The order has been welcomed by activists of transgender rights, but critics allege it erodes protections for women and girls. It remains to be seen how the administration interprets the order in specific cases, but the language indicates that women-only sports, bathrooms, and locker rooms in federally funded institutions will have to be open to people who were born as biological men who identify as female and vice versa. That would include all schools and colleges that accept federal dollars.
“Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports,” the order states.
It stretches further by infusing “gender identity” into the definition of sex discrimination in housing, workplace, and healthcare settings.
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“Adults should be able to earn a living and pursue a vocation knowing that they will not be fired, demoted, or mistreated because of whom they go home to or because how they dress does not conform to sex-based stereotypes,” the order states. “People should be able to access healthcare and secure a roof over their heads without being subjected to sex discrimination.”
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It insists that federal agencies “review all existing orders, regulations, guidance documents, policies, programs, or other agency actions” that pertain to sex discrimination and make changes or issue new regulations to include gender identity.
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How exactly the order will play out in practice will depend on how the individual agencies interpret it, in particular what they will and won’t consider a gender identity.
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Transgender issues often take a political turn along the lines of the quasi-Marxist “critical gender theory,” which reinterprets human history as a struggle between an oppressive “cis-gender heteropatriarchy” and oppressed “gender non-conforming” individuals.
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With Biden’s order, the gender ideology will to some extent become the official policy of the federal government.
The order is in place to allow men who were born as biological men, yet identify as women, to compete in women’s sports, according to Christiana Holcomb, legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian advocacy group.
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The debate around transgender athletes has become polarized to the point where many assume transgender athletes are intentionally cheating their way to trophies, while others assume people opposing the inclusion of transgender athletes are doing so out of spite and hate.
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Transgender individuals say that being perceived as their preferred gender improves their wellbeing. Devastating survey results urveys show that about 30 percent of youth who identify as transgender, attempt suicide. Those who don’t face bullying or feel discriminated against seem to have a significantly lower, though still high, suicide attempt rate.