The Iowa Civil Rights Commission recently published regulations pertaining to a 2007 law on gender identity. (The page on the Civil Rights Commission website about these regulations has been taken down. Most likely due to the fact they have recently been sued.)
What’s most concerning is that these regulations attempt to control what preachers say from the pulpit. From an article in “the Federalist“, attorneys from Alliance Defending Freedom, who are suing the Iowa Civil Rights Commission on behalf of Fort Des Moines Church of Christ, state the regulations apply to churches during among other activities, any service open to the public. Well, that’s almost everything a church does.
Why are liberals so intent on controlling what you or I say? Just look at what is going on at universities across the country to get a feel for how the speech police want to control what is and isn’t said.
Clearly, even from a elementary understanding of the Constitution, these regulations would be a violation of our First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and religion. How is it that the folks on the Civil Rights Commission don’t see that? Obviously they must. Why are there two sets of rules – one for a protected group of people in their mind and one for everyone else? The supposed rights of the gender identity crowd supercede the Constitutional rights of everyone else? Heck, what the Civil Rights Commission is “saying” is just as much an affront to me – maybe the regulations should be extended to them!
You have to wonder if pol’s of the liberal bent are following Obama’s lead when in July of 2014 he said “So sue me” in response to questions regarding regulations he wanted passed to implement his agenda instead of waiting on Congress.
This case is eerily familiar to when in 2014 the mayor of Houston, TX wanted a group of ministers to turn over sermons that dealt with homosexuality or gender identity – or possibly be held in contempt of court. (Read here.) I wonder if the Houston mayor and the Iowa Civil Rights Commission would be so willing to enforce their ideology against Muslims – and what is preached in their mosques? Somehow I kinda doubt it.
Freedom of speech and religion are under attack in this country – there should only be one set of rules for all of us. And those rules were clearly laid out over 200 years ago. What’s worries me most, is we are one Supreme Court justice away from these laws becoming the law of the land – regardless what the Constitution says.