Biden offers LGBTQ protections, an ideological departure from Trump-era policy Stephanie Ebbert 3 hrs ago

The Boston Globe logoBiden offers LGBTQ protections, an ideological departure from Trump-era policy

President Biden’s order last week to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination — and his reversal Monday of a ban on transgender individuals serving in the military — mark a sharp ideological departure from Trump-era policy, and deliver powerful legal and symbolic wins to a community often marginalized by the former president.

a person standing in front of a crowd© Nelson Antoine
“Finally, the sun is shining again on LGBTQ people,” said Arline Isaacson, co-chair of the Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus. “It’s hard to imagine that in 2021, we have to laud an elected leader because they take the bold step of treating us equally.”

The executive order Biden signed on his first day in office directs federal agencies to interpret existing laws prohibiting sex discrimination as also covering sexual orientation and gender identity.

Last summer, the Supreme Court came to the same conclusion in an employment case, Bostock v. Clayton County. But specialists said that ruling did not necessarily extend to other areas, such as housing and education.

“This is an incredibly important order from the president that not only will implement what the US Supreme Court has said is the law – which is that you can’t fire gay and transgender employees for who they are — but then ensures that other areas of law comport with that understanding,” said Janson Wu, GLAD Executive Director. “This is a big deal.”

The Trump’s administration often fought in court alongside those seeking religious exemptions to antidiscrimination laws. Last summer, Trump’s Department of Justice called on the Supreme Court to let Catholic Social Services in Philadelphia refuse child adoptions to LGBTQ families. In the closing days of the Trump administration, his Department of Labor finalized a rule that would allow federal contractors to claim a religious exemption to discriminate against LGBTQ workers.

Biden’s order signals that the new Department of Justice will fight alongside legal advocates against discrimination, instead of helping to carve out legal exemptions, Wu said. And it will likely have a far-reaching ripple effect since states — and even individual school districts — take their guidance from the federal government, he noted. One of Trump’s earliest acts as president was ending the Obama-era policy allowing transgender students to use bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity.

“Now, under the executive order, we expect them to reinstate that guidance in school,” Wu said. “The reach is deep and the reach is broad.”

That’s exactly what conservatives fear, however, and Biden’s executive order — along with his nomination of a transgender doctor to a high-level post this week — may have kicked off a new round of the culture wars.

Opponents immediately cried foul about the executive order, saying it would dictate an erasure of boundaries between genders in places where they are appropriate, including shelters and athletic competitions.

“We all agree that everyone should be treated with dignity and respect. However, this is changing federal policy in that way really undermines both fairness and freedom,” said Massachusetts Family Institute president Andrew Beckwith.

In 2018, the Family Institute led the unsuccessful fight to revoke a state law protecting transgender people from discrimination in public places, arguing that without clear gender lines, men could infiltrate women’s bathrooms and prey upon women and children. Massachusetts voters rejected the argument, and voted 2-1 to uphold the law.

Legal challenges continue on many fronts, however, including charges that women can be disenfranchised by government mandates to accommodate trans women. In Connecticut, cisgender female track athletes filed suit, arguing that an antidiscrimination policy gives unfair physical advantage to transgender female runners.

“It should be lawful to act on the conviction that we are created male and female, and that institutions shouldn’t have to let males compete against females in sports, or let men into women’s areas in shelters,” Beckwith said.

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