What’s Happening:
Joe Biden continues to enact questionable edicts, and he appears hell-bent on cementing a legacy that contradicts the culture and values of the Republic that has stood without his ideology for hundreds of years.
Americans have been bombarded for years under Biden’s rule with orders that force them to agree to federal rules or be fired. Biden’s executive orders from the pandemic to day-to-day job requirements at the federal level have caused undue conflict for Americans.
Now Biden is ordering federal employees to bow to a new demand, regardless of whether or not it infringes on the rights and freedoms of workers. Biden is ordering federal employees to speak the language the government demands or suffer the consequences.
From Fox News:
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has rolled out a new gender pronoun policy that one Heritage Foundation expert and former HHS official says violates employee rights and will result in firings for “misgendering.”
According to the Heritage Foundation, HHS sent an email with new speech requirements in the workplace.
“All employees should be addressed [by] the names and pronouns they use to describe themselves,” the email to HHS employees stated as part of its push for “Gender Identity and Non-Discrimination Guidance” that it says protects “employee rights and protections related to gender identity.”
The push for this Orwellian speech mandate follows White House executive orders in January 2021 and in June 2022. The Heritage Foundation said these two orders were framed as ways to combat “gender discrimination” on the basis of “gender identity.”
The HHS edict goes against a growing trend in American culture pushing back against “wokeness” and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion requirements in the workplaces. But the Biden administration and HHS guidance don’t appear interested in what workers think on their own.
“This practice also creates an inclusive work environment where all applicants and employees are treated with dignity. The isolated and inadvertent use of an incorrect name or pronoun will generally not constitute unlawful harassment, but, as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has explained, continued intentional use of an incorrect name or pronoun (or both) could, in certain circumstances, contribute to an unlawful hostile work environment.”
In other words, speak that which the federal government orders you to speak or you could get in big trouble with the fed bosses.
“HHS and the federal government is requiring its employees to speak falsehoods,” Roger Severino, the Heritage Foundation’s vice president for domestic policy and the former head of civil rights at HHS during the Trump administration, told Fox News Digital.
Severino posted all the information on X, formerly Twitter, and exposed HHS plans to control speech among federal employees. He wrote that HHS “imposed a transgender pronoun mandate on its employees who will now be forced to deny biological realities with their own words or face firing.”
Severino told Fox News Digital that the First Amendment protects federal employees from being required to speak falsehoods, being compelled to adopt a state-approved ideology, and requiring people to deny gender reality or their own faith.
HHS has also promoted that employees “can wear clothing” and “use restrooms” based on the gender to which they identify. Severino said, “Men who identify as female have the right to get naked in front of female colleagues in the locker room,” as this rule relates to HHS locker rooms and bathrooms.
Severino noted that it was “breathtaking” the Biden administration would unveil this policy, and that there are “strong arguments” that employees have legal recourse against policies like this and can “exercise their rights.”
“Governments cannot compel speech and certainly cannot compel false speech,” Severino said, citing West Virginia vs. Barnette. The case holds that even though children being told to say the pledge of allegiance during World War II was a good thing, the Supreme Court ruled that parents and students have a right to dissent from that view.
“We protect the right of political dissent and here it’s a pledge of allegiance to the Rainbow flag that’s been essentially required,” Severino said.
Key Takeaways:
- Biden edict requires federal employees to “deny reality” and their free speech.
- Heritage Foundation official argues new rules opens up legal recourse for workers.
- A new gender pronoun policy may result in firings for “misgendering” coworkers.
Source: Fox News
