Civil Rights Uniformity Act of 2016

Summary: Civil Rights Uniformity Act of 2016 This bill prohibits the word &quot;sex&quot; or &quot;gender&quot; from being interpreted to mean &quot;gender identity,&quot; and requires &quot;man&quot; or &quot;woman&quot; to be interpreted to refer exclusively to a person's sex, for purposes determining the meaning of federal civil rights laws or related federal administrative agency regulations or guidance.  No federal civil rights law shall be interpreted to treat gender identity or transgender status as a protected class, unless it expressly designates &quot;gender identity&quot; or &quot;transgender status&quot; as a protected class.

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Civil Rights Uniformity Act of 
2016.''

SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS AND DECLARATION OF PURPOSE.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
            (1) Over the past half century, Congress has passed 
        numerous civil rights laws prohibiting discrimination on the 
        basis of ``sex,'' a designation long understood to be grounded 
        in objective biology up to the present day. There is no 
        evidence that Congress or the American people ever understood 
        the word sex or gender in civil rights laws to include 
        subjective self-identification.
            (2) For years, advocates have pressed Congress to include a 
        person's subjective self-declared ``gender identity'' in 
        Federal civil rights laws that prohibit sex discrimination. 
        Congress has declined to do so except for the Shepard-Byrd Act 
        of 2009 and the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 
        2013 where gender identity is defined as ``actual or perceived 
        gender-related characteristics'' with ``gender'', there 
        referring to characteristics associated with biological males 
        and females.
            (3) This demonstrates that when Congress wants to protect 
        sex, it does so explicitly; when it wants to also elevate 
        gender identity it does so explicitly; and when it does not 
        want to elevate gender identity, it can do so either explicitly 
        or by simply not disturbing the status quo.
            (4) Despite the complete clarity of this point, President 
        Barack Obama's administration has attempted to effectively 
        replace the word ``sex'' with the phrase ``gender identity'' 
        for purposes of Federal antidiscrimination law and policy 
        through a series of unilateral executive actions.
            (5) For example, on December 15, 2014, Attorney General 
        Eric Holder announced that the Department of Justice would 
        reinterpret the ban on ``sex'' discrimination under title VII 
        of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to encompass ``gender 
        identity.'' This was followed on March 27, 2015, by an Equal 
        Employment Opportunity Commission decision holding that 
        declining to use a female pronoun to address a male who 
        identifies as female constituted ``sex'' discrimination under 
        title VII.
            (6) On May 9, 2016, the Obama administration sued the State 
        of North Carolina and threatened it with fines and loss of 
        Federal funding if it did not adopt the administration's 
        incorrect readings of title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 
        and title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.
            (7) On May 13, 2016, the Departments of Justice and 
        Education issued a ``significant guidance'' letter stating that 
        under title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 ``when a 
        school provides sex-segregated activities and facilities, 
        transgender students must be allowed to participate in such 
        activities and access such facilities consistent with their 
        gender identity.'' The guidance further states that schools 
        ``must treat a student's gender identity as the student's sex'' 
        including in the context of ``sex-segregated restrooms, locker 
        rooms, shower facilities, housing, and athletic teams, as well 
        as single-sex classes.'' In other words, the Departments 
        consider it a title IX violation if a person of the male sex 
        who self-identifies as a female is not granted unfettered 
        access to women's or girls' dorms, showers, locker rooms, and 
        bathrooms. This, despite assurance that such a thing would 
        never happen from the likes of Ruth Bader Ginsburg who wrote in 
        1975 that ``separate places to disrobe, sleep, perform personal 
        bodily functions are permitted, in some situations required, by 
        regard for individual privacy.'' This position was codified in 
        Federal regulations, 34 CFR 106.33, which state that recipients 
        of Federal funds ``may provide separate toilet, locker room, 
        and shower facilities on the basis of sex,'' with sex obviously 
        referring to biology.
            (8) Also on May 13, 2016, the Department of Health and 
        Human Services finalized regulations that redefined the 
        Affordable Care Act's prohibition on ``sex'' discrimination in 
        federally funded health programs and activities to cover 
        ``gender identity'', thereby opening health care professionals 
        and insurers to extensive liability if they decline to 
        participate in or pay for ``gender transition'' treatments or 
        ``sex change'' operations.
            (9) The Obama administration's actions are an affront to 
        the rule of law, the separation of powers, the will of the 
        people, language, history, safety, privacy, and biological 
        realities.
    (b) Purpose.--The purposes of this Act are--
            (1) to prevent the executive branch from unilaterally 
        rewriting Federal civil rights laws by enacting or implementing 
        any policy or undertaking any enforcement action that is based 
        on construing the term ``sex'' or ``gender'' to mean ``gender 
        identity''; and
            (2) to ensure that gender identity is not treated as a 
        protected class in Federal law or policy without the 
        affirmative approval of the people's representatives in 
        Congress.

SEC. 3. PROHIBITION OF POLICIES REDEFINING SEX TO MEAN GENDER IDENTITY.

    (a) Rule of Construction.--In determining the meaning of any 
Federal civil rights law, and of any related ruling, regulation, 
guidance, or interpretation of the various administrative bureaus and 
agencies of the United States, the words ``sex'' and ``gender'' and 
their equivalents shall not be interpreted to mean ``gender identity'' 
or its equivalent, and the words ``man'' and ``woman'' and their 
equivalents shall refer exclusively to a person's sex.
    (b) Rule of Interpretation.--No Federal civil rights law shall be 
interpreted to treat gender identity or transgender status as a 
protected class, unless such law expressly designates ``gender 
identity'' or ``transgender status'' as a protected class.
    (c) Definition of ``Federal Civil Rights Law''.--For purposes of 
this Act, the term ``Federal civil rights law'' means any Federal law 
prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex or gender, including 
title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (20 U.S.C. 1681 et seq.), 
the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000a et seq.), the Fair 
Housing Act (42 U.S.C. 3601 et seq.), the Patient Protection and 
Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111-148), and any other Federal law or 
provision thereof prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex or 
gender.