The Department of Housing and Urban Development recently announced a proposed rule that would protect the safety and privacy of women in homeless shelters. Under the Obama administration, a rule was put in place that would require shelters to accommodate people on the basis of their gender identity, rather than their biological sex. The current proposal rolls back that requirement and allows shelters to make admittance decisions on the basis of biological sex. Single-sex shelters offer women who have been abused, trafficked, or raped a safe place to stay, and this proposed rule would allow them to continue to care for the safety and well-being of women. HUD Secretary Ben Carson also pointed out that the rule change allows religious shelters in accordance with their beliefs.
In 2018, an Anchorage, Alaska women’s shelter was taken to court for choosing not to admit a man who identified as a woman. Saying that shelters must allow biological males to share intimate spaces with vulnerable women prevents shelters from carrying out their purpose of offering a safe place to women. Writing at The Daily Citizen, Jeff Johnston notes,
Of course, not all transgender-identified individuals threaten women. But activist groups like the ACLU and NCTE refuse to acknowledge that women have been harmed in sex-segregated facilities – by men who claim to be women. Liberty Counsel, a Christian legal aid group, compiled a list of 79 such incidents between 2006 and 2017.
The proposed rule would not leave people who are struggling with gender dysphoria out in the cold, but would instead require any shelter that does not accommodate someone to refer them to another shelter that can.
HUD’s proposed rule allows shelters to prioritize the safety and well-being of women and to operate in accordance with their religious beliefs. This is important, not just for religious freedom, but also for vulnerable women being served by these shelters who deserved to be valued and treated with dignity by having their safety prioritized.
