Joe Biden pledges to restore Obama’s trans bathroom protections on day one of his presidency
Joe Biden. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
US president-elect Joe Biden has reportedly vowed to restore vital Obama-era trans bathroom protections for students on his “first day” in the Oval Office.
Biden’s team has sought to signal that the Democrat’s leadership will be a turning point for a divided nation by issuing a 10-day blitz of executive orders and planned policy proposals.
Among them, according to Fox News, the reinstating of federal guidance protecting trans students in public schools, allowing trans teens to use bathrooms, locker rooms and other school facilities matching their gender identity.
In 2017, the Trump administration scrapped the guidance – it clashed with Title IX, a federal law that bans sex discrimination in schools, officials said at the time – with the Betsy DeVos-helmed Department of Education punishing schools that did not comply with the reinterpretation.
The Obama administration, which emerged as an ardent defender of trans rights, had only issued the sweeping directive to extend Title IX to trans folk across all public school districts the year before.
Joe Biden, unfettered by Congress, plans to rapidly unravel Trump’s anti-trans policies
Without the guidelines, states were left to interpret legislation for the next four years, quickly resulting in a muddled patchwork of rules for trans teens in the US and various courtroom battles.
But not for long. While Biden’s team has expressed weariness about whether the Equality Act can be passed within the first 100 days of the Democrat’s leadership, the team is reportedly ready to bulldoze plans to re-introduce the nationwide guidelines.
“On his first day in office, Biden will reinstate the Obama-Biden guidance revoked by the Trump-Pence administration, which will restore transgender students’ access to sports, bathrooms, and locker rooms in accordance with their gender identity,” Joe Biden’s website reads.
As Biden enters the White House straddled with domestic crises, many of the raft of decrees that he can issue on his own authority after the inauguration show that he is undoubtedly looking inward. Hoped by his team to show the momentum his administration aims for when it comes to LGBT+ rights.
One of Trump’s most hotly-contested moves, the banning of trans people serving in the US military, will also be one of the first Biden hopes to revoke. Although, it may take upwards of a year for the Pentagon to undo the ban.
