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On Transgender Day Of Visibility, Biden Goes To Bat For Trans Rights

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So much for performative well-wishes that do nothing to improve the day-to-day lives of marginalized communities — today, the Biden administration rolls out a slate of rule changes that offer concrete improvements for transgender and non-binary Americans while pushing back on recent state-level anti-trans legislation.

March 31, 2022, marks the 13th celebration of International Transgender Day of Visibility, and the second since Joe Biden became President of the United States. In 2021, he was the first US president to issue a proclamation honoring the holiday since its inception in 2009. At the time, that was pretty big news in and of itself. But this year, the Biden administration has decided to go quite a bit farther than merely recognizing this day dedicated to raising awareness of transgender people and the ongoing discrimination and civil rights struggles we face.

This morning, the White House rolled out a slate of new policies and programs intended to “advance equality and visibility for transgender Americans,” according to a statement.

“Transgender people are some of the bravest people in our nation. But nobody should have to be brave just to be themselves,” the statement reads in part. “Today, the Biden Administration announced new actions to support the mental health of transgender children, remove barriers that transgender people face accessing critical government services, and improve the visibility of transgender people in our nation’s data.”

The policy includes a variety of important specifics, beginning with reforms that should aid transgender people in correcting identification documents and smooth some of the worst bureaucratic snafus associated with being a transgender person in the United States.

The first and most headline-grabbing of these is the fact that the US State Department will now allow all US citizens to select X as a gender marker on their United States Passport. According to a statement by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, this policy will go into effect on April 11. Information about how to apply is available at travel.state.gov/gender.

Another important one is a move toward gender-neutral TSA screenings at airports. We’ve all heard the stories about transgender travelers being subjected to humiliating interrogations and delays due to full body scanners picking up an “anomaly” (oh, my bad, TSA — it’s apparently “alarm” these days) when a person’s genitalia didn’t match what the TSA screeners expected from their gender presentation.

The new updates planned to body scanners should get rid of all this. As the administration put it in their statement, “By replacing the current, gender-based system with this more accurate technology, TSA will improve the customer experience of transgender travelers who have previously been required to undergo additional screening due to alarms in sensitive areas. This new technology will help to improve the experience of travelers, particularly those who are transgender and non-binary travelers.” These new improved scanners should show up in airports by later this year. I guess then we can all find out how well it works. Still, at least they’re trying.

Other changes related to travel include gender-neutral ID verification, updating TSA PreCheck and Trusted Traveler programs to make sure they work with the X gender marker, and working with domestic air carriers to make sure they are ready and willing to work with travelers who carry the X gender marker on their passports.

Another big area of emphasis for the new Biden administration policy is support for trans kids and their families. Clearly, Joe Biden considers this an important area of concern; as he said in this year’s Presidential Proclamation of Transgender Day of Visibility, “In the past year, hundreds of anti-transgender bills in States were proposed across America, most of them targeting transgender kids. The onslaught has continued this year. These bills are wrong. 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.” And I mean… where’s the lie?

Biden’s not just calling it out, though; he’s doing something about it. In an attempt to push back on the recent removal in several states of mental health resources for LGBTQ youth from state websites, the Department Of Health and Human Services has created a new website with resources for LGBTQ youth and their families, including “best practices for affirming an LGBTQI+ child” as well as suicide prevention resources. At the same time, the Office of Safe and Supportive Schools within the US Department of Education is offering new training for school staff and officials going over challenges transgender and nonbinary students deal with, and how school personnel can best provide support.

There are a variety of other guidances and statements from various parts of the federal government, including the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, The National Child Traumatic Stress Network, and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, all of which are intended to help confirm that gender-affirming care is the way to go where caring for trans and nonbinary youth is concerned, and to offer resources for family members, school officials and others about how best to affirm and support LGBTQ youth.

Granted, none of this will block laws being passed and decisions being made on the state and county levels, which is where the vast majority of control over public K-12 education lies in this country. However, where those state-level actions are concerned, the Biden administration also outlined a slate of actions they were taking, including having the Department of Justice file statements of interest and amicus briefs in several different lawsuits intended to fight for transgender civil rights in various states around the country.

