Barr Steps Up Attacks on LGBTQ Inclusion in Schools
Rhetoric refl ects administration’s fi xation on religious liberty at expense of queer rights
BY MATT TRACY
Weeks after the Department of
Justice (DOJ) defended the fi ring
of an out gay Catholic schoolteacher,
US Attorney General
William Barr stood in front of law students and
railed against states requiring LGBTQ education
in schools.
Barr vigorously defended religious liberty —
for Christians, at least — as he lectured students
from the University of Notre Dame Law
School on October 11 about modern-day secularism,
saying, “Judeo-Christian moral standards
are the ultimate utilitarian for human
conduct.” He further complained that secular
views are contributing to drug use and are being
imposed on society.
“For example, New Jersey recently passed
a law requiring schools to adopt a LGBT curriculum
that many feel is inconsistent with
traditional Christian teaching,” Barr said in
the speech, according to WNDU News in South
Bend, Indiana.
The lecture was laced with talking points
commonly espoused by the far right. Barr referred
to what he described as militant “forces
of secularism,” adding that he believes “the
campaign to destroy the traditional moral order
has coincided.”
During Barr’s current stint as attorney general,
the DOJ has already come under fi re for
➤CNN LGBTQ FORUM, from p.4
prosecute people trying to use the “gay or trans
panic defense.” She also, again, pointed out
that she was offi ciating same-sex marriages in
2004, when Governor Gavin Newsom, who was
then San Francisco mayor, declared that samesex
couples could wed — until a court put a
halt to that.
Among other topics discussed was one question
about the decriminalization of sex work,
which is an LGBTQ issue that has emerged
rapidly in the last year due to the work of many
current and former queer sex workers who have
highlighted the police abuse and criminalization
they’ve faced for engaging in consensual
behavior. To the disappointment of many viewers,
Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota rejected
decriminalization by citing concerns that
it would contribute to traffi cking. Sex workers
have repeatedly said decriminalization would
bolster safety and reduce stigma for adults in
the trade, while doing nothing to undermine
the fi ght against criminal abuse of minors and
unwilling adults.
US STATE DEPARTMENT/ RON PRZYSUCH
In the name of religious liberty, US Attorney General Bill Barr is on a
crusade against LGBTQ teachers and teachings.
maintaining an anti-LGBTQ culture. Members
of DOJ Pride, which represents employees of
the department as well as contractors, delivered
a letter to Barr in March highlighting the
DOJ’s lack of an Equal Employment Opportunity
statement in addition to low morale and
discrimination against LGBTQ employees.
Barr’s rhetoric marked the latest example of
the Trump administration’s tendency to use
CNN
South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, seen here with CNN’s Anderson
Cooper, recalled personal details about his coming out experience.
Former Texas Congressmember Beto
O’Rourke, who responded to Brown’s interruption
by vowing to hold a town hall focused on
trans people of color, used his time to stress
that religious institutions should lose their
tax-exempt status if they reject same-sex marriage.
Former Housing and Urban Development
Secretary Julian Castro said during his time
POLITICS
religious liberty as a shield to justify targeting
women’s reproductive rights and LGBTQ rights.
In September, the DOJ fi led a Statement of Interest
against a Catholic schoolteacher who is
suing the Archdiocese of Indianapolis after he
said he was fi red due to his sexual orientation.
The DOJ responded to his lawsuit by arguing
that “secular courts cannot entangle themselves
in questions of religious law.”
Other agencies within the administration
have also taken aim at LGBTQ rights in
schools. In 2017, Secretary of Education Besty
DeVos shrugged off the Offi ce for Civil Rights’
investigations of discrimination against LGBTQ
students and, in 2018, took things a step
further when the Department of Education
stopped considering complaints by transgender
students experiencing transphobic bathroom
policies at their schools.
The administration’s fi xation on conservative
notions of religious liberty, meanwhile, is also
seen in the State Department, which drew wide
criticism on October 14 when the front page of
the department’s website promoted a speech by
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo entitled “Being
a Christian Leader.” Pompeo used the speech to
blast abortion rights and blur the lines between
church and state by explaining the role religion
has played in his life. The State Department has
scaled back its efforts on human rights abroad
and instead has focused on advocating for religious
rights internationally.
on stage that his successor, Ben Carson, should
resign for his transphobic rhetoric and actions.
He also said he would include LGBTQ folks in
his cabinet and only give foreign aid to nations
that respect LGBTQ rights,
Billionaire hedge fund executive Tom Steyer,
whose candidacy has been visible primarily
only through television ads, capped off the
night by recalling the horror of the onset of the
AIDS crisis, vowing to include LGBTQ folks in
his administration, and stressing that “there
is nothing more painful as an American” than
seeing the deaths of trans women of color.
Some other, candidates, such as entrepreneur
Andrew Yang and Vermont Senator Bernie
Sanders, did not attend. Sanders had accepted
an invitation to participate but was forced
to cancel events for the week after suffering a
heart attack. As an alternative, he sat down
with CNN in Burlington shortly before the town
hall started to discuss queer issues, saying he
would do “everything that’s humanly possible”
to protect LGBTQ folks while ripping the Trump
administration for scaling back queer rights
under the guise of “religious liberty.”
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