The U.S. government appears so inclined to take the side of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders that it has gone to the extent of imposing on citizens how to use pronouns to refer to them.
The U.S. Department of Labor recently proposed new rules that will consider "sex stereotyping, transgender status, and gender identity" to kinds of discrimination in the workplace that is banned by law.
Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez said the proposed new set of rules that caters to homosexuals was meant to ensure that diversity will be respected in companies.
"Our nation's workforce system should reflect our commitment to diversity and the idea that America works best when we field a full team," Perez said, as quoted byWND.com.
"Protecting workers from discrimination based on disability, pregnancy, language proficiency, gender identity, and other factors is the right thing to do. This proposed rule provides welcome clarity on how to achieve that in the workforce system," he added.
The proposed new rules, which were published in the government's official journal called The Federal Register, discourage the use of the pronouns "he" and "she" in notices that receive federal funding.
"This [Notice of Proposed Rulemaking] also replaces 'he or she' with 'the individual,' 'person,' or other appropriate identifier wherever possible to avoid the gender binary. The plain language of the regulations is retained for ease of comprehension and application," the statement explaining the new rules read.
"These changes, although slight, identify the scope of the nondiscrimination obligation with more specificity and inform those who may not otherwise be aware of the developments in law," it added.
In fact, training centres that use these gender-specific pronouns in their notices will have to reprint their posters and update their websites.
To be able to do this, centres and other business establishments will have to incur multi-million dollar costs, just to ensure that homosexuals will be accommodated.
Ironically, U.S. President Barack Obama's Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act passed into law in 2014 never mentioned anything about gender identity.
