A new nominee for the American Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is reported as saying that private religious beliefs that adversely affect homosexuals should not be tolerated.
Chai Feldblum, an openly lesbian Law Professor at Georgetown University (US) and political activist has been nominated by President Barack Obama to serve on the EEOC. In her article in a legal journal she wrote:
‘Just as we do not tolerate private racial beliefs that adversely affect African-Americans in the commercial arena, even if such beliefs are based on religious views, we should similarly not tolerate private beliefs about sexual orientation and gender identity that adversely affect LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender] people.’
Professor Feldblum, has worked for the American Civil Liberties Union and the Human Rights Campaign Fund, groups that promote homosexual and abortion ‘rights’, and is known to have created in academic circles the term ‘identity liberty’ as it conflicts with ‘belief liberty’. According to her view, a person’s sexual identity ‘rights’ must routinely trump ‘belief liberty’ which is currently guaranteed by the US Constitution’s First Amendment (Freedom of Speech).
The nominee wrote that she recognises that elements of the homosexual agenda may infringe on Americans’ religious liberties. However, she argues that society should ‘come down on the side’ of homosexual equality at the expense of religious liberty. She said the conflict between the two is ‘irreconcilable.’
‘For those who believe that a homosexual or bisexual orientation is not morally neutral, and that an individual who acts on his or her homosexual orientation is acting in a sinful or harmful manner (to himself or herself and to others), it is problematic when the government passes a law that gives such individuals equal access to all societal institutions,’ she wrote.
‘Protecting one group’s identity liberty may, at times, require that we burden others’ belief liberty. This is an inherent and irreconcilable reality of our complex society.
‘But in dealing with this conflict, I believe it is essential that we not privilege moral beliefs that are religiously based over other sincerely held core, moral beliefs.
'Laws passed pursuant to public policies may burden the belief liberty of those who adhere to either religious or secular beliefs,’ she added.
If appointed as an EEOC commissioner, Prof Feldblum will decide cases involving alleged violations of US federal employment law, including gender, age, and race discrimination.
Pro-life, family and business groups are concerned that Prof Feldblum will use her power to try and strip First Amendment rights of freedom of expression and free exercise of religion, and exploit her position on the EEOC to use the force of government to change the social norms of private institutions.
Bob Ellis, a Dakota Voice columnist, wrote:
‘Putting this radical woman in charge of the EEOC is like putting the fox in charge of the hen house, or putting criminals in charge of the prison, or the inmates in charge of the asylum.
‘The American people, however, are in charge of the US government, and it is our responsibility to tell our government we will not tolerate such gross irresponsibility and contempt for the founding values of our nation.’
From 1986 to 1987, Prof Feldblum clerked for Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun, the Judge who handed down the decision in the Roe v. Wade case that has allowed more than 51 million abortions in the US. In 2009, she was the lead drafter of the US Employment Non-Discrimination Act, introduced by Barney Frank, an openly homosexual Democrat Party Representative (Massachusetts), which would prohibit employment discrimination based on someone’s real or perceived sexual orientation.