Spiritual conservatives are critical of President Joe Biden for designating March 31 as “Transgender Day of Visibility,” which coincides with Easter Sunday this time.
The Democratic senator issued the statement, urging “all Americans to join us in lifting up the life and voices of trans persons throughout our Country and work toward ending violence and discrimination based on gender identity.”
But in 2024, the March 31 title overlaps with Easter, one of Christianity’s holiest events. Donald Trump’s plan accused Biden, a Roman Catholic, of being indifferent to church, and fellow Republican piled on.
The President was criticized by Kansas U.S. Senator Roger Marshall for making trans time of celebration on the Christian calendar.
“This is not a fluke or supervision. On our most lauded Holy Day, Joe Biden is publicly and purposefully slapping hundreds of millions of American Christians in the face. Sickening”.
Biden was criticized on his social media platform by the former president Trump plan.
The press secretary for the Trump campaign, Karoline Leavitt, said, “We call on Joe Biden’s failing strategy and White House to apologize to the millions of Christians and Christians who believe that the day will be remembered solely by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” She assailed what she called the Biden government’s “years- much assault on the Christian faith”.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said on cultural press that the “Biden White House has betrayed the core principle of Easter” and called the judgment “outrageous and awful”.
According to White House spokesman Andrew Bates, Republicans who criticize Biden “are trying to divide and weaken our country with violent, cruel, and unscrupulous rhetoric.”
President Biden, a Christian who celebrates Easter with home,” stands for bringing people up and upholding the integrity and rights of every American,” according to Bates. ” President Biden does not mistreat his faith for democratic gain or for political gain.”
Biden reveres his Catholic culture as a major component of his conscience and identity and regularly attends Mass. He met with Pope Francis at the Vatican in 2021, and he later claimed to be a” fine Christian” who should continue to receive Holy Communion.
The White House online site published the whole Biden statement:
Some of the bravest people I know have to frequently had to throw their jobs, relationships, and lives on the line just to be their true selves, and Transgender Day of Visibility celebrates the happiness, strength, and overall courage of these people. We show the world that transgender and nonbinary Americans are welcome, and they deserve to be treated with respect and dignity now. Their bravery has given many others power, but no one should have to be courageous just to be themselves. Every American deserves that flexibility.
Transgender Americans shape our World’s mind — happily serving in the military, curing dangerous conditions, holding elected office, running growing businesses, fighting for fairness, raising people, and much more. As kids, they deserve what every child deserves: the chance to learn in safe and supportive schools, to develop meaningful friendships, and to live openly and honestly. As adults, they deserve the same rights enjoyed by every American, including equal access to health care, housing, and jobs and the chance to age with grace as senior citizens. However, too many transgender Americans still lack those rights and freedoms today. A wave of racial state laws are aimed at transgender youth, terrifying families, and hurting children who aren’t hurting anyone. A pandemonium of violence against transgender girls and women, particularly women and girls of color, has already taken many lives. Another agonizing example of this kind of violence was the Colorado shooting last year that left a trail in the minds of our nation.
My administration has worked from day one to put an end to these injustices, making sure transgender people and the LGBTQI+ community can live freely and safely. I issued an Executive Order on my first day as president, mandating the Federal Government to stop discrimination against LGBTQI+ people and their families. We have chosen a record number of LGBTQI+ leaders, and I was pleased to back away from the openly transgender person’s inclusion in the military. Additionally, we are working to improve accessibility for public spaces and travel, including including gender-inclusive passports. We are enhancing access to social security and other benefits. We are taking action to combat discrimination in education and housing. And last December, I passed the Respect for Marriage Act, making it clear that no one in America can marry the person they love and have their union accepted.
Meanwhile, we are also working to ease the tremendous strain that discrimination, bullying, and harassment can put on transgender children — more than half of whom seriously considered suicide in the last year. For instance, the Department of Justice is fighting back against extreme laws that seek to ban evidence-based gender-affirming health care while the Department of Education is making sure that transgender students have equal opportunities to learn and thrive at school.
There are many more things to do. I continue to appeal to Congress to pass the Equality Act and grant all LGBTQI+ Americans long-overdue civil rights protections to ensure that all LGBTQI+ Americans can live in dignity and safety. We must also continue to challenge the hundreds of hateful State laws that have been passed throughout the nation, making sure every child is assured that they are made in the image of God, that they are loved, and that we are standing up for them.
America was founded on the notion that everyone is created equal and deserves to be treated equally throughout their lives. We have never lived up to that, but we have never given up on 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.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim March 31, 2023, as Transgender Day of Visibility. I urge all Americans to join us in promoting the rights and voices of transgender people throughout our Nation and to work to end all forms of violence and discrimination against transgender, gender nonconforming, and nonbinary people.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirtieth day of March, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty- three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty- seventh. – JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.
