Bias Watch

Conservatives are freaking out over Biden’s new LGBTQ protections

Washington, DC, USA 7/11/2020 joe biden and kamala harris
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris Photo: VP Brothers / Shutterstock

Yesterday, on his first day in office, President Joe Biden signed a sweeping executive order to fight discrimination against LGBTQ people, and naturally anti-LGBTQ activists – both conservative Christians and anti-transgender “feminist” activists (TERFs) – are hopping mad.

“Ultimately, if this executive order is able to be fully carried out, it will affect everyday Americans who hold biblical and conservative values,” said Tony Perkins of the SPLC-designated hate group Family Research Council.

Related: During last hours in office, Trump is fuming that Lady Gaga will perform at Biden’s inauguration

Biden’s executive order instructs executive agencies that the Biden administration considers discrimination against LGBTQ people to already be banned under federal laws that ban discrimination “because of sex” and to look for ways to implement federal law in light of that. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of this interpretation of the law in Bostock v. Clayton Co. decision last year.

While the Trump administration fought against implementing it, the Biden administration is already getting hate from anti-LGBTQ activists about it.

“The Biden administration is planning to go much further in its assault on biological reality and is expected to order schools to abolish girls’ sports and force boys and girls to use the same showers and locker rooms, and maybe even bunk together on school trips,” Perkins warned, adding that “the world’s major religions will be forced to violate their consciences” as a result of Biden’s order.

None of it is true.

Over on Twitter, the hashtag #BidenErasedWomen is trending. TERFs (transgender exclusionary radical feminists) are saying that the executive order to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity somehow means that women don’t exist anymore.

One British Twitter user declared that Biden had “erased female people and their sex based rights from US law” but she doesn’t appear to actually understand the law.

Biden’s executive order expands the number of cases where federal anti-discrimination laws like Title VII can be used and did not ban anti-discrimination laws from being used in cases about discrimination against women.

But that didn’t stop the angry tweets about how women don’t have rights anymore.

Other anti-transgender activists on Twitter focused entirely on sports.

But many people using the hashtag were also arguing against transphobia, pointing out that the first president to take office with a woman vice president maybe has a better record on women’s rights than his predecessor.

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