Penna Dexter

Radical transgender directives just keep coming from the executive branch of the federal government. The latest decree, official guidance for employers from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, concerns restroom and pronoun use.

The guidance states that “the denial of access to a bathroom or other sex-segregated facility consistent with the individual’s gender identity” could bring a workplace under harassment charges. So could misgendering: “repeated and intentional use of a name or pronoun inconsistent with the individual’s known gender identity.”

Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits employers with more than 15 employees from discriminating based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Now — without a vote in Congress — the EEOC is including sexual orientation and gender identity in the list of protected categories.

The EEOC’s mandate is to combat racism and sexism in the workplace. It is not to force employers to pretend a person can change his or her gender identity.

Last July, the United States Senate narrowly confirmed Kalpana Kotagal to serve on the EEOC. Leading up to the vote, Senator Ted Cruz voiced his concern about what he described as her “record of support for radical transgender ideology.” Ms. Kotagal was confirmed as the third Democrat on the 5-member commission. This guidance is the fruit.

When the EEOC proposed this update last fall, 20 state attorneys general expressed their opposition, arguing that the proposed guidance would threaten the First Amendment rights of employers, employees, and, in some cases, customers.

Reed Rubenstein, director of oversight at America First Legal, pointed out that “Most large corporations promote gender ideology and punish workers who dissent, but it is likely that the EEOC will focus on small and privately owned family businesses, many of which lack the resources to fight back effectively.” Christian employers: be warned.

The Heritage Foundation’s Jay Richards told The Daily Signal, “normal people” must understand. He warns, “We’re dealing with a totalitarian ideology that wants to destroy the present order.”