Exclusive — Republicans Grill HHS Over ‘Unconstitutional’ Trans Pronoun Mandate for Employees

Republican lawmakers are demanding answers from President Joe Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) about its new guidelines ordering agency employees to refer to transgender coworkers by their “preferred pronouns.”

Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL) is leading several other GOP lawmakers in sending a letter to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, grilling him for answers about the “unconstitutional” guidance and how it applies to religious employees. Breitbart News exclusively obtained a copy of the letter on Wednesday before it was sent. 

“We recently learned that the Biden Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is compelling political speech and violating the religious liberty rights of HHS employees by imposing a transgender pronoun mandate on your employees,” the letter reads. “We write to express our strong opposition to your illegal and unconstitutional transgender pronoun mandate, the so-called ‘HHS Gender Non-Discrimination and Inclusion Policy,’ which is a violation of the First Amendment rights of HHS employees.” 

“Your pronoun mandate clearly infringes upon the religious liberty and free speech rights of employees, who cannot be coerced into engaging in political speech or speech that violates their deeply held religious beliefs,” the letter continues. 

Lawmakers wrote the letter based on an alleged HHS internal email obtained by Roger Severino, vice president of domestic policy for the Heritage Foundation and former director of the HHS Office for Civil Rights during the Trump administration.

The HHS, which employs approximately 80,000 people in the United States and abroad, imposed its new “Gender Identity and Non-Discrimination Guidance” in early October; it outlines “employee rights and protections related to gender identity,” the alleged email reads. 

“All employees should be addressed [by] the names and pronouns they use to describe themselves,” the email continues.

The HHS also posted a video to YouTube — designated as “unlisted” — in which HHS Secretary Andrea Palm says the policy allows colleagues “to show up every day as their whole selves.”

“I want to say clearly to every one of you: Who you are and who you know yourself to be is valid,” Palm said. “We want you to be your authentic self every day, regardless of your gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion, or disability status.”

While Palm did mention religion, neither the video nor the email disclosed if the HHS plans on accommodating or exempting employees with religious objections to affirming transgender delusions.

HHS Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Rachel Levine, who describes himself as  “an out and proud transgender woman” in the video, said this policy ensures that “all HHS employees, including transgender and nonbinary employees, have equal protections in the workplace.” He added that all supervisors and managers are responsible for enforcing the policy.

“Every one of us can play a role in creating a welcoming workplace,” he said. “Every one of you can make a difference in improving the feelings of inclusion for your coworkers.”

WATCH — RELATED: Rachel Levine Pushes Doctors, Pediatricians to Be “Proactive” “Ambassadors” for Trans Ideology

The new policy additionally allows employees to wear clothing and use the restrooms that match their “gender identity,” and recommends the agency change its IT systems to ensure its official records document an employee’s transgender status. It also provides department-level coordination for anti-discrimination protections from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. 

Severino told the Catholic News Agency (CNA) at the time that the HHS has “replaced science and evidence with ideology” by implementing its gender ideology policy and argued that the policy could be used to target Christian employees.

“It absolutely will [lead to targeting Christians] because the [Biden] administration has made it abundantly clear that it prioritizes gender ideology over free speech and religious freedom rights,” Severino said.

Severino further argued that “[u]nder the First Amendment, [the HHS] cannot compel people to speak falsehoods; it also cannot compel people to adopt as their own a state-approved ideology [and the agency] cannot require people of faith to deny their faith with their own lips.”

“People should be prepared to file lawsuits to indicate their free speech and religious liberty rights and people of faith should flood HHS with religious accommodations requests and be prepared to defend themselves and their faith from this attack,” he said:

In the letter, lawmakers ask Becerra to address several concerns and request all internal communications regarding the new policy. They ask:

1. What legal justification are you citing for imposing a transgender pronoun mandate on your employees, which compels them to engage in political speech and violate their deeply held religious beliefs? 
2. Does your “HHS Gender Non-Discrimination and Inclusion Policy” violate the First Amendment rights of HHS employees?
3. What opt-out procedure will be used for employees with deeply held scientific, philosophical, or religious beliefs who do not want to follow any part of your “HHS Gender Non-Discrimination and Inclusion Policy?”
4. You cite “safety” as a reason for instituting this policy – how many safety incidents have been reported related to an employee’s transgender status?
5. As President Biden’s Secretary of Health and a self-proclaimed advocate for “The Science,” what scientific evidence are you citing to support the claim that a single person can embody two people, requiring the use of “they/them” plural pronouns? 
6. Will this Biden Administration policy require employees to refer to each other with so-called “neopronouns” such as “ze, zir, and zem”?
7. What will the punishment be for an HHS employee who refuses to refer to another employee according to their preferred pronouns?
8. Will you commit to never firing an employee for merely declining to use a person’s preferred pronoun that does not correspond to biological sex?
9. Provide all internal communications regarding the “HHS Gender Non-Discrimination and Inclusion Policy,” including all emails, memos, letters, and communications within and between the Immediate Office of the Secretary, Office of the Deputy Secretary, Office of the Secretary, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, Office for Civil Rights, and Office of the General Counsel. 

“The American people are gravely concerned with the Biden Administration’s contempt for the First Amendment free speech and religious liberty rights enshrined in our Constitution. These answers are vital as Congress debates the HHS appropriations bill and determines funding levels for your department,” the letter reads. 

Reps. Mary Miller (R-IL), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Jim Banks (R-IN), Randy Weber (R-TX), Matt Rosendale (R-MT), Doug LaMalfa (R-CA), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Diana Harshbarger (R-TN), Glenn Grothman (R-WI), and Andy Ogles (R-TN) signed the letter. 

HHS did not respond to a request for comment by time of publication. 

Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.