Hard Questions about the LGBT Community and Our Vote

The LBGT community has asked hard questions of us in its struggle for acceptance: “Why do you care what we do in our own bedrooms?” So state courts struck down laws against sodomy.

“Why can’t we have the civil right to marry whom we please?” In 2014 the Supreme Court ruled in favor of gay marriage.

“Why should any employer be able to fire us because of our sexual orientation or gender identity?” In June 2020 the Supreme Court ruled they cannot. One of the cases litigated was that of a funeral home whose biological male employee transitioned to a woman. The court insists that the funeral home may not fire him/her. Bereaved clients should not discriminate against him/her, even if they feel uncomfortable.

Now, in this run up to our election, is a good time for Christians to ask hard questions about the LGBT community and our vote.

If we see them through the eyes of Jesus, our very first question must be, “How can we show them love and kindness?”

We can acknowledge that we are fellow travelers—people who bear God’s great and beautiful image, but who struggle with not always choosing what is good and true. We are broken in our sexuality too. We need a fixed north star to guide us in a world of fast-changing possibilities.

We must truly care about people in the LGBT community. Not just seek a connection or relationship in order to “fix” them. We can show true empathy by listening to their stories. Providing practical help and comfort. Building friendships.

At some point, showing kindness and compassion will put us in tension with their beliefs. There will be times when we ask questions or pursue conversations that reveal that tension. With all gentleness and respect, we kindly need to speak the truth in love.

Our next question should be, “Why does the LBGT community think there is only one gender spectrum?” A spectrum with male at one end and female at the other and countless degrees of gay, lesbian, bi, and trans in between?

____________________________(gender spectrum)_______________________________

male, trans male                          gay  lesbian                       trans female, female

God created us male and female–two gender spectrums—and declared it “very good.” We have great freedom to be exactly who he made us to be along either continuum.

____________________________(male spectrum)_________________________________

hunter/warrior                                                                                artistic/sensitive

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­____________________________(female spectrum)_______________________________

tomboy                                                                                              “Legally Blonde”

How often does sexual identity become confused because we don’t affirm our tomboys and our sensitive, artistic sons in their full femaleness and maleness?

We ask these questions on the personal level. But here at election time we also ask questions on the community level—the level that shapes our vote.

Does the LGBT community have the civil right to require Christians to use their artistic gifts to celebrate their gay/trans weddings with wedding photography, custom cakes, calligraphy, etc. when in good conscience they believe it is morally wrong before God?

Do they have the right to produce curriculum that establishes a single gender spectrum and gender fluidity/LGBT identity along that spectrum (including same-sex attraction) and take it into the public schools?

Do male to female trans athletes have the right to take female hormones and have surgery and compete with girls?

Do they have the right to share restrooms and locker rooms? And hotel rooms on team trips?

Must teachers and other employees use preferred pronouns when referring to trans people or lose their jobs?

Joe Biden believes they should have those rights and others as laid out in The Equality Act. He has vowed to make it his top legislative priority if elected.

The Equality Act was passed in the House on May 17, 2019. It was not taken up by the Senate.

•          It would amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” as protected classes (like race, color, religion, or national origin).

•          It would make it against federal law to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in public accommodations, education, employment, and housing.

•          redefines “public accommodation” to include “any establishment that provides a good, service, or program.”

This broad definition specifically includes “online retailer or service provider, food bank, service or care center, women’s shelter, or establishment that provides health care, accounting, or legal services,” and will likely also apply to organizations ranging from religious, private schools to non-profit welfare agencies.

I read the bill. The vast majority of the text adds the language “sexual orientation and gender identity” to classes of people not to be discriminated against in the Civil Rights Act. The bill goes out of its way to address two things that are of concern to people who want to provide for the modesty of their children and whose faith aligns with traditional morality. The bill…

1.         …states specifically that “an individual shall not be denied access to a shared facility, including a restroom, a locker room, and a dressing room, that is in accordance with the individual’s gender identity.’’

2.         … stipulates that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) cannot be appealed to by individuals, businesses, educational institutions, or religious institutions.

In other words, the law strips away religious liberty by forbidding Jews, Christians and Muslims from appealing to the law that says the “Government shall not substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion” in cases where you may be accused of prejudice and discrimination. Republicans in the House repeatedly tried to strip this provision from the bill. But Democrats insisted that it be left in.

Were this bill to become law…

•          …traditional Christian, Jewish, and Muslim sexual morality would immediately be treated as suspect and contrary to federal law.

•          …sexual orientation and gender identity will be elevated to the level of race.

Julia Beck, a lesbian, has decried the Equality Act as a “human rights violation,” because it would erase “every right that women have fought for.”

Perhaps most powerfully of all, passage of The Equality Act would ensure that anyone who opposes these rights will be culturally targeted as the equivalent of a racist and a bigot. Perhaps even by the President of the United States.

Joe Biden, who was attacked for calling Mike Pence a “decent guy,” retracted his opinion after being criticized by an LGBT activist and then said, “…there is nothing decent about being anti-LGBTQ rights, and that includes the Vice President.”

In his Town Hall last Thursday on ABC, Biden even exhorted parents of children who wanted to transition their sex, “The idea that an 8-year-old child or a 10-year-old child decides, ‘You know, I decided I want to be transgender. That’s what I think I’d like to be. It would make my life a lot easier.’ There should be zero discrimination!” By extension Biden condemned the parent who wants to wait to affirm the child’s decision until they possibly outgrow that desire (most do).

Parents who wish to counsel their children regarding what God says about being created male and female may soon be regarded as racists and bigots by the President of the United States.

A parent whose daughter transitioned in her twenties has responded to this pressure saying, “As parents, we face an excruciating choice: We’re told we have to affirm something we don’t think is true, to betray our own convictions—or lose our child.”

There have already been instances of political pressure on churches to suspend Bible Studies that help teens process gender identity. In some states it has already become illegal to give them evidence-based therapy to help them process their gender confusion. (Highly recommend this article by Nancy Pearcey, “How the Equality Act Would Devastate Parents’ Ability To Get Trans Children Help”)

Have there been scientific studies that support the view of the LGBT activists? No. Activists are seizing the moment to call for these changes in a complete absence of longitudinal studies that explore the long-term health benefits being pushed in education and parenting. Up to 20% of trans people regret their sex change. Forty percent attempt suicide. Simply search “sex change regret” and you can read their sad stories.

If the reality of male and female is eroded, what happens to the legal concept of families, family law and parental rights? A recent Harvard Magazine article has called for “a complete transformation of American law and morality, and the effective nullification of parental authority in the name of ‘children’s rights.’”

The Equality Act will profoundly transform our culture, our families and intimate issues of identity and sexuality in the hearts of our children as cultural pressure would mount even more in the wake of its passage. Please vote against the Equality Act.