Former President Barack Obama has criticized Republican-led efforts to push legislation nationwide restricting the rights and equality of transgender Americans.
In an interview with the Advocate, Obama was asked about the more than 100 anti-trans bills that have been introduced in legislatures across the country, which have led to a number of states criminalizing healthcare access for transgender youth or banning trans people from competing in sports according to their gender identity.
“For many years now, we’ve seen some Republicans seek political advantage by pitting us against one another, often by going after certain groups of people who just want equal treatment,” Obama responded.
“These bills are doing real harm — especially to young people — whether they end up passing or not. Growing up is hard enough, and at some point we all struggle to find our place in the world,” he continued. “I can’t imagine how difficult it is for young people to know that some leaders — including people who are supposed to be representing you — don’t think they deserve equal rights.”
He added: “It breaks my heart. This is not who we are. America has always been at its best when we open our arms wider and help more people feel like they belong — not treat them like second-class citizens because they’re different.”
Transgender people are under assault from Republican lawmakers across the country, who continue to push and pass bans anti-trans and broader anti-LGBTQ legislation.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis celebrated the start of Pride Month by signing a transgender sports ban into law, making the state the seventh so far this year to restrict athletes to competing based on the sex on their birth certificate.
The Human Rights Campaign has promised to sue the state over the ban, with the organization’s president, Alphonso David, saying they would ensure there are “legal consequences to pay for being on the wrong side of history.”
West Virginia faces a similar lawsuit over its recently passed ban on transgender athletes, with multiple state agencies included in a suit on behalf of Becky Pepper-Jackson, a transgender 11-year-old who is banned from trying out for the girls’ cross-country team at her middle school.
Arkansas also faces a lawsuit for its recently passed law barring health care professionals from providing gender-affirming care to transgender minors. The ACLU said the law is “devastating to trans youth and their families, forcing many to uproot their lives and leave the state to access the gender-affirming care they need.”
Amid the ongoing assault on trans rights, President Joe Biden, Obama’s former vice president, reiterated a message of support for the trans community during Pride Month.
“To transgender Americans across the country — especially the young people who are so brave — I want you to know your President has your back,” Biden wrote. “During Pride Month — and all the time.”
Elsewhere in his interview, former President Obama touched on his LGBTQ legacy, which includes the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide, as well as the ending of the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy.
Obama said that he would “love” for his LGBTQ legacy to be “overshadowed,” as it would “mean another president was doing even more to protect LGBTQ rights.”
“It’s why I was so happy to see President Biden sign an executive order on his first day in office directing federal agencies to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity,” Obama continued. “He also rolled back the previous administration’s ban on transgender Americans serving in the military, and took other steps to support and protect LGBTQ communities here around the world.”
Obama added: “We obviously have more work to do. We need to do even more to guarantee basic rights and protections for every American. My hope is that whatever success we had while I was president proves that progress is possible.”
The School district has since boarded up the windows after the controversial renovations -- which some allege were meant to target trans students -- gained negative press and national attention.
A Pennsylvania school board has come under fire for cutting windows into gender-inclusive restrooms that would allow the public to peer into them from the hallway.
In August, a new right-wing school board for the South Western School District, in Hanover, Pennsylvania, passed the policy to "increase oversight of the wash area." School Board President Matthew Gelazela said that the district would be adding additional privacy measures, including taller stalls, for the toilets in the restroom, according to the York Dispatch.
The bathrooms targeted explicitly for these new renovations were those where students may use facilities based on their gender identity.
A pair of Senate Democratic candidates have sought to insulate themselves from attacks by Republicans that they support transgender athletes, or as the right-wing ads claim, allowing "boys" or "biological men" to compete in women's sports.
The shift by U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, who is challenging incumbent Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, locked in a tough re-election battle in right-leaning Ohio, indicates that the two Democrats seemingly believe that Republican attack ads on transgender issues have some salience among voters.
Both men have been attacked for supporting the Equality Act, a sweeping bill to prohibit discrimination against LGBTQ people in employment, housing, public accommodations, credit, lending, jury service, and other aspects of life -- though it is decidedly silent on athletic participation.
With the sun shining and a high of 78 degrees, about 10 degrees above normal, Election Day 2024 in D.C. is curiously warm, though pleasant. A byproduct of climate change? It's hard to appreciate the weather, knowing it may herald planetary peril.
There is a similar pleasant-yet-apprehensive mood at Little Gay Pub at the corner of 11th and P Streets NW in the city's Logan Circle neighborhood. Artist Lisa Marie Thalhammer's stylized British phone-box mural cheerfully hugs the corner of the building. Vice President Kamala Harris's smiling visage is equally cheery on posters at the entrance, coupled with various Harris cutouts looking out of windows. Previous postings were vandalized, but everything is looking stellar as patrons arrive for a night of election results.
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