President Biden’s move sparked an outpouring of criticism among conservatives.
President Joe Biden has declared March 31, 2024, which falls on Easter Sunday, as “Transgender Day of Visibility,” sparking uproar among conservatives and scathing criticism from former President Donald Trump, who demanded that the president apologize to millions of Christians in the United States.
“Today, we send a message to all transgender Americans … You are America, and my entire Administration and I have your back,” President Biden said in the March 29 proclamation, while boasting of appointing “transgender leaders” to his administration and ending a ban on transgender people from serving openly in the military.
Calling transgender people “part of the fabric of our Nation” who help the country and its economy thrive, the president touted his administration’s efforts to make public services more accessible for transgender Americans, including “more inclusive passports” that include an X as the “gender” marker.
“There is much more to do,” President Biden said, while urging Congress to pass the Equality Act “to codify civil rights protections for all LGBTQI+ Americans” and officially declaring this coming Easter Sunday as “Transgender Day of Visibility.”
President Biden’s move sparked an outpouring of criticism among conservatives, including from the Trump campaign, which also objected to the White House’s instructions for an Easter egg art design competition for children that ban submissions with religious symbols or “overtly religious themes.”
“It is appalling and insulting that Joe Biden’s White House prohibited children from submitting religious egg designs for their Easter Art Event, and formally proclaimed Easter Sunday as ‘Trans Day of Visibility,’” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
“Sadly, these are just two more examples of the Biden Administration’s years-long assault on the Christian faith. We call on Joe Biden’s failing campaign and White House to issue an apology to the millions of Catholics and Christians across America who believe tomorrow is for one celebration only—the resurrection of Jesus Christ,” she added.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
‘Easter Sunday Is Being Replaced’
Much of the criticism of the president’s proclamation centered on the fact that March 31, 2024, falls on Easter Sunday, which is one of the most important Christian religious holidays.
“Easter Sunday is being replaced,” actor and producer Kevin Sorbo, who has 1.9 million followers on X, said in a post. “Our ‘Catholic’ president banned religious imagery from the White House and is now calling Easter Sunday ’transgender day of visibility.’”
“Tyrants, all of them,” added Mr. Sorbo, whose posts on the platform are often critical of the Biden administration’s policies—and of far-left ideas and proposals more generally.
Harmeet K. Dhillon, a lawyer whose focus includes First Amendment rights and election law matters, took to X to share a critical reaction to President Biden’s decision to shroud this Easter Sunday with his administration’s transgender agenda.
“Isn’t every day at the Biden White House ‘Transgender Day of Visibility?’” wrote Ms. Dhillon, who also serves as vice president of the Republican National Lawyers Association.
“To deliberately insult Christians on this holy weekend is gross and evil,” she added.
Michigan state Rep. Joshua Schriver, a Republican, also took a dim view of the proclamation.
“Contrary to Joe Biden, tomorrow isn’t Transgender Day of Visibility in Michigan,” he wrote in a post on X. “We will not celebrate sexual deviancy and self mutilation.”
“Tomorrow is Easter Sunday,” he continued. “We will be celebrating the resurrection of our King, Jesus Christ, who died and rose from the dead to give us ALL an opportunity to repent from our sins and believe in Him.”
“Where’s the empathy for Christians on our most important day of remembrance?” he added.
Amid backlash to the president’s proclamation, some media outlets ran fact-checks clarifying that President Biden’s declaration of this coming Easter Sunday as “Transgender Day of Visibility” seems to be a coincidence because March 31 happens to fall on Easter Sunday this year, but it doesn’t always.
Indeed, President Biden issued similar proclamations in 2021, 2022, and 2023. with March 31 falling on a Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday respectively in those years.
Background
Even though the Biden administration has in the past given a nod of recognition to March 31 as “Transgender Day of Visibility,” Friday’s proclamation is the first time that the president has used the authority vested in him by the U.S. Constitution to officially declare it as such.
March 31 has in some circles been celebrated as “International Transgender Day of Visibility” for over a decade.
According to the left-leaning media outlet NPR, it was founded 15 years ago by Rachel Crandall-Crocker, a male who identifies as a female and executive director of Transgender Michigan, a transgender advocacy group.
Initially, the idea didn’t get much traction, but with the help of Susan Crocker, his wife and Transgender Michigan’s operations director, it became a more widespread phenomenon, per NPR.
It’s unclear when “International Transgender Day of Visibility” came to be referred to as simply “Transgender Day of Visibility” in some circles in the United States.
Transgenderism has become a prominent issue in America’s social and political landscape in recent years, with those on the left tending to support “gender-affirming care” laws that in some cases block parents from having a say in their children’s decisions to get gender-change surgeries and other risky medical procedures.
Conservatives, by contrast, have backed laws that give parents more authority to prevent their children from undergoing transgender procedures or impose penalties on doctors who perform them without parental consent.