Identity Crisis

The Equality Act Deep Dive

With WoLF Legal Counsel, Lauren Adams

"Identity Crisis" is a new weekly column and podcast for young people struggling with the modern orthodoxy of gender identity ideology—developed in collaboration between Plebity and 4W by M. K. Fain and Sasha White. Each week, we will answer one or two of your questions, both as a running column here on 4W, and in the form of a video on YouTube.

To submit a question, email us at: [email protected]. We may publish your question in full, so be sure to leave out or change any identifying details if you would like to remain anonymous. Or, specify that your question is private and you would rather we discuss it in a general way.

This week on Identity Crisis, we are joined by guest Lauren Adams, Legal Counsel for Women's Liberation Front, to do a deep-dive into the legal concepts of the Equality Act. We discuss intermediate scrutiny, bona fide occupational requirements, and how the bill defines sex and gender identity.

How the Equality Act defines "gender identity":

“(2) GENDER IDENTITY.—The term ‘gender identity’ means the gender-related identity, appearance, mannerisms, or other gender-related characteristics of an individual, regardless of the individual’s designated sex at birth.
- source

How the Equality Act defines "sex":

(4) SEX.—The term ‘sex’ includes—
“(A) a sex stereotype;
“(B) pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition;
“(C) sexual orientation or gender identity; and
“(D) sex characteristics, including intersex traits.
- source

From WoLF's Analysis of the Equality Act:

While the Equality Act is being sold on promising good things for women, and on ending unfair treatment of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people—which almost everyone agrees are worthy and important goals—it’s poisoned with the destruction of the law’s ability to allow any accommodations for women on the basis of sex.

The Equality Act, introduced in the US House of Representatives as H.R. 5 in 2019, includes gender identity rules that have received little public focus regarding their adverse impact on sex stereotyping bans, or the danger they pose to women and children. The bill would codify the regulatory changes President Biden laid forth in his Executive Order on gender identity his first day in office.

In several places in this bill, it directs the term “sex” in federal civil rights law to be replaced with the term, “sex, sexual orientation, gender identity.” The bill’s authors made clear that gender identity is to take precedence over and replace sex as a protected category. The bill doesn’t mention individuals with clinically diagnosed gender dysphoria, or undertaking surgical or hormonal transition, thus making clear that self-declared gender identity would be sufficient to claim protected legal status.

Read the full post: https://www.womensliberationfront.org/news/housetovoteonequalityact

Take Action

Although the House has already passed the Equality Act, the bill's future in the Senate is still undetermined. U.S. residents can write their senators and ask them to vote NO on the current version of the Equality Act: