So-Called Fairness Laws are Discriminatory Against Christians

Last week West Virginia saw another city use the Home Rule program to create a “protected class” ordinance for the LGBTQ2S+ community. Yes, the acronym has expanded, did you know?  The 2S stands for Two-Spirit, for people who identify as having two souls.  They are an ever evolving community and believe in gender fluidity and so, one may wonder how a city ordinance may be used to protect a dynamic and undefinable group of people.

It’s not enough that for the last six decades the rainbow revolution has overturned sodomy laws and indecent exposure codes, redefined marriage, gutted obscenity regulations and definitions, offered gay, lesbian, queer and gender study programs in universities, hosted gay kiss-ins, promoted pride events including sexually explicit material for minors and disrupted church services. It’s not enough that they have transformed the paradigm of mental health disorders, become activists by writing public education curriculum, no, this is not enough. 

At one time, the LGBT movement was about acceptance, and rightfully so, but that goal has been in the rearview mirror for decades now, just ask the hundreds of thousands of gay people who say their movement has been hijacked by extreme activists.  It is not enough that the LGBTQ2S+ community promotes drag queen story time and sexual shows for small children, confusing them about gender or performs public displays of blasphemy.  It’s not enough that openly gay people hold public office at the federal, state and local levels. 

No, it’s never enough because the goal is to shift the moral framework. Are you listening, Christians?

Fairness WV has been working for many years to further the reach of the LGBTQ2S+ community by creating a special status, a “protected class” hierarchy to promote their moral framework as the norm. A framework that includes telling children they might be born in the wrong body and may need to be sterilized or surgically mutilated to conform to how they were “meant to be”.  A framework that promotes sexualization of children and campaigns for such literature to be available for minors.

They pitch their ordinances with flowery words such as “fair” and “dignity for all” and “respect for residents” but fail to inform citizens of the protections already in place by the U.S. Constitution and the WV Human Rights Act.  The “fairness law” that was just adopted by the City of Elkins may run counter to the Human Rights Act which is based on inherent, immutable traits such as race, national origin, sex, or disability.

Has anyone in Elkins or the other 20 cities asked their mayor and city council members what happens next when your public accommodations become the central point of dispute between the WV Human Rights Act and the new “Fairness Law”?   What are your plans when your daughter comes to you and says there was a man in her restroom today at your favorite restaurant?  What type of legal action will be available to you when you live in a community that exalts the LGBTQ2S+ community as a special protected class of citizens?

Cody Thompson, a member of the Elkins’ City Council and former WV State Delegate, recently commented in an article by WVVA News: 

“I am very proud that our council took the momentous step in ensuring fairness, dignity, and respect for our residents, visitors, and businesses. Discrimination in any form goes against the spirit of who we are as a community and the vision we share for a city that values equality and opportunity for all.”

One might consider the businesses that weren’t on board. The ones that have offices in other areas of the state and now have to abide an ordinance that is dependent upon geography and the status of sexual identification of employees on any given day.  Is this supposed to attract more commerce to Randolph County?

Would Mr. Thompson feel the same way if he was able to witness the discrimination against Christians in Fayette County when they publicly gather for outdoor prayer?  Or the ones who dressed up as Jesus Christ, holding blasphemous posters at one such gathering?  Discrimination is discrimination, no matter who it happens to, no matter what their class status happens to be.

WV Public Schools stay in the news cycle for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the issue of bullying.  State laws have been created in recent years to allow teachers more control in the classroom.  Did you know that one of the reasons teachers have their hands tied, with regard to discipline, is because of the special “protected class” status of students in the LGBTQ2S+ community?

The story of Ethan Holliday, athletic star from Greenbrier County, is a perfect example of what happens under this exalted class framework. He made a mistake, a comment on his social media, while attending Greenbrier East High School and was called out and punished for it, some might say excessively so.  But it wasn’t enough to appease the LGBTQ2S+ folks.  They continued to complain, harass and make death threats against him.  He ended up transferring to another high school. 

They made death threats against him.  

Nothing was said or done to these students. Exalted, “protected classes” of people enable immoral and oftentimes wicked behavior with impunity.  So-called fairness laws do not create an “equal” status; West Virginia already has that.  It creates an exalted class of people whose moral framework is in direct conflict with the majority of West Virginians who honor God.