We’re used to hearing forecasts of catastrophe in our political discourse, breezy assurances that apocalypse is sure to follow if a particular bill or program is either adopted or spurned. That makes it easy to dismiss such claims out of hand. But in the case of the Equality Act, which the House of Representatives takes up this week, fear is entirely warranted.

If this bill is adopted, the fact that we are male or female is in danger of being replaced with the subjective concept of gender identity. The ramifications of this change, at the center of our universe of knowledge about human beings, would be profound. Making gender identity a protected class in the 1964 Civil Rights Act would discredit the idea that sex is binary, that men and women are different, and that recognition of these differences can be helpful to achieving justice and fairness in a variety of circumstances.