WASHINGTON, D.C., December 20, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, is standing in the way of reappointing Chai Feldblum to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), citing the open lesbian’s “radical” positions on LGBT issues.
On Wednesday, Lee objected to the Senate approving Feldblum by unanimous consent, ensuring she will face an extended confirmation process that could delay the EEOC’s convening on schedule in 2019, NBC News reported.
President Donald Trump surprised and angered social conservatives last year when he renominated her to the commission. She was first appointed by Barack Obama. Lee laid out his qualms about her in February, writing that she could “use the federal agency’s power to undermine our nation’s founding principles.”
The senator cited Feldblum’s past comments that she is “not sure marriage is a normatively good institution” and that society must “acknowledge the wide array of non-marital social structures” as evidence of her “radical” views, warning Americans to not “think for a second that Feldblum’s derogatory views about marriage will stay private” as a regulator.
“Feldblum has described modern-day politics as a ‘zero-sum game,’ where rights for LGBT Americans are secured only by curtailing the rights of religious Americans,” Lee argued, quoting her opposition to “individual exceptions based on religious” convictions on the grounds that homosexual “rights” cannot be “adequately advanced if pockets of resistance … are permitted to flourish.”
A former American Civil Liberties Union attorney and Georgetown law professor, Feldblum was an original signatory of the “Beyond Marriage” declaration in 2006, which endorsed “committed, loving households in which there is more than one conjugal partner” and “queer couples who decide to jointly create and raise a child with another queer person or couple,” among other arrangements. In 2009, she distanced herself from the document, citing its endorsement of polyamory.
As LifeSiteNews previously covered, Feldblum also contends that “sex discrimination covers discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity,” and has previously used her position to sway the EEOC in favor of transgender bathrooms.
“We applaud Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) for putting a hold in the Senate on leftist lesbian legal activist Chai Feldblum,” Americans for Truth About Homosexuality president Peter LaBarbera wrote. “Feldblum argues that the battle between ‘gay rights’ and religious liberties is a ‘zero-sum game’ and that LGBTQ legal activists should and invariably will win those fights.”
“I don’t know what Trump was thinking when he reappointed her,” LaBarbera continued. “After all, he ran for office pledging to his base of evangelical Christian voters that he would ardently defend religious freedom (…) How about draining that Obama LGBTQ swamp, Mr. President?”
On Tuesday, Feldblum published two posts at Medium in which she denied having ever said “Gays win; Christians lose,” and claiming to recognize “some situations in which the rights of religious liberty for organizations who believe homosexuality is sinful will conflict with and should prevail over the rights of LGBT people,” because “I care deeply about preserving religious pluralism in our country .”
At the American Conservative, Rod Dreher expressed skepticism about her latest defense, citing a 2006 interview in which Feldblum said, “there can be a conflict between religious liberty and sexual liberty, but in almost all cases the sexual liberty should win because that’s the only way that the dignity of gay people can be affirmed in any realistic manner.”
As for the fallout from Lee’s stand, an anonymous congressional staffer told NBC it would be unlikely for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to extend the current session to resolve the dispute. “Barring a miracle, unfortunately it looks like the EEOC will lack a quorum in the new year,” the staffer said.
President Trump has a mixed record on LGBT issues. His judicial nominees have generally shifted courts to the right, he is fighting in court to ban those with gender confusion from the military, and he has taken a variety of steps to strengthen religious liberty protections. But he has also nominated a variety of pro-LGBT officials to government posts and continued a number of Obama-era pro-LGBT policies, such as an executive order on “gender identity nondiscrimination.” He also considers same-sex “marriage” a “settled law.”