A "disturbing" homosexual civil rights legislation has entered the Constitution subcommittee, according to Concerned Women for America.
Cited as the Civil Rights Amendments Act of 2005, the bill would add sexual orientation to the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.
" ... when you add sexual orientation, the sky is the limit as to how to interpret it," said Robert H. Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute, during a CWA interview. "There are over 20 different sexual behaviors in the psychological manuals. It can mean almost anything."
The measure defines sexual orientation as "male or female homosexuality, heterosexuality, and bisexuality by orientation or practice, by and between consenting adults."
"Now I don't know how they can determine orientation except by practice because you can't get into people's heads," commented Knight. "So they're trying to create a new civil rights category with sweeping implications based on what someone might be thinking or doing in the bedroom."
While the civil rights and fair housing laws protected against discrimination or segregation on the ground of race, color, religion, or national origin, the proposed act is "so different" from what the federal civil rights law tried to accomplish, according to Knight.
"This is so different from what the Civil Rights Act was all about, which was to redress actual discrimination ... based on Jim Crow Laws and to redress grievances by people who have been enslaved and then officially discriminated against by their government," he said.
Introduced by Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-New York in January, the legislation has been "below the radar," according to Martha Kleder, policy analyst with CWA.
The bill has gone unnoticed, explained Knight, because of the "big battles" regarding homosexuality, like the marriage amendment that America has been dealing with.
Knight expressed concerns about the measure just slipping by. The Civil Rights Amendments Act of 2005 moved out of the House Judiciary Committee in March and is now in the subcommittee on the constitution.
