Talk about New York values! New York City officials are now supposed to fine people for doing something called misgendering. Under a legal guidance set forth by the city’s Human Rights Commission, the city will now fine people $125,000 to $250,000 for addressing a transgender by the wrong pronoun or for refusing to let transgenders take advantage of single-sex facilities or programs. One religious liberties attorney said, ”You can be fined up to $250,000 if you use the pronoun ‘he’ to refer to a man.”

So — where hiring, housing, and public accommodation are concerned — gender is defined solely by the individual – not by biology and not by medical or legal documents. Even if the transgender has not legally changed their name, someone can be charged for referring to them using the wrong pronoun or title. And a person who objects to sharing a facility (like a gym locker room or a restroom) or participating in a program with a transgender or “gender non-conforming person” has no legal standing to do so.

This legal guidance has the backing of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.

This affects New York businesses. If a company’s dress code forbids men from dressing like women — including wearing wigs, or make-up — it could be fined up to a quarter of a million dollars. Company health plans are required to cover “gender affirming” care like voice training, hormones, and surgery.”

It’s not just New York. One day after Christmas, Washington state’s Human Rights Commission adopted a new set of policies that make it illegal for businesses to limit sex-specific facilities (i.e. bathrooms, showers, and locker rooms) to persons who possess the anatomical parts of the other sex. Each person must be accommodated for the gender they declare themselves to be. The rules apply to businesses with eight or more employees and also to schools. Schools must allow students to use restrooms and locker rooms “consistent with their gender identity.” If someone objects, the complaining student must find another facility to use. In fact, it’s illegal to even ask someone who appears anatomically not to belong in a restroom or locker room, why he is there.

Thankfully, state legislators are drawing up plans to officially oppose this. One, Graham Hunt, says, “I’ve received emails from folks who have been abused and taken advantage of in intimate private settings because someone had access to a facility that they shouldn’t have.”

Washington state has also joined New York City in making it illegal for a business — or in this case a school — to deliberately apply a pronoun to a person other than the one he or she prefers. In other words, in Washington, as in New York City you can be fined for calling a male “he” if he wants to be “she.”

This agenda is spreading to cities and states across the nation. It’s madness and it has got to be stopped.