Candace Owens says Democrats 'don't know what equality is' as she attacks their 'unbelievably offensive' Equality Act which 'would enable LeBron James to compete against women' while church leaders condemn bill as an attack on people of faith
Conservative activist Candace Owens warned on Monday night that the Equality Act threatened to end competitive sport for women, describing the bill which passed the House last week as 'unbelievably offensive' and 'quite frankly, insulting'.
The bill outlaws discrimination on the basis of gender identification and sexuality - something supporters, including President Joe Biden, say provides an essential framework for protecting the LGBTQ community.
Detractors such as Owens and Donald Trump complain that it would allow transgender women to compete in women's sports.
Tucker Carlson, on whose show Owens appeared on Monday, said it was 'a terrifying agenda that eliminates women'.
Candace Owens on Monday night spoke out against the passage of the Equality Act last week
A protester is seen at a transgender rights march in New York in October 2020
Owens said that she was labelled 'a bigot, a hateful individual, a transphobe - the left likes to use these pejoratives when you are just speaking common sense.'
'I find this to be unbelievably offensive: the idea there is nothing different between men and women.
'What they are saying right now is that, LeBron James, when he was at high school, with all his physical prowess, should have been able to say: 'I no longer identify as a man, I identify as a woman,' and he should have been allowed to compete against every other woman, and that would have been deemed equal. An exercise in achieving equality.
'They don't know what equality is. They don't know what equality means.
'They believe in sameness. Making everybody a carbon copy of the others.
'They hate the idea between male, female, girl, boy.'
The bill amends existing civil rights law to explicitly include sexual orientation and gender identification as protected characteristics, meaning that a person's sexuality or gender identity cannot be used against them for employment, housing, loan applications, education, public accommodations and other areas.
But critics argue that, by removing the question of a person's biological sex at birth, it would allow people born male into women's spaces. The bill has been seized on by Republicans.
Among those to express concern are some church leaders.
Pastor Jonathan Falwell said he was concerned about the new legislation
Pastor Jonathan Falwell with Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, said the bill would force religious people to hire individuals who disagree with their beliefs, even if they fundamentally clash with their religious beliefs.
'If someone comes to us who disagrees with our values if they want a job, and we don't give them a job because they disagree with God's word, then the government can sanction us, fine us and put us out of business,' Pastor Falwell said, according to ABC 13.
A spokesman for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Doug Andersen, said that the Mormon Church wanted to emphasize their 'support for equality and fairness.'
He added: 'We could support legislation that provides protection for LGBT persons as well as people and institutions of faith. Both are possible and clearly required in a just society.'
Owens said that conservatives 'want to make sure there are equal opportunities, but we acknowledge that there are real biological realities that cannot be ignored.'
Owens said that the Equality Act was 'insulting' and 'offensive' to her, as a woman
She concluded: 'They told us to fear the Trump administration. But look at what Joe Biden did in his first few weeks.'
Owen's theme echoed that of Trump, who attacked the Act in his speech to CPAC - the Conservative Political Action Conference - on Sunday.
'Young girls and women are incensed that they are now being forced to compete against those who are biological males,' Trump said.
'It's not good for women, it's not good for women's sports, which worked so long and so hard to get where they are.'
The bill faces an uphill battle to win Senate approval before it can become law.
Donald Trump on Sunday waded into the controversy surrounding the Equality Act
The bill was passed by the House 224-206 on Thursday and now moves to the Senate
On Tuesday Inez Stepman, senior policy analyst at Independent Women's Forum, claimed that the effects of removing sex from criteria had already been felt.
'In Connecticut, two biologically male athletes won a combined 15 girls state championship races, allegedly taking opportunities for further competition and scholarships from female runners in June 2019,' she wrote in The Wall Street Journal.
Trump on Sunday built on Stepman's theme, stating: 'The records that stood for years, even decades, are now being smashed with ease.
'If this is not changed women's sports as we know it will die.'
The House passed the Equality Act in the last Congress with unanimous Democratic support and the backing of eight Republicans, but Trump's White House opposed the measure and it was not considered in the Senate, where 60 votes will be needed to overcome procedural hurdles.
Democrats are trying to revive it now that they have control of Congress and the White House, but passage still appears unlikely in the evenly divided Senate.
Trump insisted on Sunday that they had been right to block it.
'You know, for years the weightlifting, every ounce is like a big deal for many years,' Trump said. 'All of a sudden somebody comes along and beats it by 100 pounds.'
Trump declared: 'We must protect the integrity of women's sports. So important.'
Many Republicans in the House agreed, with Lauren Boebert, representative for Colorado, tweeting: 'Why are we changing the culture of the entire country around and wrecking sports for 0.42% of the population?'
But the ACLU said that those opposing the Equality Act were guilty of 'transphobia'.
Tennis star Martina Navratilova and four-time Olympics gold medalist runner Sanya Richards-Ross argued in a 2019 op-ed that the bill, which passed 236-173 that year, would ensure 'there will always be significant numbers of boys and men who would beat the best girls and women in head-to-head competition.'
They wrote: 'We support transgender women and girls and their right to equality, and we recognize their personal struggle. We don't worry that boys and men will feign transgender identity to gain an advantage.
'But we do hope that lawmakers won't make the unnecessary and ironic mistake of sacrificing the enormously valuable social good that is female sports in their effort to secure the rights of transgender women and girls.'
Biden made clear his support for the Equality Act in the lead-up to last year's election, saying it would be one of his first priorities.
Mary Gay Scanlon, a Democrat representative for Pennsylvania, said the Equality Act is needed to end 'the patchwork of state laws' around gay rights and create 'uniform nationwide protection.'
'It's been personal since my baby sister came out to me almost 40 years ago,' Scanlon said.
'For many people all across this country and across this House, that is when the fight hits home.'
The debate among lawmakers on Capitol Hill also become personal.
Marie Newman, a Democrat representative for Illinois, whose daughter is transgender, tweeted a video of herself placing a transgender flag outside her office.
Her office is across the hall from Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, an avowedly Trumpian firebrand.
'Our neighbor, @RepMTG, tried to block the Equality Act because she believes prohibiting discrimination against trans Americans is 'disgusting, immoral, and evil.' Thought we'd put up our Transgender flag so she can look at it every time she opens her door.,' Newman tweeted.
Greene responded with a video of her own in which she puts up a sign that reads: 'There are Two genders: MALE and FEMALE. 'Trust The Science!'
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pointed to the exchange to advocate for the bill Thursday.
'It breaks my heart that it is necessary, but the fact is, and in fact we had a sad event here even this morning, demonstrating the need for us to have respect,' Pelosi said, at one point pausing and taking a deep sigh.
'Not even just respect, but take pride, take pride in our LGBT community.'
Gay and lesbian members of Congress spoke about how meaningful the bill is for them.
'Look, we're not asking for anything that any other American doesn't already enjoy,' said Chris Pappas, a Democrat representative for New Hampshire.
'We just want to be treated the same. We just want politicians in Washington to catch up with the times and the Constitution.'
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