Joe Biden tells transgender youth ‘your president has your back’
Biden sends message of support while Republicans nationwide attack transgender people
President Joe Biden has once again reiterated his support for the transgender community, at a time when Republicans nationwide are passing laws erasing or restricting trans rights.
In a tweet posted on Monday, Biden repeated a line from his April address to Congress, which specifically told trans youth that his administration supports them.
“To transgender Americans across the country — especially the young people who are so brave — I want you to know your President has your back,” Biden wrote. “During Pride Month — and all the time.”
To transgender Americans across the country — especially the young people who are so brave — I want you to know your President has your back.
During Pride Month — and all the time.
— President Biden (@POTUS) June 7, 2021
Transgender people are under assault from Republican lawmakers across the country, who continue to push and pass bans on transgender athletes competing according to their gender identity, restrictions on healthcare for transgender youth, and other anti-LGBTQ legislation.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis celebrated the start of Pride Month by signing a transgender sports ban into law, making the state the seventh so far this year to restrict athletes to competing based on the sex on their birth certificate.
The Human Rights Campaign has promised to sue the state over the ban, with the organization’s president, Alphonso David, saying they would ensure there are “legal consequences to pay for being on the wrong side of history.”
West Virginia faces a similar lawsuit over its recently passed ban on transgender athletes, with multiple state agencies included in a suit on behalf of Becky Pepper-Jackson, a transgender 11-year-old who is banned from trying out for the girls’ cross-country team at her middle school.
In addition to the seven states that have passed trans athlete bans, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R), signed executive orders barring trans athletes from competing based on their gender identity, after lawmakers refused to adopt technical changes she requested to a bill seeking to impose such a ban at the secondary-school and collegiate levels.
Nearly identical pieces of legislation, often employing the same phrasing and wording, have been introduced in nearly three dozen states as part of a push by GOP lawmakers to exploit divisive social issues ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
A recent Gallup poll found that Americans, by an almost 2-to-1 margin, favor restricting transgender athletes to competing in sports based on their assigned sex at birth.
Arkansas also faces a lawsuit for its recently passed law barring health care professionals from providing gender-affirming care to transgender minors. The ACLU is spearheading the lawsuit, and said the law is “devastating to trans youth and their families, forcing many to uproot their lives and leave the state to access the gender-affirming care they need.”
CBS’s flagship news magazine show 60 Minutes was slammed last month for airing a “dangerous” and “dehumanizing” segment on transgender healthcare, which focused on the small minority of transgender people who regretted their transition.
LGBTQ advocates criticized host Lesley Stahl and 60 Minutes, branding the segment “shameful,” “horrible,” and “anti-trans propaganda,” and accused 60 Minutes of showing trans healthcare from a “dangerous, unaccountable and limited angle.”
Related:
Trans teen attacked by anti-LGBTQ mob at Florida middle school
Trans wrestler Mack Beggs fights for recognition in Hulu’s new doc “Changing the Game”
Texas Republicans want taxpayers to pay for a special session to ban trans athletes from sport
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