The Biden administration marked the International Transgender Day of Visibility today with a series of measures to support transgender Americans, even as they face a slew of laws and efforts across the country to curtail their rights. The administration announced actions to support the mental health of transgender children and to remove barriers to entry for government services in the U.S. for trans people and to improve their representation in government and other data.
Biden said in a presidential proclamation yesterday, “Transgender people are some of the bravest Americans I know in our nation and the world are stronger, more vibrant and more prosperous because of them.”
Biden posted a Twitter video today:
President Biden: Our entire administration sees you for who you are, made the image of God, deserving of dignity, respect and support.
The administration announced today an option for U.S. citizens to select “X” as their gender on U.S. passport applications. The administration is also expected to work with airlines, the Transportation Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security to add an “X” gender markers to their options and databases starting this year.
The Social Security Administration and other government agencies, including Equal Employment Opportunity and the Federal Student Aid, will remove the requirement that transgender people show proof of identity or a note for a doctor to update their gender information.
And the Departments of Health and Human Services, Education and Mental Health will release new ways to address challenges transgender youths may face.
Olivia Hunt is a policy director of the National Center for Transgender Equality.
Olivia Hunt: Transgender Americans deserve to live their lives to their fullest as part of their communities, and having accurate identification documents that reflect who they are and how they live their lives helps them secure that place so they can be fully themselves with their families, their workplaces, their schools, their their entire community.
In his proclamation, President Biden addressed the background for today’s actions in the past year, hundreds of anti-transgender bias in states where proposed across America, most of them targeting transgender kids.
Biden: The onslaught of anti-transgender state laws attacking you and your family is simply wrong. This administration is standing up for you against all these hateful bills, and we’re committed to advancing transgender equality in the classroom, the playing field, at work, in our military, in our housing and health care systems, everywhere, simply everywhere.
Again, Olivia Hunt of the National Center for Transgender Equality.
Hunt: So the new policies that were announced today are things that advocates for trans people and for non-binary people’s rights have been working for for decades at this point. But they’re only a few victories, and there are a lot of battles to be fought and both the federal and state level.
And today, the Department of Health and Human Services will fly a transgender pride flag to mark the day, the first time in history a federal agency will do so.