WASHINGTON – President Biden started a heated debate on identity politics less than 24 hours after his presidency when he signed a gender discrimination order that has sparked the heat of critics accusing him of erasing the rights of women. women.
The language of order would allow transgender women to participate in women’s sports leagues.
The policy seeks to enforce a Supreme Court ruling last year that prohibits discrimination on the basis of someone’s gender identity and sexual orientation.
“All people must be treated with respect and dignity and must be able to live without fear, regardless of who they are or whom they love,” the order said, signed on Wednesday the first day of Biden.
“Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the toilet, locker room or school sports.”
As more transgender athletes have begun to struggle to participate in women’s sports, the debate over whether they should compete on the same playing field has intensified, given the biological differences in endurance and muscle mass.
The implicit politicization of gender in sports provoked immediate outrage in line with “#BidenErasedWomen” and “#TERFs“Becoming some of the most prominent Twitter hashtags in the United States on Thursday morning, while two parts of the political debate discouraged it.
TERF is an acronym for “trans-exclusive radical feminist” and is considered an insult to people who advocate feminist beliefs and distinguish biological women from trans women.
“The unilateral imposition of trans ideology on a nation without any thought for women’s rights is not how unity is created,” feminist activist Dra. Jane Clare Jones. he wrote in a tweet, criticizing the decision.
Wall Street Journal reporter Abigail Shrier she also took to Twitter to attack Biden’s order, which she said “unilaterally expels women’s sport.”
“Any educational institution that receives federal funding must admit biologically male athletes to women’s teams, women’s scholarships, etc. A new glass ceiling has just been placed on girls,” Shrier said.
The LGB Alliance, a UK lesbian, gay and bisexual alliance group that has also been labeled “transphobic”, said it was “dismayed” by Biden’s order.
“We are appalled by the executive order of @potus that erases the rights based on the sex of women and girls” read a tweet of the group.
“This is a serious blow to women and girls in sports, prisons, rape centers, hospitals, etc. and prohibits lesbians and gays from having our own spaces. We will help our American friends to oppose.” hi “.
Film director Sonia Poulton also dropped the accusation that she was “transphobic” to criticize Biden’s order.
“They call me TERF because I think women have a right to our own sports, prisons, shelters and spaces and because I think children should be protected from people who seek to sexualize them and confuse them about who they are. to defend what I do ”. she wrote.
Added another expert: “If you think opposition to biological advantage is transphobia, you’re an idiot.”
Trans activists argued that the Biden administration that protected the rights of American transgender people did not steal women’s rights.
“I see that #BidenErasedWomen trends seem like a good time to remind everyone that there have been trans people in all recorded cultures,” the transgender activist and journalist wrote. Paris Lees.
“Biden has simply said he will not allow people like me to be discriminated against for using female toilets, as we have always done,” he continued.
“There is no evidence that they have caused problems in the rest of society. Trans people who use the toilets they consider appropriate are not new, but the drive to discriminate is.