It looks like some easily bothered Christians were angry or offended about President Joe Biden declaring Transgender Visibility Day during Easter Sunday. Donald Trump on the other hand is out there slinging Bibles and spreading the gospel like the good and pious Christian man that he is. This stark contrast truly reveals who genuinely cares about our traditional values.
Why couldn’t Biden simply choose another day to declare the TVD?
Easter can fall any Sunday of March and April. Transgender Visibility Day has been celebrated on March 31st since 2009, it just never happened to coincide with Easter until this year. Apart from this, neither Biden nor the government have any duty to defer to the beliefs and practices of Christians if they indeed conflict with transgenderism.
Thankfully, we do not live in a theocracy. Despite Christians making up roughly 63% of the population, this in itself does not accord Christianity any special status above other religions or other equally worthy social concerns. They are simply another religion in a country with many. By noting the Transgender Visibility Day, the Biden administration was simply attempting to produce awareness of a group of people who appear to be suffering undue social consequences, albeit for political points.
This is no different from the US government making Martin Luther King Jr. Day a national holiday in order to celebrate the achievements of the civil rights movement and bring attention to any further concerns we should address with respect to racial equality.
It seems to me that part of the outrage stems from a perceived continued attack on traditional Christian values. Having been raised Catholic, I can appreciate much of the good that comes with a religious upbringing such as valuing family, forgiveness, self-reflection, and kindness.
Despite this, we shouldn’t be entirely uncritical of institutions, even when they’re churches. Criticizing the Catholic church for protecting pedophiles didn’t make you a bad Catholic – quite the opposite, you lived up to the message that the gospel taught you.
Rationalize the antiquated status of biblical passages however you choose. You must agree that the government should not permit slavery even though the Bible endorses it. We must recognize that at times, the government is entirely justified in departing from entrenched religious doctrine as was the case when same-sex marriage was legalized.
It’s not the role of the government to promote one religion’s teachings over another and it is acceptable for the government to promote equity with respect to vulnerable groups. On the other hand, we might think that religious groups are just another group. Why does it matter if it’s a religion? If the government can promote the concerns of transgender and non-binary people, why not Christians?
Neither group is intrinsically objectionable. In other words, both groups are composed almost entirely of decent individuals attempting to live their lives in a way that respects their intrinsic dignity. If Christians were indeed discriminated against, then there would certainly be a case to be made that this too should be addressed. That is, we should address their suffering of rights violations and this is different from promoting their ideologies.
Some might claim that in a similar vein, our government should not be promoting an ideology that is so socially divisive. This argument has very clear counterexamples. Transgender Visibility Day is about bringing attention to a group of people who feel that they’re not able to enjoy all of the goods of society. The day is about the people who are facing discrimination, not their ideology. The civil rights movement was highly socially divisive and yet President John F. Kennedy’s Civil Rights Address was morally necessary.
If you are to object, you can do so about whatever you perceive to be objectionable in the transgender and non-binary movement, not just that a day of social awareness happened to overlap with Easter Sunday. You can object to attempts to provide gender-affirming care to young children if you so choose, but religious fervor is misguided when it stands against people getting a fair shot at enjoying the goods that everyone should be entitled to.
Rafael Perez is a doctoral candidate in philosophy at the University of Rochester. You can reach him at [email protected].
