I was stunned this past Easter weekend to learn that President Biden had declared Easter Sunday to be “Transgender Visibility Day.” Easter, the highest, holy day of the Christian year for millions of Americans and still billions more around the world. That’s the day President Biden thought best to endorse and highlight transgenderism.
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (Shreveport, LA) responded that the White House “betrayed the central tenet of Easter—which is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.” He further stated, “banning sacred truth and tradition—while at the same time proclaiming Easter Sunday as ‘Transgender Day’—is outrageous and abhorrent.”
The Heritage Foundation responded on X that “Easter Sunday is the holiest day of the Christian calendar, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Transgender Day of Visibility is a sacrilegious invention celebrating the mutilation of healthy human bodies. That it would exist at all is a disservice to Americans. That it would attempt to usurp Easter is unacceptable. The Biden administration should recant and apologize to America for its perversions.”
As always, the media rushed out to defend Biden stating that the fact that his proclamation fell on Easter was merely coincidental. We know better.
Recall that this transgender insanity was first advanced when the Biden Administration made a striking departure on Title IX, a federal education law that prevents discrimination based on sex—meaning biological males and females—with his Executive Order on “Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation.” The language sounds benign but it allows biological males who “identify” as females to compete in girl’s and women’s sports and use female locker rooms and restrooms.
Conversely, President Trump moved to protect women and, therefore, to “ban men from participating in women’s sports.” President Trump also specifically reaffirmed the position that public school districts may exclude students from athletic teams based on “gender identity” and could require students to use bathrooms based on biological sex, rather than gender identity.
Recall the Transgender LGBT community already has two full months to celebrate their personal choices—LGBT Pride month is June, and LGBT History Month is in October. Biden could have easily protected and respected Easter Sunday—the holiest single day on the Christian calendar for the past 2000 years.
Wow. But Transgender Day is not all.
At the annual White House Easter Egg Roll, officials banned submissions with religious symbols or “overtly religious themes” from the children’s Easter egg art design competition. (The Biden White House states that the non-religious theme requirement had been in place for many years but that’s beside the point).
So, on the most sacred day of the year for millions of American Christians, the President of the United States elevates the mental disorder of transgenderism and at the same time prohibits religious imagery from the Easter Egg celebration.
Did Biden really have to choose Easter Sunday to take this action? Does he not understand the deep offense taken by millions of Americans?
Let me include one more indication of the difference in Biden and Trump on such issues.
Mick Mulvaney, who served several roles in the Trump Administration, recounts in the Wall Street Journal “What Trump Did for the Faithful.”
He describes a situation in 2018, when he was Director of the Office of Management and Budget, in which he realized that several members of his budgeting team would not be able to leave the White House to attend Mass and/or Ash Wednesday because the budget deadline was approaching. He asked President Trump if a Catholic Mass could be held at the White House at the Old Executive Office Building. Trump approved the request. “More than 100 people showed up to the first Mass in history in the White House compound” Mulvaney recalls. He further states “after the Mass started, Protestant, Muslim and Jewish services were also held on the White House campus grounds.”
Mulvaney also shares that when Pres. Trump was leaving the White House, Mulvaney encouraged new Biden staffers to continue the tradition. Unfortunately, “neither the Mass nor any of the other religious services have resumed.” (Wall Street Journal, 4-4-2024).
This is the conclusion. You either respect and support the exercise of religious faith and practice, or you don’t. At different times, Pres. Biden and his Administration have expressed both indifference for, and hostility to, the Christian faith. We should not forget.
Shreveport attorney, Royal Alexander, worked in D.C. in the U.S. House of Representatives for nearly 8 years for two different Members of Congress from Louisiana.