(American Thinker) – If there is anything that has advanced American society, you can be sure that “woke” leftists will destroy it.
So it is with Title IX – a one-sentence statute of the Education Amendments of 1972 that ended sex-based discrimination in educational institutions, opened the doors for women aspiring to become doctors, engineers, or experts in any field of choice, brought parity to college sports, and launched the battle against sexual harassment. In this fiftieth year of that landmark law, the Biden administration wants to rewrite it to suit the radical leftist ideology of gender identity and fluidity.
This is dangerous because it codifies the spreading gender derangement of the left. Worse, it will immerse young minds in learning environments that condition them to believe, without critical thinking, that the biological idea of sex is false. It will unleash other complications as well.
Already, Americans are suffering the tyranny of “woke” ideology. We have reached the abyss in which some people can’t (or won’t) define what a man or a woman is. Girls are forced to share private spaces with biological males. Teachers are cancelled or fired for using the wrong pronouns. Schools are hiding their curricula from the public and parents, who they think might object.
Sadly, the insanity extends to parents losing custody of their children for opposing capriciously imposed (and dangerous) gender “transitions.” The codification of “woke” gender will only cause the unending stream of such cases to proliferate.
UPDATE (26th January 2023):
Enoch Burke is facing severe fines of €5000 per week if he backs down in his stand for the truth about gender ideology.
SIGN: We stand with this brave Christian in his defense of the truth
Burke is facing a daily fine of €700 if he does not obey a court order barring him from attending the school he was fired from.
Having spent 108 days in jail last year for his refusal to abide by the court order, he was officially fired last week by the Church of Ireland (Anglican) Wilson’s Hospital School in Co. Westmeath, Ireland.
Responding to High Court Justice Brian O’Moore’s decision to fine the teacher €700 per day from Friday unless purges his contempt of the court order, Burke told reporters that the judge “wants to fine me for the profession of my religious beliefs.”
“What has become of us as a nation, to fine somebody for their religious beliefs?,” Burke asked. “We’re at a time in this country where people are at their wit’s end, with the cost of everything as we know...and Brian O’Moore, a judge of the High Court, has sat down and said to himself that not only will you have to pay for all those things, but you now have to pay for your religious belief.”
“He’ll make you a pauper for the profession of your religious belief,” Burke added.
PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION TODAY
The teacher declined to answer questions on whether he would continue to attend the school and face significant fines, or purge his contempt of court.
An Evangelical Christian who taught German, history and politics at the school for four years, Burke has consistently maintained that to use transgender pronouns would violate his religious beliefs and that his subsequent suspension by the school, and the court orders against him, were therefore unjust.
Jailed on September 5, 2022, Mr. Justice Brian O’Moore released Burke on December 21st, despite the teacher’s unwillingness to purge his contempt of the court order barring him from the school’s property.
Mr. Justice O’Moore said today that he hoped the prospect of paying almost €5000 in fines every week would “end his (Burke’s) utterly pointless attendance at a school which does not want him on its property”.
The judge warned however that the fines could be increased if they do not have the desired effect.
Burke was fired by the school last Friday and has shown up at the school grounds for work each day this week, despite being arrested and released on Tuesday.
He has until 2pm GMT on Friday to officially purge his contempt before the court or the €700 daily fines will begin to be applied.
Mr. Justice O’Moore admitted today that it was not “immediately attractive” to jail the Christian conscientious objector again as he theorized that Burke had exploited media attention surrounding his imprisonment last year for his own ends, while the judge also considered the schools suggestion to sequester the teacher’s assets to be futile.
Prior to his imprisonment, Burke told the High Court that “transgenderism is against my Christian belief.”
“It is contrary to the Scriptures, contrary to the ethos of the Church of Ireland and of my school,” the teacher added. “I love my school, with its motto Res Non Verba, actions not words, but I am here today because I said I would not call a boy a girl.”
“It is insanity that I will be led from this courtroom to a place of incarceration, but I will not give up my Christian beliefs,” he insisted.
Burke also promised Mr. Justice Max Barrett on September 7th that he would “never leave Mountjoy Prison if in leaving that prison I must violate my well-informed conscience and my religious beliefs and deny my God. I consider it commendable that I chose to obey God rather than man.”
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Irish teacher Enoch Burke has been arrested and jailed after refusing to use a transgender student's preferred pronoun, "they", in the classroom.
This insane step by Irish authorities must be called out for what it is: the unhinged intimidation of an educator by demented ideologues.
Please add your name to our urgent message to the High Court today.
SIGN: Enoch Burke must be freed immediately as an educator who upheld the truth
Burke was suspended by his school for refusing to use the transgender pronouns of a student, even confronting his principal about the irrationality of the situation, and defying a subsequent court injunction barring him from performing his teaching duties.
He is now in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin after being brought before a judge on 5 September who found Burke to be in contempt of the injunction by attending work after his suspension.
Burke, who told the High Court “I am here today because I would not call a boy a girl”, made clear that he would not abide by the injunction because it would violate his conscience as a Christian.
“Were I to obey the order of the board of management and the order of the court, I would have to accept that sticking by my belief in male and female is wrong,” he said. “It is not something I will do. It is in violation of my conscience."
“Were I to go into the school and bow to something I know to be manifestly wrong, it would be a shame and a disgrace on my part,” he added.
You can identify as a parrot if want but why should people like Enoch Burke be forced to play along with it?
