Biden issues anti-LGBTQ discrimination order, ACLU supports and urges more trans protection

President Joe Biden has already started putting in work to ensure that LGBTQ Americans are protected, and we love to see it!

On the day of his inauguration, President Joe Biden issued an executive order implementing the Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County and repealing guidance from the Trump administration related to nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people. The ACLU has released statements which applaud the actions of Biden and his administration. 

“This action by the Biden administration recognizes what the Supreme Court held last June and what we’ve long known: LGBTQ people are protected by our civil rights laws,” said James Esseks, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBT & HIV Project and counsel for Supreme Court plaintiffs Aimee Stephens and Don Zarda. 

While we are sad that Aimee Stephens and Don Zarda, along with countless other LGBTQ people who faced discrimination, did not live to see this moment, we know that their legacy lives on. We will work with the Biden administration to ensure this executive order is fully implemented and that the federal government aggressively pursues reports of discrimination against LGBTQ people — not just in the workplace, but in education, housing, health care, and taxpayer-funded programs. It is such a relief to have a government that is committed to preventing discrimination as opposed to enabling it.

James Esseks 

The ACLU is now urging the Biden administration to not only roll back Trump administration policies discriminating against transgender and non-binary people, but take action to more fully recognize transgender and non-binary people. The ACLU’s priority for the Biden administration is an executive order related to accurate ID documents. 

“Trans and non-binary people belong, and we need IDs that accurately reflect who we are so we can travel, apply for jobs, and enter public establishments without risk of harassment or harm,” said ACLU Trans Justice Campaign Manager LaLa Zannell. “We know who we are, and we need the federal government to recognize who we are.”

The ACLU says most federal agencies require costly, burdensome, and intrusive medical documentation to update a gender marker. The executive order sought by the ACLU would implement two critical changes: allow self-attestation of gender markers — meaning people can confirm their own gender without needing medical verification, and add a gender neutral “X” designation on all federal IDs and records, allowing non-binary and other people to have a more appropriate gender marker than “M” or “F.” 

Today, the ACLU has launched a petition urging the Biden administration to issue an executive order instructing federal agencies to issue accurate federal IDs for transgender and non-binary people.