The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has issued new guidance which states, “continued intentional use of an incorrect name or pronoun (or both) could, in certain circumstances, contribute to an unlawful hostile work environment.”
The policy letter, which is five pages in total, covers proper use of names and pronouns, use of restrooms in relation to the sex the individual identifies with, dress and appearance standards, and other topics meant to clarify how all federal employees should conduct themselves in response to a transgender person in the workplace.
According to their Wikipedia page, “The United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is an independent agency of the United States Federal Government that manages the US civilian service. The agency provides federal human resources policy, oversight and support, and tends to healthcare (FEHB) and life insurance (FEGLI) and retirement benefits for federal government employees, retirees and their dependents.” In layman’s terms, they are the government’s human resources department.
OPM states that “agencies should not require a legal change of name or gender marker, any medical certification, or any other documentation.”
This guidance concerns me, to say the least. If an individual wants to start identifying by a sex they weren’t born with, all they have to do is declare it and poof, everyone else has to comply. The same applies for their name. Someone you’ve worked with for years can show up and demand to be called a different name, and you, as a federal employee, have to comply or risk creating an “unlawful hostile work environment.” There is literally no benchmark that has to be met. You may be in a supervisory role and not be in a position where you interact with every single individual on a daily basis, but if you send out an email without someone’s new name or pronoun, you’ll be in violation of OPM’s guidance. The sky is the limit on how this policy could be weaponized by a disgruntled employee.
The use of restrooms is equally alarming. According to OPM’s guidance, “agencies should allow access to common and single-user restrooms and other facilities corresponding to an employee’s gender identity.” It goes on to say that the employee doesn’t have to have undergone a gender affirming surgery or provide any proof of being a man or woman.
Saying we’re dealing with sheer insanity here doesn’t do the situation justice. Essentially any person can come and go from any restroom they desire, and all they have to do is say they identify as the sex marked on the facility door. I’m not sensationalizing this. This is what the policy clearly states. It also says that agencies should try to build more all-gender restrooms and facilities. This policy assumes the Federal Government has an unending pool of money to build these facilities, but I suppose in their mind they think they do. It’s only your taxpayer money, and we’re only $31 trillion in debt; no big deal. Let’s go further into debt by making unnecessary restrooms all while our servicemembers live in third world conditions.
If anyone needs proof that I’m not sensationalizing this policy (despite its very clear wording), look no further than the man who showed up this week to a women’s weightlifting competition in Canada and crushed the record; a record previously held by a transwoman (which is also a man). This bearded man, who made no attempt to look like a woman and was proving the point that he was in compliance with the competition’s policy by simply stating he was a woman, beat the bench press record by 45kg when he pressed nearly 167kg.
These policies aren’t just cartoonish in their lunacy; they’re dangerous as well. Just recently a man was convicted of rape and sent to an all female prison after suddenly saying he was a woman. These policies aren’t just protecting those who suffer from gender dysphoria, the underlying cause of those who believe they are a different sex than what they were born with. These policies protect criminals as well. The US Military, which is a federal institution and falls under OPM’s federal guidelines, reported sexual assault in US military up 13% in 2021 with almost 36,000 reported incidents. Allowing biological males to use female restrooms and facilities is dangerous and will only create more of an issue for women in a force that desperately wants to improve integration yet continues to enact policies that bring harm to those same individuals.