Biden tells transgender Americans, “I’ll always keep your back,” so you can “be yourself and reach your God-given potential”: He tells Congress to finally pass the Equality Act on his desk
- President Joe Biden advocates for transgender Americans’ rights during a speech on the state of the Union on Tuesday night
- He called on Congress to “finally” pass the Equality Act, after it passed the House of Representatives only last year
- “The attack on state laws targeting transgender Americans and their families is wrong,” he said.
- He told transgender Americans, “I will always guard your back as your president so that you can be yourself and reach your God-given potential.”
- Transgender Americans continue to be targeted by red governors and lawmakers
President Joe Biden defends the rights of transgender Americans during a speech on the state of the Union on Tuesday night.
He called on Congress to “finally” pass the Equality Act.
“The attack on state laws targeting transgender Americans and their families is wrong,” he said. “As I said last year, especially to our younger transgender Americans, I will always keep my back to you as your president so that you can be yourself and reach your God-given potential.”
President Joe Biden advocates for transgender Americans’ rights during a speech on the state of the Union on Tuesday night
Activist holds sign “Let trance kids play sports” at a demonstration in New York last summer
Transgender Americans continue to be targeted by red governors and lawmakers.
Most recently, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott ordered child protection officials to launch investigations into families in which the child receives gender-based care.
Alabama lawmakers are pursuing a similar bill.
Abbott was challenged on the right in the state’s GOP primary to keep his job, a race he won on Tuesday night.
Earlier this month, South Dakota Republican Gov. Christie Noem signed a bill that would ban trance youth from participating in school sports with students of the same sex.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, who gave a Republican response Tuesday to Biden’s speech, said she supported similar legislation, which is currently passing through the Iowa legislature.
In Florida, the state legislature is discussing what is called the Don’t Say Gay bill, which would ban teachers from discussing LGBTQ people.
At a conference on conservative political action in Orlando, Florida last weekend, a number of Republican politicians raised the issue of trans women participating in women’s sports.
Former President Donald Trump said liberals “teach four-year-olds to choose their own gender.”
“And they say it’s absolutely good for the boys to take part in women’s sports,” he told booers in the crowd.
The Equality Act – which federalized the protection of LGBTQ people by adding them to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 – was passed by the House of Representatives last February, but the bill was not relinquished by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
It is unlikely to pass the Senate 50-50 without the reform of the filibuster.
Biden’s move was applauded by the LGBTQ Group, the Human Rights Campaign.
“The president’s call for action could not have come more urgently, as state legislators across the country are increasingly imposing discriminatory measures that seek to bring us back as a nation by shamelessly attacking transgender youth,” the statement said. HRC interim president Johnny Madison said.
“We welcome the President’s commitment to stand behind trans youth and the HRC stands in solidarity with the President, promising to continue to fight against harmful, discriminatory attacks on trans children and families who deserve to be supported rather than attacked by our elected officials. leaders, Madison continued. “The president’s message tonight is one that needs to be spread across the country, especially among young transgender people.”
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