While there are many Americans who can say they were personally affected by the policies of the Trump Administration, this is particularly true in the case of transgender individuals who have all but felt protections safeguarding their rights shift under their feet.
This partially came in the form of a ban on further recruitment of transgender personnel in all branches of the military that was announced in April of 2019, but it was also present in the rollback of Title IX protections that were supposed to guarantee the right of transgender students to use facilities that corresponded with their gender identity.
Recent months have seen one student score promising legal victories against this rollback and President-Elect Biden promise to reverse the military ban as soon as he takes office.
And it seems that Biden is taking the fluctuation of Title IX protections just as seriously.
On his campaign’s website, Biden has outlined his policies intended to ensure and advance equality for LGBTQ+ Americans.
As is stated in one of these policies, “On his first day in office, Biden will reinstate the Obama-Biden guidance revoked by the Trump-Pence Administration, which will restore transgender students’ access to sports, bathrooms, and locker rooms in accordance with their gender identity.”
Alongside this is a promised directive for the Department of Education to enforce this policy and investigate any violation thereof.
I’ve mentioned before that Biden will also seek to reverse the Trump administration’s ban on transgender recruits in the military but that hardly addresses the scope of his LGBTQ+ policies.
These also include restoring protections for homeless LGBTQ+ Americans, closing the loop on broad interpretations of constitutional protections regarding religious freedom used to discriminate against LGBTQ+ individuals, and ending school discipline policies that disproportionately affect LGBTQ+ students.
Perhaps his flagship policy on the matter, however, is the Equality Act.
His campaign’s website makes it clear that he’s aware of the nation’s current political circumstances that see the protection of LGBTQ+ rights depend heavily on who happens to be president at the time.
Should Congress pass the Equality Act, however, a president would no longer be able to unilaterally decide what rights these Americans do and do not have. It is for this reason that Biden has made it a “top legislative priority” for his first 100 days of office.
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However, a lot has changed in the time since Biden’s administrative plans were laid out and it appears that his first 100 days will look much different than anticipated.
As Out magazine reported , a meeting between Biden’s transition team and a group of LGBTQ+ activists seemed to indicate that presenting the Equality Act to Congress will take longer than expected.
This is partially due to the uncertainty of the measure getting sufficient votes in the Senate even with the Democrats’ narrow majority but also due to the fact that senators will now have to split the focus between their regular duties and President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial.
For Biden, the elephant in the room now appears to be the need for an effective rollout of the circulating COVID-19 vaccines.
And so while every present indication seems to suggest that Biden’s reversal of Trump’s transgender military ban and his restoration will proceed as planned, the Equality Act will apparently have to wait.
Although this announcement caused some consternation among leaders present at the meeting, Out reported that most of the LGBTQ+ activists present were understanding and seemed confident that Biden was committed to his stated policies.
As one anonymous activist put it, they largely intended to hold his administration accountable while “understanding that the country, our democracy, and the ability of people to actually live is going to take priority.”
