Religious-Liberty-Annual-Report

III – Religious Liberty and Congress 15

ing, shower, and other spaces with men (and many religious charities that disagree would be shut down). • Could force women’s prisons to be open to men who self-identify as women. • Would shut down Catholic foster care and adoption agencies, which have helped children in need for over a century with out discrimination, just for protecting children’s rights to be in a home with a married mother and father. • Would mandate that schools fully em brace and impose some children’s pro fessed “gender identity” on other children (in conversations, restrooms, etc.). • Could make schools change their curric ula to falsely teach children that they can change their sex, and that doing so and that having same-sex sexual relationships are the only way for some of them to be healthy. • Could close girls’ schools and boys’ schools or force them to become coed. • Could put parents’ custody over their own children at risk by sending a powerful sig nal to the state governments that the only kind of people fit to be parents are those who give unquestioning affirmation to LGBT self-identification. • Would force small business owners, such as wedding or event vendors and cus tom-product makers, to support events or positions that violate their beliefs or be put out of business. • Could force some church-owned halls and properties to host same-sex ceremonies and other events that violate the venue owners’ faith and require them to open restrooms to the opposite sex. • Would reinforce already-mounting efforts to strip churches, religious schools, hospi tals, and other charities of their federal tax exemptions on the basis that their beliefs on marriage, sex, and gender are mere bigotry. • Would prohibit free and truthful speech by requiring everyone to use others’“preferred pronouns” and show other support for gen

der transition in workplaces, schools, and more.

In 2021, the House passed the Equality Act, but it stalled in the Senate. The reintroduced bill is led in the House by Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA) and is co sponsored by every Democrat and no Republicans; Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) leads the bill in the Sen ate, where it is cosponsored by forty-six Democrats, three Independents, and no Republicans. President Biden has repeatedly called for its passage. The situation at the U.S.–Mexico border is complex and presently untenable, and while nearly all agree that Congress needs to pass immigration reform, there is wide disagreement between Democrats and Republi cans over solutions. 7 Recently, rhetoric from some Re publicans about immigration has included sharp criti cism of the work of nonprofit organizations, especially religious charities, in ministering to and serving new D. Bills on Immigration

CNS photo/courtesy Catholic Charities of Oregon