USCCB Religious Liberty Report Sees Gender Identity Issues as a Major Threat

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee for Religious Liberty published its annual report on the state of religious liberties in the United States in February, and the report identifies “gender ideology” as one of the most significant pressures shaping religious freedom debates in the United States.

The report argues that policies related to gender identity increasingly place religious individuals and institutions in conflict with government regulations, court decisions, and cultural expectations. The issue appears repeatedly throughout the report—from the discussions about executive branch actions and Supreme Court rulings to anticipated legal battles in the coming year.

Focusing on what transpired politically in 2025, the report favors early steps taken by the Trump administration at reversing policies that recognized gender identity as a protected category in federal law and regulations. Those actions included rescinding prior executive orders that directed agencies to prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and instructing federal departments to interpret sex-based protections according to biological sex rather than gender identity.

The report frames these moves as a response to concerns among religious groups that government policies increasingly require individuals and institutions to affirm beliefs about gender that conflict with their faith traditions. “Policies on gender identity implicate religious liberty when religious individuals and organizations are forced to defend their recognition of sexual difference,” the report states.

Other executive actions addressed federal funding for medical interventions aimed at altering the sexual characteristics of minors, and directed agencies to review rules affecting women’s athletics under Title IX, particularly in regard to the participation of transgender women.. Some of these issues are being reviewed in U.S. Supreme Court cases, which the USCCB sees as a possible turning point toward more conservative positions in the gender ideology debate.

Among the most notable rulings was a Supreme Court decision in U.S. v. Skrmetti, which upheld a Tennessee law restricting certain medical procedures for minors experiencing gender dysphoria.The USCCB report says the case had major implications for religious liberty because a ruling in the opposite direction could have created new constitutional protections based on transgender status that religious institutions might be required to recognize.

Another case cited in the report, Chiles v. Salazar,  involved a faith-based challenge to Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy. The Supreme Court’s ruling favored religious exemption over the state’s non-discrimination policy. 

In next year’s session the Supreme Court is expected to hear additional disputes in 2026 that could further shape how gender identity is addressed in federal law. The report says the future cases could significantly affect whether or not Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in education programs receiving federal funding, can require institutions—including religious schools—to recognize gender identity categories.

The report’s only supportive nod towards transgender people deals with the shooter who opened fire at the Annunciation Catholic School, Minneapolis where two children were killed and thirty people were injured. At the time, speculation ran wild that the shooter, a transgender woman,was motivated by animosity toward the Church’s teaching on gender and sexuality.The bishops affirm that the investigation later revealed there was no coherent motive for the shooting. 

—Matthew Gorczyca, March 18, 2026