Recently passed by the House of Representatives, the bill known as the Equality Act seeks to protect homosexuals and transsexuals from bigotry and discrimination. But, argue Yaakov Menken and Monica Burke, if passed it would inevitably intrude on the freedoms of religious traditionalists, and perhaps of Orthodox Jews in particular:

Should it ever become law, it will impact businesses, non-profits, houses of worship, and individuals. For example, it could put Jewish wedding halls, bands, caterers, and photographers out of business if they refuse service to a gay wedding. Even a synagogue that rents out a hall for weddings and other celebrations could be at risk. Furthermore, the bill would obligate businesses seeking to hire individuals of a particular sex to evaluate candidates based upon their expressed “gender preference,” rather than their biological sex. . . .

[Such] policies could also be the undoing of many religious charities. The Downtown Hope Center in Anchorage, Alaska was recently sued after it declined to allow a biological male who identifies as a woman to stay overnight in its shelter for battered women. That biological women—especially women seeking refuge from abuse—often feel unsafe sleeping near unfamiliar men was of no interest to government investigators. . . .

The Equality Act would [also] require doctors and nurses to perform and prescribe “transition-affirming” therapies, even if they deem them to be detrimental to their patients. Hospitals, even those with religious missions, would be forced to provide these procedures, and insurers would be required to pay for them.

And if the medical community is expected to provide hormonal and surgical interventions for adults, it will soon be expected to do the same for children. Activists suggest social transition for children as young as four, puberty-blocking drugs for children as young as nine, cross-sex hormones for children as young as fourteen, and surgery a few years later. These drastic therapies come with harmful and potentially fatal side effects: increased risk for cancer, heart disease, liver disease, and, of course, sterility.

Two extraordinary events demonstrate something important about Israel’s most fervent adversaries. One was a speech given at something called The People’s Forum (funded generously by Goldman Sachs), which stated, “When the state of Israel is finally destroyed and erased from history, that will be the single most important blow we can give to destroying capitalism and imperialism.”

The suggestion that this tiny state is the linchpin of a global, centuries-old phenomenon like capitalism goes well beyond anything resembling rational criticism. Even if Israel were guilty of genocide, apartheid, and oppression—which of course it is not—it would not follow that its destruction would help end capitalism or imperialism.

The other was an anti-Israel protest that took place in front of New York City’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, deemed “complicit” in Israel’s evils. At organizers’ urging, participants shouted their slogans at kids in the cancer ward, who were watching from the windows. Given Hamas’s indifference toward the lives of Gazan children, such callousness toward non-Palestinian children from Hamas’s Western allies shouldn’t be surprising. The protest—like the abovementioned speech—deliberately conveyed the message that Israel is the ultimate evil and its destruction the ultimate good, cancer patients be damned.

The fact that Israel’s adversaries are almost comically perverse does not mean that they can be dismissed. If its allies fail to understand the obsessive and irrational hatred that it faces, they cannot effectively help it defend itself.