IN-Equality Act Reinforces the Second SexBy: Kathleen Brush, Ph.D.April 9, 2021(emphasis added) With unanimity from the Left, the so-called Equality Act passed the House of Representatives. The Left crowed that Conservatives didn’t vote for it because they are anti-women. The Equality Act has nothing to do with equality for women, and everything to do with transgender equality. Legalizing this equality, discriminates against women.  Jim Crow laws were written to be race neutral and the Equality Act is written to be gender neutral, but the impact is clearly greater on females. Statistics are imprecise, but the number of transgender females is believed to be about four times that for transgender males.  When it comes to sports, advocates for the bill say Conservatives are making much ado about nothing because transgender women can already compete in women’s sports in some states and the impact has been minimal. Tell that to the affected females. How long will the impact be minimal? This survey from Gallup highlights how current trends encouraged by the Equality Act can make this issue a lot larger. In just a few years the presence of transgenders has jumped from 0.3% to 0.6% of the population, but this includes a lot of old timers that weren’t raised in a society that socially accepts and legally protects people re-selecting their gender. The survey didn’t include anyone under 18, but among 19-24 and 25-40 year-olds the transgender populations are 1.8% and 1.2% respectively. There is a similar trend in the growing population of LGBTQs. For boomers it is 2% but for Gen Z it’s 15.9%.  What about women in prison? In Washington State, men that self-identify as women can be transferred to a women’s prisonnow. It’s been reported that there are 150 transgender women waiting for transfers. This is about 0.9% of the male prison population, however in the women’s prison this would represent 9% of the population and almost all with their penis intact. Ninety-nine percent of transgender women retain their penises. There have already been reports of female prisoners raped by transgender women. 
Transgenders commonly retain the heterosexual attraction of their biological sex. Caitlyn Jenner’s partner is Sophia Hutchins. Rachel Levine’s partner is Stephanie Haynes. Transgender women are 180% more likely to endure intimate partner violence than cisgender women. Because federal funds are used for many battered women shelters, not allowing transgender women could result in closures or limiting access. Battered women are already severely underserved. It’s not presently illegal to keep biological women separate and they have been kept separate. Will there be the same problems in shelters as those in prisons? A battered woman being raped in a shelter would be tragic – even in the name of equality.  Then we have the locker rooms and bathrooms. Is the government really promoting equality if women feel uncomfortable disrobing in a female space?  Isn’t this law really about making women’s spaces gender neutral, while men’s spaces remain relatively private to men? What about young women in gym class? Is it equal when girls are afraid to disrobe in their locker rooms, but boys are not? 
Or is the solution as some states are doing, like Washington, to teach school children as young as five that some boys have penises, and some girls have vaginas and it’s no big deal who has what. They also learn if they want to change to the other sex, puberty blockers and sex hormones can be started without parental consent. That is also possible in Oregon and California and many other states through Planned Parenthood. In Oregon, it is legally possible for a child to have gender reassignment surgery without parental consent. Officials say they believe that will be rare. It seems reasonable that passage of the Equality Act could make this less rare and not just in Oregon.  What schools are not teaching is that 50% of transgender girls attempt suicide. For those that undergo gender reassignment surgery, suicide rates have been found to be 20 times over the normal rate, and there are much higher rates of psychiatric hospitalization, and death due to neoplasm and cardiovascular disease.  There is so much science about the ill effects of puberty blockers, sex hormones, and gender reassignment surgeries that woke legislators and educators are ignoring by labeling them transphobic.  In 1972, women’s sports either got equal treatment or federal funds were withheld.  Under the Equality Act, funds will be withheld from women’s sports if they deny participation to biological men that identify as women. People defending women’s sports for biological women can also find draconian measures from the NCAA and a lawsuit from the ACLU.  Why is the Left hell bent on reinforcing women as the second sex? 
Conservatives shouldn’t miss the opportunity to demonstrate that they know what gender equality is and is not.