WASHINGTON, D.C., December 14, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) – The Trump Administration has nominated to keep a radical LGBT activist, lesbian Chai Feldblum, in place as commissioner of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
A holdover from the Obama Administration, Feldblum is credited with spearheading and implementing much of the former administration’s radical gay and transgender policy agenda.
Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins called the renomination a shock.
“In a shock to conservatives, the Trump administration wants to give one of the most liberal LGBT activists of the Obama years another term,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Based on the last six years, Feldblum hasn't earned our trust — or another chance. When she was asked about the rights of Christians hiring employees of their choosing, she replied, ‘Gays win; Christians lose.’ That's in complete contrast with President Trump's beliefs and stated objectives, which leads me to believe that he wasn't briefed on Feldblum's activism or involved in her nomination,” he added.
“Why in the world as Trump re-nominated the Obama administration’s leading LGBT activist to the EEOC?” said Paul Mirengoff of Powerline, adding that “nothing requires that any of the five [EEOC commissioners] be hard-left Dems who push a radical LGBT agenda.”
Feldblum was appointed by President Obama to the EEOC in 2010, despite being one of the original signatories of the notorious 2006 “Beyond Marriage” declaration.
The declaration promoted, among other things: “Legal recognition for a wide range of relationships, households, and families,” as well as, “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, in two households.”
During a 2009 Senate Hearing, Feldblum testified that she had asked to have her name removed from the Beyond Marriage document because of its endorsement of polyamorous relationships.
Feldman holds that sexual liberty always trumps religious liberty. She once explained to National Review’s Maggie Gallagher that while she “didn’t claim she could never find a case where religious liberty wins . . . she was having trouble doing so.”
“Things have changed,” said Feldblum during a 2015 panel discussion sponsored by the Atlantic. “We believe sex discrimination covers discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.”
Feldblum “succeeded in having the EEOC take the position that Title VII protects gays and lesbians from employment discrimination,” notes Mirengoff at Powerline. She next “focused on the transgender bathroom wars. She cast the deciding vote in a case where the EEOC decided that the Department of the Army discriminated against Todd Lusardi when it denied him equal access to female restroom facilities. Feldblum and two other commissioners viewed the denial as both disparate treatment on the basis of sex and creation of a hostile work environment.”
Support for Feldblum by the Trump White House is puzzling. The Administration has involved itself in undoing many of the radical LGBT regulatory advances Feldblum orchestrated.
During the first six months of his Administration, President Trump overturned an Obama-era order that required businesses doing contract work for the government to prove they were complying with federal rules regarding hiring, firing, and promotions of LGBT employees.
The President also revoked other Obama-era guidelines outlining how schools must accommodate transgender students. The guidelines, which had been issued by the Department of Education in conjunction with the Department of Justice, dealt with preferred pronoun usage and access to preferred restrooms and locker rooms for transgender students.
More recently, the Trump administration had sought to delay a June, 2016 policy change by the Obama administration that allowed transgender individuals to serve openly in the military. But, after three attempts to delay implementation of the policy via the courts, the Department of Defense has been ordered by a federal judge to begin accepting gender dysphoric enlistees in January.
Perkins said Feldblum has no place in the Trump administration.
“The last thing this president wants on his EEOC is an arch enemy of his agenda on religious liberty. Even if the commission is required to have a certain number of Democrats, the White House doesn't have to take just anyone (or, in this case, the worst possible option).”
“We urge the administration to withdraw Feldblum's name from consideration and find a candidate with at least a veneer of objectivity,” he said.