Last year, we told you about an Obama Administration policy that forced women’s shelters to house men (who claim to be women) right alongside women who have been traumatized by men.

Since the rule came from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), we asked you to urge HUD Secretary Ben Carson to rescind the rule. Thousands of you did so, and it got HUD’s attention in a big way.

Now, we are able to report partial good news. HUD has released a summary of a proposed rule that, if adopted, would essentially overturn the Obama-era rule. Your messages made an impact!

The new proposed rule – which will be released later for public comment – will allow each housing facility to make their own policies on allowing biological men to stay with women. This is an enormous step in the right direction, and Secretary Carson deserves thanks.

However, the summary of the proposed rule also makes clear that HUD will continue to grant special protection based on sexual orientation and gender identity. This general policy statement is at odds with the rest of the rule and puts HUD policy more in line with Nancy Pelosi’s so-called Equality Act. If the rule itself (not just the summary) contains that language, it will be an unnecessary and potentially dangerous capitulation to LGBT dogma that has been repeatedly rejected by Congress for years and rejected by most leaders in the Trump Administration.

What You Can Do: Please send a note to Secretary Carson, thanking him for proposing a new rule to overturn the dangerous Obama rule – but also encouraging him not to include language in the rule that could be used to advance the radical cause of the so-called Equality Act.

You can send the message quickly and easily on our Action Center.

Thanks for continuing to make an impact!

The Family Policy Alliance Team

By Autumn Leva, Esq., VP of Strategy for Family Policy Alliance®

When President Obama left office, he left behind a collection of policies intended to advance a “transgender agenda”—at the expense of women’s and girls’ privacy and safety.

Thankfully, President Trump’s administration has been actively working to end those policies, restore common sense, and protect privacy and safety for women and children.

For example, President Trump’s administration undid the Obama-era rule requiring public schools to permit men and boys to enter girls’ locker rooms and bathrooms—or else risk losing all federal funding.

Similarly, President Trump’s Department of Defense took the time to actually study what impact permitting transgender-identifying individuals to participate in the military as the opposite sex would have—and concluded that this would harm military readiness and effectiveness. The Department of Defense also looked at the significant cost for “transitioning” servicemembers—noting that the cost to taxpayers for medical expenses for these individuals is at 300% of the medical costs compared to a servicemember without these concerns.

President Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is also studying the impact that prior HHS regulations have had on healthcare professionals, especially in the area of religious freedom. Family Policy Alliance and our network of state-based family policy allies specifically asked HHS to take a look at how Obama’s “transgender mandate” would negatively impact the healthcare industry. The “transgender mandate” would require doctors to take drastic measures to alter even children’s bodies—even if they believe it would be harmful or if the child would not want to identify as the opposite sex later in life.

Even the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has changed its policies. Under the Obama administration, prisons were required to consider “gender identity” when placing a prisoner—meaning that a man could be issued women’s clothing, use women’s showers or even be transferred to an all-women’s prison by saying he identifies as a woman, without having had a sex change operation. Now, under Trump Administration guidance and because BOP was the target of multiple lawsuits from women who were threatened and abused as a result of the new policy, biological sex will once again be the first factor considered when placing prisoners.

But, there is one federal department that has conspicuously NOT changed its policies since President Trump took office. Under President Obama, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) passed its own “transgender rule,” requiring that women’s shelters accept men who identify as women. While all policies that open up intimate spaces to the opposite sex are inexcusable, this rule is especially dangerous.  That’s because these shelters are filled with women who have been victimized by men – physically, mentally and even sexually. So far HUD, under the leadership of Secretary Ben Carson, has not undone this dangerous rule.

This begs the question—why are prisoners granted more privacy and safety protections than women who are trauma survivors?

We need your help to encourage Secretary Ben Carson to change the HUD “transgender rule” quickly. All you need to do is add your name to the PETITION! It only takes one minute.

Thank you for your help in restoring common sense to our government, protecting girls’ privacy and safety, and ensuring that HUD joins the other federal departments in undoing harmful Obama-era rules!

 

Are you feeling exhausted by the political scene? If you’re searching for some hope amid the mudslinging, you’re invited to attend a special live event October 18 in theaters nationwide.

Revive Us 2016 will feature Dr. Ben Carson, Francis Chan, Eric Metaxas and others for an empowering and interactive evening of inspiring messages, prayer and music. Tickets are on sale today.

What if 4 of the Republican presidential candidates got together and worked out who would be on the ticket – a Dream Team?

CitizenLink CEO Paul Weber says it would show the American people what they really want to see – true leadership.