ABSTRACT
The US House of Representatives passed H.R. 5, designated the ‘Equality Act’, in May 2019 with unanimous Democratic support. With the laudable aims of federally prohibiting LGBT+ discrimination amid a patchwork of state laws, the bill would extend civil rights protections to LGBT+ people by redefining ‘sex’ to include ‘sexual orientation and gender identity’. In this chapter, Burt analyses the Equality Act, in particular, and the broader efforts to replace sex with gender self-identification, in general, from a gender-critical feminist perspective. First, she describes the Equality Act, its implications, and the lack of policy impact evaluation. Next, the coterminous attempts to replace gender identity with sex in the US are discussed, along with efforts to maintain sex separation, especially for sports. This is followed by a discussion of alternative ways of protecting LGBT+ people without denying sex or eliminating sex-based rights. Burt concludes by raising several questions that deserve further consideration and encouraging discussion of these topics.
