinton and while some of his competitors were still in high school.)
“In too many places you’re still at risk for your jobs,” he warned. It’s gotta change.”
“It’s gotta change because of the values we have to demonstrate to the rest of the world. It’s gotta change because it’s just morally wrong… your tenacity, your integrity — you’ve bent the moral arc in this nation toward justice and thanks to you our children and grandchildren are growing up in a world that is far more just, far more open-minded, far more humane.”
Biden is right about one thing: Groups like the Human Rights Campaign have pulled off a dizzying moral revolution the likes of which has never been seen in America. Americans’ views have been transformed on LGBTQ rights and same-sex marriage to a degree that activists in previous decades could not have imagined. Most of our institutions — everything from government offices to progressive churches to the Boy Scouts to medical societies — have not only softened their stances on LGBTQ issues, but have enthusiastically joined in the moral revolution. Increasingly, there’s little room for dissent. During his speech Biden portrayed LGBTQ individuals as victims, ignoring the fact that it is people of faith who have been the big losers in this war of ideas. Bakery owners are being sued out of existence, medical professionals are being pressured to embrace transgender ideology, and major corporations are pulling their business out of states that seek to protect religious freedom — which, by the way, is what made Mike Pence Public Enemy #1 in the eyes of the cultural revolutionaries.
Biden called LGBTQ rights the “civil rights issue of our time.” He said that “just like with racial justice and women’s rights we’re seeing push-back towards all the progress we’ve made on equality.” It’s actually not “just like” rights for women and racial minorities. Race and gender are immutable characteristics, evident at birth and infused in an individual’s DNA, unlike sexuality, which can be affected by a variety of factors, though there appears to be a predisposition to homosexuality in some individuals. But people do sometimes change their sexual preferences, something that an individual with dark skin or female DNA cannot do. (How many times have we been lectured in recent years about gender and sexual fluidity?)
“In this dangerous moment for our nation, the very idea of America is at stake,” the former vice-demagogue-in-chief warned, saying that the White House is “on the wrong side of history.”
“The current vice president uses religious freedom as an excuse to license discrimination across broadly [sic] areas and denying LGBTQ Americans their basic rights. It is wrong and it is immoral what they are doing,” he declared.
“Just look at how much damage has been done in the past two weeks,” Biden said. “The Department of Health and Human Services proposes new regulations that would gut non-discrimination provisions for LGBTQ individuals that were written into the Affordable Care Act of our administration. They’ve written it in now. They’ve written it in and they just want to ignore it. HHS has also finalized a denial of care rule that would allow almost everyone involved in patient care, from the board of directors to receptionists in charge of scheduling to put their beliefs above LGBTQ patients’ health. The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced plans to allow homeless shelters to turn away transgender people. This is beyond the scope of anything remotely what we’ve seen before.”
That’s not true, of course. LGBTQ individuals have more freedom under the Trump administration that at any time in our nation’s history. Not only that, but these communities are celebrated in the media, the entertainment industry, and the culture at large. Contrary to Biden’s fearmongering-for-votes act at the Human Rights Campaign event, their agenda is on the ascendency. The Equality Act, which Biden says is his top priority, would, among other things, force battered women’s shelters to admit biological males; order our military to conduct social experiments by admitting transgender soldiers; and mandate that surgeons remove healthy sex organs from gender-confused individuals — military readiness, the safety of abused women, and the religious liberty of medical personnel are of no consequence to the man who would be president.
Turning to the Equality Act, Biden said, “I promise you if I’m elected president it will be the first thing I ask to be done. It will send a message around the world, not just at home.”
“This is our soul, da*mit, this is who we have to be… This is our real moral obligation,” he said. “Using religion or culture to discriminate against or demonize LGBTQ individuals is never justified. Not anywhere in the world.”
Where does that leave people of faith who refuse to celebrate the LGBTQ revolution? Biden doesn’t say. But make no mistake: the Equality Act would result in widespread discrimination against Christians and others who believe the Bible’s teaching on sexuality and gender. Doctors would be forced to ignore science and perform transgender surgeries, bakers would be forced to bake cakes celebrating gay weddings, and students in school locker rooms would be forced to shower with members of the opposite sex. There would be no safe harbor for conscientious objectors. And they won’t stop there. Eventually, they’ll tie government permits and professional licensure to these issues. Refuse to perform a mutilating transgender surgery on a teenager? No medical license for you! Refuse to march in a city-sponsored LGBTQ parade? Hand in your gun and your badge, bigot. Refuse to teach kindergartners that they can choose their own gender? Good luck keeping your teaching certificate. Refuse to hire homosexuals at your private Christian college? No accreditation for you, suckers. And it won’t even stop there. Eventually, they’ll come for our churches too.
While President Trump and Vice President Pence have made some valiant efforts to stem the tide and preserve religious freedom, there’s no putting this toothpaste back into the tube. Eventually, barring a miraculous cultural and spiritual revolution in the other direction, the LGBTQ bullies will prevail, if not during Trump’s administration, then during one in the near future. Make no mistake: Giving progressives control of the government, whether it be the White House or the Senate or your local city council, is like playing Russian roulette with religious liberty.
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