Joe Biden Kicked Off His Presidency in the Best Way Possible: By Pissing Off TERFs

On his first day as President, Joe Biden signed a flurry of executive orders overturning large swaths of Donald Trump’s legacy of bigotry and discrimination. That included the Executive Order on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation, which we can tell was a success based on how angry it made a bunch of transphobes online.

The order Biden signed states that, “Every person should be treated with respect and dignity and should be able to live without fear, no matter who they are or whom they love. Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports. Adults should be able to earn a living and pursue a vocation knowing that they will not be fired, demoted, or mistreated because of whom they go home to or because how they dress does not conform to sex-based stereotypes. People should be able to access healthcare and secure a roof over their heads without being subjected to sex discrimination. All persons should receive equal treatment under the law, no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation.”

If you read that and your immediate reaction is to cry that Biden is “erasing women” (as was trending online Thursday), I honestly don’t understand your brain. Anti-trans “feminists” and “feminist” groups called the decision a “disaster,” and an “unprecedented attack on women’s rights and civil liberties.” They wrung their hands over how “worried” they are for women and girls, who they claim are being “erased.”

Abigail Shrier, who felt it necessary to write a whole book about her fear of transgender people (Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters, she called it), wrote on Twitter that on day one, “Biden unilaterally eviscerates women’s sports.”

She also wrote that “A new glass ceiling was just placed over girls.”

To be clear, that’s not true. Broadening protections for trans and non-binary people in no way limits the rights of cisgender people. Civil rights and basic respect are not pie. There’s enough for everyone.

The executive order cites last year’s Supreme Court case, Bostock v. Clayton County, which held that Title VII’s protection against employment discrimination on the basis of sex also applied to sexual orientation and gender identity. This new order expands that definition of “sex” to apply to other laws that prohibit sex discrimination, including Title IX’s protections in schools and education programs, the Fair Housing Act, and the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Alphonso David, President of the Human Right Campaign, called this “the most substantive, wide-ranging executive order concerning sexual orientation and gender identity ever issued by a United States president.”

This executive order is a huge deal and an incredible step forward. The fact that it made TERFs so angry is just the icing on that cake.

(image: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

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Vivian Kane

Vivian Kane (she/her) is the Senior News Editor at The Mary Sue, where she's been writing about politics and entertainment (and all the ways in which the two overlap) since the dark days of late 2016. Born in San Francisco and radicalized in Los Angeles, she now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where she gets to put her MFA to use covering the local theatre scene. She is the co-owner of The Pitch, Kansas City’s alt news and culture magazine, alongside her husband, Brock Wilbur, with whom she also shares many cats.

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