Full Legislature - Oppose Gender Ideology

Urge Your Legislators to Resist the Radical Gender Legislation Being Proposed in the State Legislature

The so-called gender treatments are being welcomed and pushed through legislative efforts, and are making their way into omnibus bills. Tell your legislators NO!

Listen to Bishop Barron explain the importance of opposing this radical gender ideology and follow his lead by taking action!

The Minnesota Legislature is promoting a radical gender agenda that seeks to impose itself on our culture. This legislation includes:

• H.F. 173 / S.F. 37 – Equal Rights Amendment
• H.F. 2280 / S.F. 2236 – Right to Gender-Affirming Care Act
• H.F. 2607 / S.F. 2209 – Gender-Affirming Care Coverage Mandated

Each of these bills seeks to further enshrine into law a deeply flawed and fictional account of the human person that will bring harm to vulnerable young people.  Many young people are struggling with confusion about their basic human experience and their identity, often caused by peer influence and cultural forces.  Families are seeking honest help, yet pharmaceutical companies and some unscrupulous doctors are negligently funneling kids into a lifetime of surgical and hormonal treatments, which has already created a billion-dollar business.  By denying the reality that we are each created male and female, we are doing irreversible damage to children and inhibiting their future ability to form families.

Although every instance of unjust discrimination must be avoided against persons with gender discordance, we cannot allow gender ideology to grow unchecked, as ample evidence suggests that “gender-affirming care” not only does not resolve a person’s psychological struggles but exacerbates them.

We need to tell our legislators that promoting this false reality of the human person is unacceptable. Enshrining gender ideology into law will harm our children, and is detrimental to society.

What MCC has done so far (Resources/Testimony):

• MCC Testimony Opposing Multiple Pieces of Gender Legislation
• Testimony in Opposition to Proposed Changes in the MN Human Rights Act
• Testimony in Opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment
• Testimony in Opposition to the Counseling Ban (given in multiple House and Senate committees)

Church Teaching:

Pope Francis, in his Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, he states:

“Yet another challenge is posed by the various forms of an ideology of gender that ‘denies the difference and reciprocity in nature of a man and a woman and envisages a society without sexual differences, thereby eliminating the anthropological basis of the family. This ideology leads to educational programs and legislative enactments that promote a personal identity and emotional intimacy radically separated from the biological difference between male and female. Consequently, human identity becomes the choice of the individual, one which can also change over time’. It is a source of concern that some ideologies of this sort, which seek to respond to what are at times understandable aspirations, manage to assert themselves as absolute and unquestionable, even dictating how children should be raised. It needs to be emphasized that ‘biological sex and the socio-cultural role of sex (gender) can be distinguished but not separated’”.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church also teaches:

2331: "God is love and in himself he lives a mystery of personal loving communion. Creating the human race in his own image . . .. God inscribed in the humanity of man and woman the vocation, and thus the capacity and responsibility, of love and communion."

"God created man in his own image . . . male and female he created them"; He blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and multiply"; "When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created."

Act Now

One Minute: Send a message to your Legislators asking them to oppose this radical gender legislation and instead embrace the true reality of man and woman.

3 Minutes: Read the testimony of Jason Adkins and Maggee Hangge laying out the competing worldviews in today’s society and expressing opposition to the multiple pieces of gender legislation being pushed this year.

More Time: Learn about the Eden Invitation, an apostolate that helps men and women struggling with gender discordance live an authentically Catholic sexuality.

A simple breakdown of each bill is as follows:

H.F. 173 / S.F. 37 – Equal Rights Amendment

This bill is awaiting a floor vote in both bodies.

• Would send to the ballot a question "Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended by adding a specific guarantee that equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by this state or any of its cities, counties, or other political subdivisions on account of race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, ancestry, or national origin?
• Protects a class of people based on who they think they are while denying the reality of their maleness or femaleness
• Unnecessary legislation because sex and gender, and more, are already protected in the Minnesota Human Rights Act
• Threatens religious and conscience exemptions that the Minnesota Human Rights Act currently guarantees

H.F. 2280 / S.F. 2236 – Right to Gender-Affirming Care Act

Has had multiple hearings in the House.

• Gives every individual, including minors, a fundamental right to so-called “gender-affirming care”
• There are no guardrails within the bill

H.F. 2607 / S.F. 2209 – Gender-Affirming Care Coverage Mandated

The provision to cover this care through Medical Assistance is in the House Health Finance and Policy omnibus bill, per a recommendation by the Governor.

• Requires that gender-affirming care meets the credentials of medically necessary
• Insurance plans cannot exclude coverage for gender-affirming care
• Medical Assistance must cover gender-affirming care (taxpayer-funded gender treatments on minors)

H.F. 16 / S.F. 23 – Counseling Ban (“conversion therapy ban”)

This bill has passed in both bodies and has been signed by the governor.

• This legislation denies young people who struggle with gender discordance and same-sex attraction access to the psychological sciences that help them live in harmony with their bodies and with a healthy, rightly ordered sexuality that promotes human flourishing.
• While youth can consent to puberty blockers and hormone treatments, they cannot engage in talk therapy to help understand and uncover any underlying trauma or reasons that they are experiencing discomfort with their sexuality.

H.F. 146 / S.F. 63 – “Trans Refuge Bill”

This bill has passed in both bodies and has been signed by the governor.

• Children of any age can be brought to Minnesota by one parent, or by a person acting as a parent, and be given “gender-affirming care”
• A Minnesota court can make an initial child custody determination (instructions about the custody of the child, but not the financial obligation) if a child is unable to receive the gender-affirming care that the child desires.
• Adds a definition of gender-affirming healthcare, ” that “respects the gender identity of the patient, as experienced and defined by the patient.” This unheard-of standard allows a minor to make life-altering decisions that they cannot fully comprehend.

H.F. 1655 / S.F. 1886 – Human Rights Act Exemptions Removed

The bill was passed via the Judiciary omnibus bill.

• Adds a definition of gender identity to the Minnesota Human Rights Act
• Removes the protection of choice when it comes to who is living under one’s own roof by forcing the rental of a dwelling unit to someone who may not live in right relationship with their body. This could be confusing to children, if the owner’s family lives in one half of a duplex, and rents out to the other.
• Nonpublic organizations that serve youth are stripped of the option to hire someone who shares their values.