Virginia Foxx: “Our First Amendment is a powerful instrument that has protected our most sacred freedoms for hundreds of years. Few…”

“Our First Amendment is a powerful instrument that has protected our most sacred freedoms for hundreds of years. Few other countries provide the same protections and freedoms that our First Amendment guarantees. Yet, today, these essential rights are under attack. H.R. 5 is the latest example of Democrats' misleading and partisan manner of legislating. As a former educator and the Republican leader of the Education and Labor Committee, I can tell you the bill may have ``equality'' in the title, but it certainly does not serve all Americans. The Equality Act would empower the government to interfere in how regular Americans think, speak, and act. Specifically, it would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to make sexual orientation and gender identity protected classes. According to the National Review, this extreme legislation redefines sex to include gender identity, undermines religious freedom, gives males who identify as females the right to women's spaces, and sets a dangerous political precedent for the medicalization of gender-confused youth. Under H.R. 5, our Nation's K-12 schools would be forced to treat gender as being fluid, subjective, and not tied to biological reality. Government intervention often causes more harm than good. I've spent my time in Congress working to protect individual freedoms from unnecessary bureaucratic burdens.…”