The drive to force states into accepting radical gender identity theory may be leading to a new “Moral Majority” — an organized voting bloc of the Christian right — that could be critical in the election and might even help elect Donald Trump.

“There is a battle of world views being waged across this land.”

A reaction to the bitter fruits of the sexual revolution, epitomized by the controversial 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, the Moral Majority was founded in 1979 by Baptist minister Jerry Falwell and sought to mobilize the evangelical Christian vote. It played a role in helping Ronald Reagan get elected.

At the Road to Majority conference in Washington, D.C., on Friday, hosted by the Faith and Freedom Coalition, it appeared that the growing controversy surrounding divisive transgender bathroom policies is poised to spawn another such movement. The issue was frequently discussed throughout the conference.

gohmert

“People are afraid of being called crazy or phobic of one kind,” if they protest policies influenced by gender identity, said Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas). Gohmert also highlighted the shocking suicide statistics associated with transgenders, and railed against the government for providing funds for soldiers to get sex reassignment operations while there are systemic problems at the Department of Veterans Affairs. “Do we not have enough veterans committing suicide without you increasing that 20 times?” he asked.

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, was blunt in his assessment of the national debate. “There is a battle of world views being waged across this land,” he said. Almost every other speaker featured on Friday touched on that battle.

What was already a heated debate became a national controversy in May when Obama’s Education and Justice Departments issued guidelines on the treatment of transgender students in schools. A school “must not treat a transgender student differently from the way it treats other students of the same gender identity,” they said.

“The desire to accommodate others’ discomfort cannot justify a policy that singles out and disadvantages a particular class of students.”

Shockingly, the government also said that schools have an obligation “to provide transgender students equal access to educational programs and activities even in circumstances in which other students, parents, or community members raise objections or concerns,” and that “the desire to accommodate others’ discomfort cannot justify a policy that singles out and disadvantages a particular class of students.”

In addition to being a topic mentioned frequently by the event’s speakers, there were two breakout sessions dedicated entirely to the issue — Bullies, Bathrooms, & Big Brother: Parts 1 and 2. It was the only topic for which two seminars were dedicated.

Who do you think would win the Presidency?

By completing the poll, you agree to receive emails from LifeZette, occasional offers from our partners and that you've read and agree to our privacy policy and legal statement.

“Obama really went too far with this,” said Kate, a student who asked that we withhold her last name “so the [liberal] kids at school don’t find out” she attended a conservative Christian conference. “He’s risking girls’ lives to make some political point.”

The issue which galvanized the original Moral Majority was abortion — the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade “did more to destroy our nation than any other decision it has made,” Falwell said. The Moral Majority was important in mobilizing the evangelical vote for Reagan — over a fifth of its supporters who voted for Jimmy Carter in 1976 went for Reagan in 1980. In 2016, numbers look even better for Trump.

[lz_related_box id=”142900″]

“On the Republican side, half of all [the 10 million new primary voters in 2016] self-identified as born-again evangelical Christians,” said Ralph Reed, founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, at the Road to Majority conference.

“They alone overwhelm Obama’s 2012 margin of victory,” he noted. Getting those five million evangelical voters to turn up on Election Day could indeed be vital to Trump’s prospects.

And indeed, the divisive transgender issue could galvanize voters beyond the traditional Christian right. Since announcing their transgender bathroom policy, Target’s stock has lost over $10 billion in its value — it’s doubtful that drop was driven by evangelical Christian shoppers alone. At the beginning of June, Maya Dillard Smith, leader of the Georgia American Civil Liberties Union, resigned in protest over the organization’s support for transgender rights.

Dillard Smith said her daughters were “frightened” by a first-hand experience of encountering men who identified as female in a women’s bathroom and that they were “concerned about their safety and left asking lots of questions for which I, like many parents, was ill-prepared to answer.” The transgender controversy has the potential to unite secular and religious voters in a way perhaps unprecedented in American politics.

One thing is certain. Like the Moral Majority before it, the Faith and Freedom Coalition is preparing to fight for every Christian vote it can possibly influence. “We dare not sit on the sidelines on what I believe is the most important election of our lifetime,” Reed said.