Biden pronoun policy
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The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has implemented a new gender pronoun policy, requiring employees to use preferred pronouns or face firing.
Criticized
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The move has been criticized by a former HHS official, Roger Severino, who argues that it violates employee rights and forces individuals to speak falsehoods.
Falsehoods
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“HHS and the federal government is requiring its employees to speak falsehoods,” Severino stated.
Pronoun mandate
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The Harvard graduate posted 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.”
First Amendment
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He pressed that the First Amendment serves as protection to staff from being forced to do so, as the move requires many employees to reject their own faith for the sake of embracing the State’s ideology.
Policies
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“These policies would require all of those things,” said Severino.
Discrimination
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The policy, supported by White House executive orders, aims to combat gender discrimination and protect gender identity rights.
Pronouns
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“All employees should be addressed [by] the names and pronouns they use to describe themselves,” an HHS email read.
Correct names
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“All applicants and employees should be addressed by the names and pronouns they use to describe themselves. Using correct names and pronouns helps foster workplaces free of discrimination and harassment,” a statement by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management reads.
Inclusive
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“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,” it continued.
Free speech
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Severino asserts that the policy infringes on free speech and religious beliefs and could lead to a hostile work environment.
Gender identity
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The policy also allows individuals to use facilities based on their gender identity, raising concerns about privacy and civil rights.
Identify as female
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“Men who identify as female have the right to get naked in front of female colleagues in the locker room,” Severino pressed.
Violation
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“It used to be that if you allowed a man to get naked in front of a woman in the workplace that is instantly a violation of civil rights law,” he went on.
Work environment
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“That’s the quintessential hostile work environment, subjecting women to that. Now, the policy says to the women who may be uncomfortable with that situation, they’re the ones who have to leave.”
False speech
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“Governments cannot compel speech and certainly cannot compel false speech,” he added, referring to West Virginia vs. Barnette.
Rainbow flag
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“We protect the right of political dissent and here it’s a pledge of allegiance to the Rainbow flag that’s been essentially required.”
Dilemma
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“They are faced with a horrible dilemma,” Severino said of employees with conflicting faith. “Do they hope that they can fly under the radar and try to avoid the issue and keep a low profile and perhaps hide their faith so they can keep their job, or do they stand up and say this policy is wrong and fight for their rights? And then see a gigantic target on their back after that.”
Negative impact
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Severino highlights the potential negative impact on morale and production among government employees.