Another very important aspect of this new slate of programs is improvements made in allowing trans and non-binary Americans access to federal services and benefits. The Social Security Administration’s draconian requirements for a trans person to prove their identity in order to get their retirement benefits are being significantly relaxed. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission will now allow those filing discrimination complaints to use an X gender marker on complaints — which should make it a lot easier for people getting discriminated against over their gender identity to bring that discrimination to light. The Department of Education will be allowing applicants for FAFSA to include information about their gender identity as part of their filings starting in the 2023-24 school year, which will hopefully help the department figure out how to address discrimination trans and non-binary students face in gaining financial aid for higher education.

In the Presidential Proclamation of Transgender Day of Visibility that President Biden released today, he repeated some of the supportive things he has said about transgender people in the past. “Transgender people are some of the bravest Americans I know, and our Nation and the world are stronger, more vibrant, and more prosperous because of them,” he said. “To transgender Americans of all ages, I want you to know that you are so brave. You belong. I have your back.”

There have been times over the past year and change of the Biden presidency where some have wondered whether statements like this, as groundbreaking as they are, fall short of real support that can actually improve the day to day lives of transgender and non-binary Americans. However, with the slate of new policies rolled out today by the Biden administration, it seems that we’re seeing some real concrete action. In a year where the dialogue around transgender and non-binary Americans has mainly been fueled by backlash, discrimination, and resentment, it’s nice for our community to get some good news for once.

Top Photo by Cecilie Johnsen on Unsplash.

A Court Just Declared Alabama’s Transgender ID Law Unconstitutional

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This court decision pushes Alabama one step closer to the modern age, whether they like it or not. (Sure enough, the state’s attorney general plans to appeal.)

Alabama is one of the eight remaining U.S. states that require transgender people to undergo gender-affirmation surgery before they can get a state-issued identification that lists their correct gender identity. But a federal court just ruled that requirement as unconstitutional.

The court ruling stems from a 2018 case involving three transgender state residents who were denied drivers’ licenses reflecting their gender identities because they hadn’t had “complete surgery,” a chest augmentation and a genital surgery, both of which can be time-consuming, expensive, and undesirable for some trans people.

“This policy makes it impossible for most transgender people in Alabama to obtain a license that they can use without sacrificing their privacy, safety, health, [and] autonomy,” the American Civil Liberties Union wrote. The policy also puts trans people between a rock and a hard place because either they can undergo a costly and invasive set of surgeries, go without an ID altogether, or get a license showing an incorrect gender, putting them at high risk of harassment and violence.

On January 15, the U.S. District Court for Middle Alabama ruled that the state’s driver’s license policy for trans people violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment because it discriminates based on sex, according to NBC News.

“By making the content of people’s driver licenses depend on the nature of their genitalia, the policy classifies by sex; under Equal Protection Clause doctrine, it is subject to an intermediate form of heightened scrutiny,” Senior Judge Myron Thompson wrote in his decision.

While the state tried to assert that its policy furthers a compelling government interest by helping provide “information related to physical identification” to police and ensuring that state IDs remain consistent with birth certificates, the court ruled that the policy places an unnecessary burden on trans individuals.

While the court’s decision requires to the state to give the three plaintiffs in the case IDs reflecting their chosen gender identities, the state attorney general has pledged to appeal the decision.

Written by Daniel Villareal, The New Civil Rights Movement. Image via NCRM.

Our Attention May Be Elsewhere, But The Transphobes Never Sleep

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In Idaho, two bills attempting to roll back civil rights for the state’s transgender community are headed to the governor’s desk. Advocates urge him to veto both, but with the news consumed by coronavirus, will their pleas be heard?

There’s no denying it: coronavirus has got us all messed up. Whether we’re worried about friends, family, and ourselves coming down with the disease or panicking over the devastating effect social distancing-related closures are having on the economy, it’s hard to shake it from our minds and pay attention to, really, anything else.

But that doesn’t mean that people with anti-LGBTQ agendas are ceasing in their efforts to roll back our rights around the nation. And if you needed proof of that, look no further than what happened in Idaho late last week, as the state’s legislature approved two bills that, if passed, will have a seriously negative effect on transgender people living in that state.

