Column
No, President Biden Is Not ‘Erasing Women’
So-called progressives are angry Biden ended a policy that allowed schools to discriminate against trans students
Just hours after being inaugurated, President Joe Biden signed 17 executive orders undoing some of his predecessor’s most egregious and discriminatory actions, from reversing the Muslim Ban to ensuring that the U.S. reenters the Paris climate agreement. And though he hasn’t yet signed an executive order, Biden is also preparing to reverse the global gag rule: a devastating policy that bans funding for international health groups that even mention abortion to their patients.
So you can imagine my surprise when I saw, on Biden’s first full day in office, the hashtag “#BidenErasedWomen” trending on Twitter. Had the new president done or said something offensive about women already? Perhaps a Biden-esque gaffe to set off social media alarms?
No, the online furor wasn’t about some attack on feminist rights or the erasure of women — it was about Biden’s efforts to end discrimination against trans people. Namely, some so-called progressives were angry that Biden reinstated an Obama-era mandate that protects LGBTQ people under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. In doing so, Biden put an end to a Trump…
