President Joe Biden’s Pride Month 2022 proclamation condemned “an onslaught of dangerous anti-LGBTQI+ legislation” introduced and passed in multiple states, which he claims targets transgender children.
“Today, the rights of LGBTQI+ Americans are under relentless attack. Members of the LGBTQI+ community — especially people of color and trans people — continue to face discrimination and cruel, persistent efforts to undermine their human rights,” he said. “We condemn the dangerous State laws and bills that target LGBTQI+ youth.”
“Anti-LGBTQI+” legislation refers to bills passed in states such as Arizona, Oklahoma, and Alabama, which mandate students to play on sports teams that align with their biological sex or ban “gender reassignment” surgeries and hormone blockers for adolescents under 18.
The Biden administration is backing its words with actions. Earlier this month, the Department of Agriculture announced that it would interpret Title IX to include sexual orientation and gender identity. This means schools will also be subject to this definition and that certain federally funded programs, such as school lunches, will be tied to it.
Schools that fail to follow the administration’s lead on transgender issues such as sports and bathrooms stand to lose billions, The Center Square reported. This may put schools in states with bills protecting women’s spaces and sports in a difficult position, as state law and requirements of federal funding conflict. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem already said on Twitter that she would take action in court if Biden follows through.
Biden’s heavy-handed approach flies in the face of evidence stacking higher each day that exposes the dangers of radical transgender policies.
Just this week, multiple inmates in a California women’s prison reported witnessing the rape of another female inmate by an inmate who identified as transgender and was transferred from a male facility. There have been similar instances in other states and previously in California. Last fall, the Daily Wire uncovered that the Loudoun County School Board in Virginia tried to cover up a rape perpetrated by a boy in a skirt in the girl’s restroom.
These cases are tragic, as are the children permanently harmed by hormone blockers and “gender reassignment” surgeries. Such procedures inflict lasting damage on children unable to give informed consent and are often unaware of the long-term effects of their decisions that will follow them into adulthood.
Being able to play on a women’s sports team as a biological man is not a human right, no matter how Biden spins it. Nor is it a human rights violation to deny harmful drugs and unnecessary surgeries to children. Human rights are basic freedoms, things that include the right to life, the right to property, due process, and equal standing under the law, which no state is trying to take from LGBT-identifying people. Biden’s use of the language of rights is deceptive.
The Biden administration does, however, seem intent on stripping needed resources from schools that refuse to endanger students with dangerous social experiments. LGBT rights are not threatened — but women’s and children’s safety are.
Katelynn Richardson is a summer 2022 Washington Examiner fellow.
