President Joe Biden issued an executive order on Wednesday night that will extend existing federal anti-discrimination protections to LGBTQ people.
Alphonso David, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, called it “the most substantive and comprehensive executive order on sexual orientation and gender identity ever issued by a president of the United States.”
The order directs all federal agencies to implement the historic Supreme Court decision in 2020 in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, which established that LGBTQ people are protected from employment discrimination under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
The order is also based on the decision of the higher court, directing any federal agency with protections against discrimination based on sex to interpret these statutes to also protect against discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.
Biden’s order states, “according to Bostock’s reasoning,” laws that prohibit sex discrimination, including Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments, the Fair Housing Act and Section 412 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, “prohibit discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation, provided the laws do not contain sufficient indications to the contrary. ”
“Children must be able to learn without worrying about whether they will have access to the bathroom, the changing room or school sports”, says the executive order. “Adults must be able to earn a living and pursue a vocation knowing that they will not be fired, demoted or mistreated because of who goes home or because the way they dress is not in line with sex-based stereotypes.”
Biden also recognized how discrimination against LGBTQ people “often overlaps other forms of prohibited discrimination, including discrimination based on race or disability”.
“For example, black American transsexuals face unscrupulously high levels of discrimination in the workplace, homelessness and violence, including fatal violence,” says the order.
It then instructs the head of each federal agency to work in consultation with the attorney general to develop a plan within 100 days to comply with the order.
‘A sigh of relief’
Advocacy groups said the move is a big step forward after four years of Trump administration policies that have reversed – or attempted to reverse – protections for LGBTQ people, including Department of Health and Human Services rules that would have allowed discrimination against transgender people.
“I think it is important for the government and for our country to be able to take advantage of the incredible contributions that people in the community have to make,” Jennifer Levi, director of the Transgender Rights Project at GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders, or GLAD, told NBC News. “I am excited that the next government wants to ensure full inclusion, but also to take advantage of everything the community has to offer.”
David, of the Human Rights Campaign, said the order would provide much-needed relief for lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders and queers.
“Today, millions of Americans can breathe easy knowing that their president and his government believe that discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity is not only intolerable, but illegal,” he said in a statement. “Although detailed implementation across the federal government will take time, this Executive Order will immediately begin to change the lives of millions of LGBTQ people who seek to be treated equally under the law.”
Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, said the order “takes us one step further towards the day when trans people can live openly as they are, without being the target of discrimination”. With that, she said, the legacy of Aimee Stephens, Don Zarda and Gerald Bostock – the LGBTQ plaintiffs in Bostock’s historic case – “gets bigger.”
“They stood up against discrimination and, with their actions today, the Biden government is recognizing the justice of their cause and their bravery in the face of injustice,” said Keisling in a statement. Biden’s actions on the first day of his administration, she continued, “will help to improve the lives of millions of people.”
‘A comprehensive and intersectional approach’
Biden issued more than a dozen other executive orders on Wednesday, many of which his supporters said will also positively affect LGBTQ Americans.
An executive order that aims to “promote racial equality and support to needy communities” will establish the Interagency Working Group on Equitable Data to gather better data to “measure and promote equity”, among other actions. Sam Brinton, vice president of defense and government affairs at The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth suicide prevention organization, said that data collection is the key to better supporting queer youth.
“It is a real breath of fresh air to see President Biden prioritize protections against LGBTQ discrimination and inclusive data collection on the first day, along with several other important policy changes that will protect marginalized communities,” said Brinton in a statement. “At The Trevor Project, we know that ending suicide for LGBTQ youth will require a comprehensive and intersectional approach, including new policies and programs aimed at eradicating suicide risk factors, such as discrimination based on LGBTQ, health care disparities mental and conversion therapy. We look forward to working with the Biden administration and both parties in Congress to address these issues and save the lives of LGBTQ youth. “
A request to initiate a coordinated response from Covid-19 will also be “extremely important” for LGBTQ students, according to Eliza Byard, executive director of GLSEN, a nonprofit organization that defends LGBTQ youth.
“The fact is that the most vulnerable and marginalized students always suffer the most when a system is not working,” said Byard. “Our schools are not serving our children effectively now; they do not have the resources they need to do this, and therefore the most vulnerable young people are the ones who suffer the most – LGBTQ +, immigrants, black and brown students, students with disabilities ”.
Byard said that the Covid-19 order, along with several others, including the order to preserve Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a program for young people who were brought into the country as children and who have no legal status, “are ways of relief that gets to the heart of the pain at these crossings, and this is extremely important. “
Some of Biden’s orders are reversals of Trump’s previous administration policies. For example, the order to promote racial equity also reverses Trump’s Executive Order 13950, which prohibited diversity and inclusion training that promotes “divisive concepts” about race and sex. A federal court recently imposed an injunction on the execution of Trump’s order.
Bostock’s order will also undo the policies that the Trump administration has issued in its last days, as a Department of Health and Human Services rule that would have allowed social service providers hired by the federal government, such as adoption agencies, to discriminate against LGBTQ people. This will also prevent the application of a Justice Department memorandum issued on Sunday that would have limited the scope of Bostock’s decision not to affect sports teams or restrooms, according to The Wall Street Journal. The memo has been removed from the department’s website.
Some supporters, in addition to applauding the Biden government, are calling for further action. The American Civil Liberties Union urged the government to “take steps to more fully recognize transgender and non-binary people” with an executive order that would allow transgender people to receive accurate identifications.
“Trans and non-binary people belong, and we need IDs that accurately reflect who we are, so that we can travel, apply for jobs and enter public facilities without the risk of harassment or harm,” LaLa Zannell, Campaign Manager for Justice ACLU Trans, said in a statement. “We know who we are and we need the federal government to recognize who we are.”
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