East Central Reporter

U.S. Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL) is calling a gender identity mandate by the United States Department of Health and Human Services unconstitutional.

“I am leading the opposition to Biden’s new attempt to force HHS officials to violate their deeply held religious beliefs and free speech rights by mandating ‘they/them’ pronouns. Biden’s HHS wants to mock Christians and force employees to engage in leftwing political speech. No!” Miller said on Facebook.

Miller sent a letter to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra stating that the policy infringes on basic American rights. 

"We recently learned that the Biden Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is compelling political speech and violating the religious liberty rights of HHS employees by imposing a transgender pronoun mandate on your employees,” the letter reads. “We write to express our strong opposition to your illegal and unconstitutional transgender pronoun mandate, the so-called ‘HHS Gender Non-Discrimination and Inclusion Policy,’ which is a violation of the First Amendment rights of HHS employees.”

She continued, “Your pronoun mandate clearly infringes upon the religious liberty and free speech rights of employees, who cannot be coerced into engaging in political speech or speech that violates their deeply held religious beliefs."

Others also criticize this policy due to its impact on the First Amendment rights of other employees at work.

“HHS today imposed a transgender pronoun mandate on its employees who will now be forced to deny biological realities with their own words or face firing. Those with faith objections should immediately request religious accommodation and prepare to fight for your rights,” Roger Severino, Former Director of HHS Office for Civil Rights, said

His statement followed after HHS released a 14-page guide titled “Gender Identity Non-Discrimination and Inclusion Policy for Employees and Applicants.” According to HSS, this guide was designed “to provide workplace procedures safeguarding gender expression.”

This guide also explains under what conditions an employee may be penalized for not using preferred pronouns. 

“The isolated and inadvertent use of an incorrect name or pronoun will generally not constitute unlawful harassment,” the guide reads. “However, intentional and repeated use of an incorrect name or pronoun (or both) could, in certain circumstances, contribute to an unlawful hostile work environment.”