— IrishConservative (@RealIrishCONS) September 2, 2022
This defiant attitude has now prompted Burke's arrest and imprisonment in an Orwellian debacle that should send warning signals to the watching world.
Mr. Justice Burke ordered Burke be "committed to Mountjoy Prison and remain therein until he purges his contempt or until further order of this court.”
Defending himself, Burke replied: “I cannot purge my contempt by holding my Christian beliefs in contempt."
Burke hugged his father and brother before being taken away by Gardaí to Mountjoy Prison.
Please share this petition with as many people as possible - it's clear that leftists will not tolerate dissent on this absurd issue unless we all push back.
SIGN: Enoch Burke must be freed immediately as an educator who upheld the truth
Thank you.
MORE INFORMATION:
Irish teacher jailed after refusing to use transgender pronouns - LifeSiteNews
Even scientists are succumbing to such ideology. Recently, the Scientific American mocked binary sex roles in Western science, taking us into the theater of the absurd. The once respected magazine quoted medical anthropologist (gasp!) Katrina Karkazis saying, “Our bodies are far more variable than our categories. Part of what has happened is people become slotted into this binary framework.” Can she possibly mean that a scientifically and religiously accepted fact – that there are two sexes, male and female – is categorically wrong?
If all this seems part of a passing Orwellian fad, I’m crestfallen to report it’s not. The rewriting of Title IX, proposed by the U.S. Department of Education in June, will perpetuate this irrational cult by embedding its ideology in our children through twelve years of school and another four or more of college.
The Biden administration is working to expand the legislation to legitimize ideas of gender fluidity; indoctrinate children to believe they were born in the wrong body; limit free expression; and promote transitioning in school – even of minors – without parental knowledge.
With the changes, “sex-based harassment” could apply to the use of biologically accurate, albeit non-preferred, pronouns, or an abandoned name. If Susie transmogrifies to Steve – or even just starts thinking and acting as if she were Steve – and you, a student or teacher, use his former name, watch out!
Like commissars, Title IX coordinators appointed under the new regulations will be able to file complaints against teachers, school officials, or other students without a child or her parents’ consent. The proposed law will broaden the definition of sexual harassment and could result in a burgeoning of investigations of allegations that a learning environment is “hostile” – whether it really is or is merely perceived to be hostile. Schools will even have the right to investigate and punish students for alleged violations outside school property or beyond their jurisdiction.
Certainly, such legislation would do nothing to improve safety. With schools legally bound to permit males who decide they identify as females to use bathrooms, locker rooms, and other private spaces meant for females, the risk of harassment and sexual assault will skyrocket.
In sports, girls and women will be forced to engage in unfair competition with biological males and thus have reduced access to scholarships. “In the last few years, transgender boys have won 22 championships against girls,” said Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) on Fox & Friends, adding that this would “bring women’s sports to its knees.”
Attorneys General in 18 Republican-led states told Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona that the proposed protections for transgender students would “destroy women’s sports.” Currently, 13 states have bans on biological males identifying as female from participating in school sports designated for girls. Other states are considering similar legislation. But the proposed changes to Title IX will render the traditional separation of the sexes illegal.
The changes to Title IX will legitimize behavioral standards based purely on ideology – not science – and dramatically change the outcomes of lawsuits filed to protect the rights of teachers, students, and parents, many of which have been successful. Essentially, schools will be forced to implement policies violating First Amendment rights to free speech and freedom of religion. For example, a teacher holding religious beliefs that reject gender transitioning could be forced to teach a chapter celebrating the concept.
Earlier this year, the Kiel Area School District (KASD) in Wisconsin accused three eighth-grade boys of sexual harassment for using “incorrect pronouns” while talking about a classmate though the pronouns were biologically accurate. The district’s policy is that once a student announces preferred pronouns, any “mispronouncing” constitutes sexual harassment.
In a media statement, the school said: “The KASD prohibits all forms of bullying and harassment in accordance with all laws, including Title IX, and continues to support ALL students regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, creed, pregnancy, marital status, parental status, sexual orientation, sex (including transgender status, change of sex or gender identity.”
The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, a non-profit law firm based in Milwaukee, defended the boys in a letter to the district administrators, contending that the use of biologically correct pronouns does not constitute sexual harassment – neither under Title IX nor under district policy. It argued that compelling a mode of speech violated First Amendment rights. Eventually, KASD backed down and the investigation was “closed.”
At Shawnee State University in Ohio, a philosophy professor was formally reprimanded for refusing to use a transgender student’s preferred pronouns. Nicholas Meriwether had a warning placed in his employee file and was told to address transgender students as they requested “to avoid further corrective actions.”
The Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal advocacy group, filed a lawsuit on his behalf, saying the school’s requirements violated his First Amendment rights – “the right to speak and act in a manner consistent with (his) faith and convictions.” To settle the lawsuit, the university will pay the professor $400,000 in damages and attorney fees.
But if discrimination by gender identity becomes codified in Title IX, it could affect the outcome of such cases. The relevant questions are: Will charges of a “sexually hostile environment” be allowed to override First Amendment rights? Will the law restrict the right of students and teachers to express opinions that may be considered offensive? The answers remain to be seen, as does the future of the Biden administration’s ill-advised proposal to change Title IX.
To stop this dangerous agenda, submit a public comment on Title IX before September 12 here, to the Federal Register (Docket ID: ED-21-OCR-0166). You may also join the campaign initiated by Child & Parent Rights here.
Reprinted with permission from the American Thinker.