By Doug Mainwaring – Lifesite News
WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — Timed to coincide with “National Coming Out Day,” the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has imposed a transgender pronoun mandate on its 80,000 employees, requiring each to affirm transgender and non-binary coworkers’ self-proclaimed “identity,” no matter what his or her conscience might dictate.
“HHS today imposed a transgender pronoun mandate on its employees who will now be forced to deny biological realities with their own words or face firing,” explained Roger Severino, the director of the HHS Office for Civil Rights during the Trump Administration, on social media.
“Those with faith objections should immediately request religious accommodation and prepare to fight for your rights,” he advised.
“This admin really is requiring pure ideological conformity. Let’s see how tolerant this admin will be of those who will seek an opt-out out of faith or compelled speech concerns.”
Severino contrasted the disparate messages that HHS was sending out to its small minority of gender non-conforming employees with that delivered to the vast majority of its employees who now must bend their knees to transgender ideology, even if they find it abhorrent:
- “HHS to people who identify as the sex they are not: ‘who you know yourself to be is valid.’”
- “HHS to its workforce: All must publicly announce acceptance of this ideological view by using pronouns contrary to biological realities. Resisters will be fired for making HHS ‘unsafe.’”
‘Out and proud’ trans Admiral ‘Rachel’ (neé Richard) Levine introduces mandate
In a video posted to YouTube two weeks ago, HHS’s transgender Assistant Secretary for Health, ‘Rachel’ (neé Richard) Levine introduced the imposition of the trans pronoun mandate (from 3:30):
Hello, I’m Admiral Rachel Levine—she/her pronouns—and I serve as the Assistant Secretary for Health. As an out and proud transgender woman in a senior leadership position at HHS, I want to extend my greetings for a Happy “National Coming Out Day!”
And I want to thank the Deputy Secretary and ASA for their support and leadership to ensure that all HHS employees, including transgender and nonbinary employees, have equal protections in the workplace that they need and deserve.
The Gender Identity Non-Discrimination and Inclusion Guidance is very important, and all supervisors and managers are responsible for helping to ensure it is fully implemented across all opdivs and staffdivs.
Every one of us can play a role in creating a welcoming workplace. Every one of you can make a difference in improving the feeling of inclusion for your coworkers.
After having been posted more than two weeks on HHSGov Internal, the video has been viewed just 1,700 times, with only 19 “thumbs up.”
HHS’s trans pronoun mandate does not reflect American values. Most Americans continue to reject the notion of mandating that a male or female — whatever their self-proclaimed gender identity— be called by the wrong pronouns.
From Day One, the Biden Administration has sought to ride roughshod over the morals of American citizens, demanding to the greatest extent possible that citizens, whether adults or children, suppress their consciences and use nonsensical pronouns to describe individuals suffering from gender dysphoria.
Under Joe Biden, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has sought “to weaponize that law against employers who believe that biological sex can’t be altered by mere identification,” according to The Daily Signal’s Tyler O’Neil. In fact, “in President Joe Biden’s America, if you disagree with transgender orthodoxy, you might not be able to run a business.”
The Biden Administration’s proposed changes to Title IX, attempting to enshrine gender ideology at the federal level, go so far as to threaten parental rights. According to The Federalist Society:
Instead of supporting parents’ rights to direct the education and the health care of their children, the Biden Administration’s proposed rule seems to adopt policies that treat parents with suspicion until parents prove that they will support their child’s gender transition.
According to modern biology, sex is rooted in an individual’s chromosomes and reflected by hundreds of genetic characteristics. In addition to denying scientific reality, coercing individuals to recognize an individual’s gender dysphoria as “gender identity” coerces Christians and Jews to contradict Genesis 1:27, which teaches that God created both sexes in His image.
A range of scientific literature indicates that children’s gender confusion usually clears up by adulthood, and indulging it often fails to prevent – or even prolongs – significant mental and emotional harm. These harms include attempted suicide (with or without surgery). Fixating on “gender affirmation” tends to distract patient and therapist from exploring other issues that may be the actual root of a patient’s mental or emotional unrest. Accordingly, several “detransitioners” have spoken out about the harm they experienced from being rushed into “transitions” without adequate warnings when they were young.
Prominently displaying or announcing one’s “preferred gender pronouns” is a popular piece of etiquette in LGBT activist circles and among Democrat politicians, including Vice President Kamala Harris. One of the Biden administration’s very first acts upon taking office was to add a pronoun field to the White House website’s contact page.