Pieces of legislation in Washington often have nice, Orwellian names that seem to indicate something exactly the opposite of what they actually do. If I were to ever be so cruel as to introduce a piece of legislation that would eliminate every rabbit within the confines of the lower 48 states, I would name it something like the Peter Cottontail Act of 2019. It’d certainly have the correct ring to it.

That’s kind of the issue over The Equality Act, one of the first major pieces of legislation the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives crafted. HR 5 would make discrimination against LGBT individuals illegal; most of the legislation is unobjectionable. The problem is that it has no carve-outs for religious liberty and could mean a national transgender curriculum.

That last part is the take of Daily Signal editor Jarrett Stepman, who says that “although it sounds good to say you oppose discriminating against people on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s priority bill, known as HR 5, has far-reaching legal implications.

“A variety of Supreme Court cases, including Meyer v. Nebraska and Pierce v. Society of Sisters, affirm the rights of parents to control their child’s education,” Stepman noted in a piece last week.

“But the Equality Act would create precedent for federal courts to require curriculum celebrating lesbian, gay, transgender, and bisexual orientations.

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“This change to advance the radical LGBT agenda wouldn’t apply just to sex ed classes, but subjects such as history and science as well,” he wrote.

“Laws that require gender identity and gender orientation to be a part of curriculum already exist in New Jersey, Illinois, Colorado, California, and Washington, plus the District of Columbia.

“In 10 other states, lawmakers have passed bills to limit such curriculum, but the Equality Act would nullify those restrictions. (The states: Alabama, Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Florida, and North Carolina.)”

He continues to note that “[a] broader movement aims to reorient K-12 curriculum in America toward a focus on sexual orientation and gender identity.

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“For instance, groups such as the Human Rights Campaign; the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network; and Planned Parenthood are encouraging initiatives that would bring this sort of education to schools around the country.”

The groups, he says, are calling “for pro-transgender picture books and resources for teachers to explain terms such as ‘pansexual,’ ‘nonbinary,’ and ‘sex assigned at birth’ to elementary school students.”

One former teacher wrote about how books such as “I Am Jazz” are finding their way into classrooms already.

“It’s geared for kids ages 4 and up,” Maria Keffler, who has written for The Washington Post about gender and curriculum, said. The book is “about a boy who transitioned to being a girl, medically and surgically.”

What else could be in the curriculum?

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The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network has advocated that students learn to “[a]cknowledge the gay identity of Francis Bacon (creator of the Scientific Method) or Frida Kahlo’s bisexuality when studying their works.”

Meanwhile, Reuters reported earlier this month about elements of more transgender-friendly curricula being developed around the nation.

“A picture book for second graders about a family with two moms. A lesson for fourth graders about Gold Rush era stagecoach driver Charley Parkhurst, who was born a woman but lived as a man,” they reported.

“These are just some of the ways U.S. public school students will learn about LGBTQ — lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender queer — history in a growing number of states moving to mandate inclusive K-12 curriculum.

“It is the latest chapter in a decades-long push to teach students about the trials and contributions of marginalized communities — from suffragettes to black Americans — whose stories have often been absent from classrooms.”

April Faulkner, California high school teacher, described the importance of teaching students that a former Revolutionary War hero, Baron Friedrich von Steuben, may have been gay: “If I have one student who feels more comfortable about their identity and sexuality because they learned about Baron von Steuben and how he whipped the army into shape … Even if it’s just one student, that’s worth it.”

“So curriculum is being reduced to making students feel good or advancing a particular point of view on sexuality, rather than giving students a thorough education. This goal explains our growing societal ignorance despite countless resources being thrown at education,” Stepman wrote.

“Burying the important and essential elements of our history — such as the creation of the Constitution and the meaning of the Civil War — for trivial matters is perhaps why we are becoming a nation of dunces, unable to have serious discussions about ideas or history without safe spaces and the need to erase things that make us uncomfortable.”

And yes, transgender youth have high rates of suicide attempts, with one scientific survey finding that 50.8 of female-to-male adolescents reporting a suicide attempt, and 41.8 of adolescents who don’t identify as any gender reporting one. This being said, we don’t have any evidence this would reduce that, and we don’t know that introducing these difficult issues to younger children wouldn’t introduce more issues.

Then again, The Equality Act has little chance of being signed into law precisely because of the problems with religious liberty or local control. If and when it does become law, however, its main legacy might not have anything to do with equality. Instead, what it’ll do is tell school districts and parents exactly what their children will learn regarding LGBT issues, and when they’ll learn them. Some equality.

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