As a rule, the presidential administration of Joe Biden supports transgender children and adults across the United States, as expressed in a proclamation issued from the president on Thursday marking the following day as Transgender Day of Visibility.
Republicans in positions of state-level power around the U.S. have repeatedly and consistently sought to go after children and adults living outside the gender norm established in modern standards of what’s known as cis (meaning non-trans) life. All the way back in 2021, before the continuing outrage from the Right about drag shows, Florida GOP Governor Ron DeSantis signed a ban on transgender women and girls participating in school athletic teams according to their gender identity. That is a long and continuing trend, with proposals circulating in some states to restrict what’s known as gender-affirming care not just for children and minors in their teens but some adults as well. Those additional limits are included either through directly stated age limits or restrictions on the funding of such treatments, whether from public funds or even private insurance companies. What about free markets, right?
“But today, too many transgender Americans are still denied those rights and freedoms,” Biden’s proclamation issued this week said. “A wave of discriminatory State laws is targeting transgender youth, terrifying families and hurting kids who are not hurting anyone. An epidemic of violence against transgender women and girls, in particular women and girls of color, has taken lives far too soon. Last year’s Club Q shooting in Colorado was another painful example of this kind of violence — a stain on the conscience of our Nation.”
Biden also addressed some of what his administration is doing. “The Department of Education is, for example, helping ensure that transgender students have equal opportunities to learn and thrive at school, and the Department of Justice is pushing back against extreme laws that seek to ban evidence-based gender-affirming health care,” he said, later adding: “America is founded on the idea that all people are created equal and deserve to be treated equally throughout their lives. We have never fully lived up to that, but we have never walked away from it either. Today, as we celebrate transgender people, we also celebrate every American’s fundamental right to be themselves, bringing us closer to realizing America’s full promise.” The president has made very similar comments in an interview for The Daily Show.
