Trump vows to scrap Biden trans protections ‘on day one’ if elected 

Former US president Donald Trump has said he will reverse president Joe Biden’s legal protections for trans people “on day one” if he wins the presidency in November. 

On Friday (10 May), Trump, the first president – former or current – to be charged with criminal activity, spoke to right-wing radio talk show Kayal & Company in Philadelphia. 

In reference to trans athletes he stated that “the world is like a cuckoo’s nest right now,” and when asked about the Biden administration’s protection of trans and non-binary students’ pronouns and use of restrooms aligning with their gender identity, he stuck by the anti-trans rhetoric that marked his first stint in office.

He said of Biden’s protections for trans and non-binary people: “We’re gonna end it on day one … the whole thing is crazy.” 

Trump further said he would issue an executive order to reverse such protection, as reported by The Advocate.

Trump’s comments come after the Biden administration finalised sweeping new Title IX anti-discrimination rules last month, which will go into effect on 1 August. The rules protect people in public schools from sex-based discrimination and harassment.

Under the new Title IX rules – first proposed in 2022 – the rights of LGBTQ+ students will be protected by federal law, and in addition, victims of campus sexual assault will gain new safeguards. 

Trump’s rallying against the LGBTQ+ community comes as no surprise as the former president opened his 2024 bid by promising to ban gender-affirming healthcare for trans youth, attacking hospitals that provide such treatments and pushing for a federal law recognising only two genders if he’s re-elected. 

During his four years in the Oval Office from 2017-2021, Trump orchestrated an intense attack on LGBTQ+ rights. This included banning trans people from openly serving in the military, calling on courts to legalise discrimination against queer people and rolling back Obama-era protections for transgender Americans under the Affordable Care Act.