The first bill, the Fairness In Women’s Sports Act, seeks to ensure that high school sports programs for women “shall not be open to students of the male sex.” One would have to assume that this act is intended to bar transgender girls from participating in school sports programs, though this wording is based on a lot of assumptions, if you ask us. However, clearly the legislature knew this, as there is additional language within the bill requiring that any student disputing whether they should be barred from women’s sports activities at the high school level must submit a statement from a doctor that established their sex based on “the student’s internal and external reproductive anatomy; the student’s normal endogenously produced levels of testosterone; and an analysis of the student’s genetic makeup.”

Ah yes, that old “I can misgender you based on your chromosomes” argument so beloved by belligerent conservatives like Ben Shapiro. Of course, gender (and sex) are much more complicated than that, but once such things are written into law, those complications seek to have a legal relevance, regardless of whose rights get taken away.

Boise Senator Cherie Buckner-Webb called the bill “repugnant,” and said, “This bill is rooted in fear and misinformation,” according to East Idaho News, but she ultimately was unable to convince her fellow legislators to vote it down, and the bill passed by significant margins in both houses of the Idaho state legislature.

“Idaho has not seen any issues with trans girls competing in the girls sports,” American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho policy director Kathy Griesmyer told the Washington Blade. “This unconstitutional and mean-spirited bill prevents trans girls from finding community and self-esteem in sports and will certainly result in litigation to defend the civil rights of Idaho’s transgender community.”

Five former Idaho attorneys general actually sent an open letter to Idaho Governor Brad Little urging him to veto the bill, saying that it seems particularly vulnerable to legal challenges. “The Attorney General has opined that the legislation contains a number of legal infirmities, making it subject to invalidation in federal court proceedings,” they wrote in a letter published by the Idaho Statesman. “The more serious concern is apparent conflict with the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but other provisions of federal law are implicated.”

Sam Brinton, head of the Trevor Project, called the decision to move forward with the bill “shameful,” especially during a global pandemic. “Our elected officials should be expanding opportunities for trans students, not further marginalizing a group already at high risk for bullying and discrimination,” Brinton told the Washington Blade. “At The Trevor Project, we hear from LGBTQ youth in crisis every day and we know that affirming trans youth in their identities is critical to their health and wellbeing. Denying trans youth the ability to participate in school sports, which have shown to have a positive effect on mental health, will increase the kind of social isolation and stigma that contributes to the risk of suicidality.”

Meanwhile, another more wide-ranging anti-trans piece of legislation is also winging its way to Governor Little’s desk. This one is known as the Idaho Vital Statistics Act, and it prohibits the changing of gender markers on birth certificates for any reason besides “fraud, duress, or material mistake of fact.” This would eliminate the ability of transgender people to change the gender markers on their birth certificates as part of their legal transition. At this time, only Ohio and Tennessee have an outright ban on transgender people changing the gender marker on their birth certificates.

Image by Theshibboleth, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia

A variety of other states require proof of a medical procedure (gender confirmation surgery) in order to make this change; Virginia still does at this moment, but a bill currently before Governor Ralph Northam will end that requirement, assuming Northam signs it into law by the action deadline of April 11. Governor, if you’re reading, I trust you to do the right thing for us.

Back in Idaho, Representative Julianne Young, who sponsored the bill, told CNN that “safeguarding the accuracy of our vital records is a vital part of preserving the ability of the state to protect the public health and safety.” One assumes she considers it somehow inaccurate for a birth certificate to reflect a trans person’s actual gender identity.

The legislation follows a 2018 court order requiring Idaho to allow gender marker changes on birth certificates, and seems intended to overrule that order, though it could easily still be found unconstitutional by a future judicial ruling. Lambda Legal counsel Peter Renn, who worked on the 2018 case, was frustrated by the bill’s passage.

“Idaho lawmakers might as well try to tear down the federal courthouse if they have this much contempt for the rule of law,” Renn told the Washington Blade. “They are explicitly defying a court order and exposing Idaho taxpayers to footing the bill for significant financial consequences – all while putting transgender people back in harm’s way for harassment and even violence, and once again making Idaho a national outlier.”

Top Photo: Idaho state Capitol, by Maxbatt at en.wikipedia – Own work, Transferred from en.wikipedia, Public Domain, via Wikimedia