A key government agency says the landmark Civil Rights Act forbids employers from firing or refusing to hire people based on their sexual orientation, a ruling critics say has no basis in law and threatens to erode our most basic liberties.
On July 16, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which bans discrimination based on biological sex, also ought to apply to sexual orientation. The decision follows a 2012 ruling that extended similar protections to transgender employees and applicants. The only exception is extended to business with fifteen or fewer employees.
“This ruling is absolutely absurd,” said Liberty Counsel Chairman Mathew Staver. “It’s certainly not based upon the statute and so this is lawlessness in the process. This is an activist agency dominated by appointments from President Barack Obama that has a homosexual agenda that trumps not only Title VII and any other statutory law but even the first amendment.”
Staver says there is no rational way to conclude members of Congress in 1964 intended the Civil Rights Act to cover sexual orientation.
“Title VII is what Congress said it is and what Congress said it is is very specific. It’s about sex discrimination. That’s whether you’re male or female, not whether you’re engaging in a certain kind of sexual behavior,” he said.
“They’re not trying to protect a pedophile or a homosexual or a transsexual or a pederast or someone else that has some other sexual fetish or abnormal activity. They’re trying to deal with the difference between a male and a female,” said Staver, who says the EEOC is ignoring the law to advance its agenda.
“This is just three people pretending to have authority which they don’t. Their authority has to interpret the federal Title VII. Title VII does not include homosexuality or any other kind of sexually aberrant behavior,” he said.
What will be the impact on the workplace? Staver contends that if employees keep their sex lives to themselves, most working environments would remain much as they are today.
“Most people are not going to tell someone that they can’t work for them if they’re doing the job and they’re not pushing their sexual activity into the face of other individuals. They’re not going to inquire about what they do when they’re not at the workplace in most situations,” he said.
The problem, says Staver, is that homosexuals often call attention to themselves because their sexual orientation is critical to their overall identity.
“They’re not content just having this as something that they do outside of the workplace. No, this is part of who they want you to understand they are. It is front and center. It is a very sexualized culture,” said Staver. “They bring that sexualized culture into the workplace. They talk about it. They put it into your face,” said Staver.
There are no exceptions in the EEOC decision for churches or faith-based organizations and Staver complaints based on religious freedom will fall on deaf ears.
“If you’re relying upon the EEOC, there is no religious freedom protection. In fact the the head of the EEOC appointed by President Obama, Chai Feldblum, says that if there is a collision between homosexual rights and the first amendment free exercise of religion, you would think that the first amendment wins. She says no. Homosexual rights win,” said Staver.
What options does this leave employers seeking greater freedom in their hiring? Staver says the time for civil disobedience is here.
“We’re entering into a lawless phase. The 3-2 decision by the EEOC is an example. The 5-4 opinion by the Supreme Court on marriage is another example. When we come to a lawless phase, at some point in time we just have to resist and say, ‘We’re not going to allow three people on the EEOC or five people on the Supreme Court to destroy this religious mission and ministry. We’re not going to allow it and we’ve got to push back,” said Staver.
In fact, Staver believes the failure to push back now and over the long haul will put our our most cherished liberties in peril.
“We’ve come to a different place in our history. We’ve come to a place of revolution, where we need to revolt against this tyranny of a few people who, despite what the Constitution and the courts’ precedents say and despite what natural law and the Bible says, they come out with this opinion,” he said.
“They expect 320 million Americans to walk like the Pied Piper and follow them over the cliff. If that’s what happens, then God help us, because we’ve lost our country. We’ve lost our liberty,” said Staver.
