President Biden on Wednesday tore into the ‘political attacks’ on transgender children coming from state legislators across the country such as Florida‘s so-called ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill.
‘Visibility matters, and so many transgender, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming Americans are thriving,’ Biden said in a statement marking Transgender Visibility Day. ‘Despite this progress, transgender Americans continue to face discrimination, harassment, and barriers to opportunity.’
Biden said that in 2021 and 2022, states had proposed ‘hundreds of ant-transgender bills. ‘Efforts to criminalize supportive medical care for transgender kids, to ban transgender children from playing sports, and to outlaw discussing LGBTQI+ people in schools undermine their humanity and corrode our Nation’s values.’
On Wednesday, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed a bill that would ban anyone under the age of 18 from getting gender reassignment surgery and limiting transgender girls from playing in girls’ sports.
Arizona joins a dozen other states with limits on sports participation for trans girls and becomes the third state to try and limit health care options for transgender teens.
Until two years ago, no state had passed a law regulating gender-designated youth sports. But the issue has become front and center in Republican-led statehouses since Idaho lawmakers passed the nation’s first sports participation law in 2020. That law is now blocked in court, along with another in West Virginia.
Since last year, bans have been introduced in at least 25 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. This week, lawmakers in Oklahoma also passed a ban.
Republicans have said blocking transgender athletes from girls sports teams would protect the integrity of women’s sports, claiming that trans athletes would have an advantage. Ducey echoed that sentiment in his signing statement.
‘Visibility matters, and so many transgender, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming Americans are thriving,’ Biden said in a statement marking Transgender Visibility Day
On Monday Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill that bans teachers from giving classroom instruction on ‘sexual orientation’ or ‘gender identity’ in kindergarten through third grade
Outrage over transgender people participating in girls’ sports fired up again with transgender collegiate swimmer Lia Thomas, who won an individual title at the NCAA Women’s Division I Swimming and Diving Championship last week.
The Republican governors of Utah and Indiana this week vetoed bills banning transgender girls from girls sports, calling the issue virtually nonexistent in their states. Utah’s Republican lawmakers overrode the governor’s veto Friday, and Indiana lawmakers were considering doing the same.
On Monday Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill that bans teachers from giving classroom instruction on ‘sexual orientation’ or ‘gender identity’ in kindergarten through third grade.
The Florida bill has drawn uproar from around the country
Disney CEO Bob Chapek came under fire after a group of LGBTQ employees at Disney asked their coworkers to join them in walking out of their workplaces during their breaks every day since March 15 to demand Disney ‘protect employees and their families in the face of such open and unapologetic bigotry’
The Parental Rights in Education bill, which passed the Republican-controlled state legislature this month, has been dubbed the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill by critics who claim it bans any discussion pertaining to being gay in Florida schools.
It has also caused problems for Disney, which faced backlash from customers and employees for not immediately opposing the bill when it was first passed.
It will become law from July 1, and teachers who breach its regulations can be sued by parents.
‘We have seen curriculum embedded for very, very young children, classroom materials about sexuality and woke gender ideology. We’ve seen libraries that have clearly inappropriate pornographic materials for very young kids,’DeSantis said in signing the bill.
Source: DailyMail
