Bishop Burbidge

Statement by Bishop Michael F. Burbidge on Supreme Court Decision on Legal Definition of “Sex” in Civil Rights Law

Bishop Michael F. Burbidge

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In this week’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, the Supreme Court has overstepped its bounds and imposed a legal definition which promotes a confused understanding of the nature and design of the human person. In seeking to address an employment issue, the majority opinion assigns to the word “sex” a meaning that those who passed the 1964 Civil Rights Act never would have imagined, and which Congress itself has declined to adopt. Indeed, the Court’s definition of “sex” is so broad that it effectively empties the word of any real significance whatsoever. 

This decision potentially may have impact far beyond civil rights and employment laws. The Supreme Court erroneously decided that there is nothing distinct about being male or female. This decision, now written into the Court’s precedent, only perpetuates our culture’s misunderstandings about the very nature of the human person. 

The truth and beauty of being male and female is willed by Our Creator and is evident in nature. This distinction and complementarity form the building blocks of the family, which is the very foundation of any healthy and stable society. Let us pray that God, our Creator and Redeemer, continue to enlighten our hearts and minds to perceive and live this truth, now and always.

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