Republicans want to give transphobic employees more legal protections

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.

Related: Sarah Huckabee Sanders bans “woke language” in Arkansas

She accused “the left” of treating “woman” like “a dirty word.”

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.

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Senator Rafael "Ted" Cruz introduced a bill in the senate that would ban all federal government employees and federally funded entities from using anything except the legal name of an individual to try to go after trans people.

I guess he wants to be called Rafael now. pic.twitter.com/l7syoHFbiS

— Alejandra Caraballo (@Esqueer_) November 27, 2023

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.”

I’m proud to team up with @RepOgles to introduce the Safeguarding Free Speech Act.

The legislation would prohibit federal agencies from forcing an employee or contractor to use personal pronouns that contradict an individual’s biological sex.https://t.co/2WFmhnll6C pic.twitter.com/XZGlySkVhZ

— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) November 17, 2023

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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