Joe Biden promised to reverse President Donald Trump’s executive orders that sidelined the pro-transgender policies imposed by former President Barack Obama.
“I will flat out just change the law — I will eliminate those executive orders,” he told the mother of a woman who said her young child is transgender.
Since 2017, Trump has used his power of the presidency to reject the pro-transgender rules set by President Barack Obama.
Trump’s executive order bars the Pentagon from ordering soldiers to pretend that an intact man is a woman and allows officials in federally-funded homeless shelters to let abused and homeless women use different bedrooms and bathrooms than homeless men. Trump’s policies also help girls sue to keep boys out of their sports and allow states to recognize the two different and complementary sexes in their K-12 schools.
The woman asked at the October 15 town hall event:
The Trump administration has attacked the rights of transgender people, banning them from military service, weakening non-discrimination protections, and even removing the word “transgender” from some government websites. How will you, as president, reverse this dangerous and discriminatory agenda and ensure that the lives and rights of LGBTQ people are protected under U.S. law?
Biden indicated he accepted the claim that children can make lifetime medical decisions — even before puberty — and said:
The idea that an eight-year-0ld child or a ten-year-old child decides, “You know, I decided I want to be transgender. That’s what I think I’d like to be — it’ll make my life a lot easier!”
There should be zero discrimination … and so I promise you, there is no reason to suggest that there should be any right denied your daughter — or daughters, whichever, one or two, your daughter — that your other daughter has a right to be or do. None. Zero.
Many critics of pro-transgender policies say that children’s sexual confusion is usually resolved by puberty, or by the adoption of a gay or lesbian orientation, and say that transgender drugs are dangerous to the takers’ health.
Biden’s 2020 platform supports the Democrats’ Equality Act, which would establish the claim that each person’s feelings of their “gender” should be treated as more important than other people’s biology. For example, the law would allow the federal government to sue women’s sports teams if they tried to exclude a man who claims to have a female “gender identity.”
Biden’s answer may prompt more debate about the topic.
Over the last few months, pro-transgender groups have kept a low profile in the presidential campaign and in the debate over the Supreme Court nomination of Amy Coney Barrett.
Biden’s answer prompted critics and praise on Twitter.