Trump Admin Protects Women with New Shelter Policy, Angering Trans Activists
George Orwell’s prescient 1945 novel “Animal Farm” illustrated the hypocrisy of tyrannical government, which ostensibly in pursuit of equality ultimately implemented favoritism to certain groups, with the line, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
Paraphrasing Orwell, leftists believe that all women are equal, but transgendered women are more equal when it comes to safety and protection.
That mindset is apparent as transgender activists oppose a proposal from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that would prevent vulnerable and victimized women from having to shelter with men who identify as female.
In a news release Wednesday, HUD Secretary Ben Carson announced a proposed update to the Equal Access Rule allowing organizations that run shelters to decide how to deal with transgender individuals in their facilities.
If this change is adopted, it would be the Trump administration’s latest victory in the fight against the radical transgender agenda that wormed its way into law during President Barack Obama’s tenure.
“This important update will empower shelter providers to set policies that align with their missions, like safeguarding victims of domestic violence or human trafficking,” Carson said in a statement.
“Mission-focused shelter operators play a vital and compassionate role in communities across America. The Federal Government should empower them, not mandate a single approach that overrides local law and concerns,” he said. “HUD also wants to encourage their participation in HUD programs. That’s exactly what we are doing with this rule change.”
The proposal would modify the 2016 change to the Equal Access Rule, which essentially required sex-segregated or single-sex shelters to admit residents based on their gender identity.
The new rule would still require the organizations to follow state and local regulations but would give them a choice on which gender criteria to use (i.e., as identified on a government document, solely on identity, or good old-fashioned biology) in accordance with its own philosophical or religious affiliation.
In addition, the new guideline would require shelters that choose to admit based on the person’s sex to refer ineligible transgender individuals to an area shelter that would accept them. Conversely, shelters that admit based on gender identity would also be required to advise of other arrangements for residents who were uncomfortable with that.
This reasonable, commonsense approach to safeguarding women while still giving organizations the freedom to choose their admission rules has transgender activists up in arms.
Predictably, the American Civil Liberties Union tweeted only about the effect on the small minority of transgender individuals, stating that the rule would allow “federally funded homeless shelters to turn away trans and gender non-conforming people — in the midst of the highest unemployment rates our country has seen in decades.”
BREAKING: Trump is proposing a rule allowing federally funded homeless shelters to turn away trans and gender non-conforming people — in the midst of the highest unemployment rates our country has seen in decades.
— ACLU (@ACLU) July 1, 2020
“One in three transgender Americans has been homeless at some point in their lives, and the @HUDgov proposal would have them sleep on the streets,” the National Center for Transgender Equality tweeted Wednesday.
“Getting transgender persons off the street and out of harm’s way is a matter of life and death.”
One in three transgender Americans has been homeless at some point in their lives, and the @HUDgov proposal would have them sleep on the streets.
Getting transgender persons off the street and out of harm’s way is a matter of life and death. #HousingSavesLives
— National Center for Transgender Equality (@TransEquality) July 1, 2020
A tweet from the National Women’s Law Center perfectly summed up the rationale for the rule change — except that it made the argument for the wrong side.
“Today @HUDgov proposed a rule with the sole intent to harm trans people, particularly trans women,” the organization said Wednesday. “We should be making our country safer for women, particularly those facing increased threats of violence and discrimination.
“This rule is misogynist trash.”
Today @HUDgov proposed a rule with the sole intent to harm trans people, particularly trans women. We should be making our country safer for women, particularly those facing increased threats of violence and discrimination.
This rule is misogynist trash. https://t.co/X6Ert4HqL2
— National Women’s Law Center (@nwlc) July 1, 2020
Many would say putting real women at risk to protect transgenders would be the real “misogynist trash.”
Notably, the motto of the National Women’s Law Center is “Justice for her. Justice for all.” Apparently, men who identify as women are “more equal,” as the center fretted about the “safety” of transgenders without a word of care for women potentially forced to live, sleep and shower with them.
If it seems confounding that women’s advocacy groups, which supposedly care about victimized women, would oppose the change, it’s only because any rational mind is unable to grasp such profound insanity.
Women end up in shelters for all sorts of reasons, but any feminist worth her salt would quickly point out that many are there to escape abusive men. Allowing men who identify as women into shelters where women retreat from that abuse is wrong and unfair.
To be sure, transgender individuals are also at risk and find themselves homeless or running away from abuse, but like many other decisions in the admission process, shelters cannot and should not simply take all comers.
After all, some non-transgender men are also victims of domestic abuse, but they are not permitted in battered women’s shelters.
Unfortunately for women, their rights and protections are quickly eroding as transgenders become “more equal” — at least until the next useful victim group comes along.
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