Last night at the very bizarre and divided town halls for each presidential candidate, Former Vice President Joe Biden was asked about the large number of transgender people that are murdered every year by a mother with a transgender daughter.
In 2020 alone, 33 transgender people have already been murdered and President Donald Trump never talks about it. Instead he placed bans on transgender people serving in the military. On his inauguration day, all mentions of the LGBTQ community were erased from government websites. His appointees to the Supreme Court all have a history of anti-transgender rulings. Trump ended the White House Advisory council on HIV/AIDS, diseases which disproportionately affect transgender people. The administration has repetitively worked to cut regulations that prohibit discrimination against transgender people when it comes to housing and homeless shelters. This is just part of a lengthy list of frightening events.
It's a list of frightening events almost as long as the list of lives lost. If Biden were to win, he needs to take immediate action to protect the transgender community which is under attack.
Biden answered the question about LGBTQ rights in typical Biden fashion — awkward but heartfelt.
Biden pledged to reverse all of Trump's executive orders and actions that have harmed the transgender community. Biden also criticized Trump's Supreme Court Nominee, Amy Coney Barrett for failing to commit to support the LGBTQ community.
The fact that this is one of the very first times a topic like this has been addressed at a debate or a town hall forum is very frightening, given how deadly it clearly can be.
Trump's rhetoric that has failed to acknowledge that trans lives matters, effectively told the community that they don't matter. This sort of rhetoric leads to people killing transgender people, because the president of the United States has made it clear that these lives don't matter. The first step Biden needs to take definitely is to make clear that trans lives matter by vocalizing it, and by reversing Trump's policies.
The second step involves legal action. As Biden lays out on his campaign website, he should pass the Equality Act which would make sure that LGBTQ people are protected under civil rights law.
There isn't much Biden can do about the damage that Trump had wreaked on the judicial system by granting lifetime appointments to large numbers of anti-LGBTQ judges across the country.
The next step Biden needs to take is to tackle racism and sexism, as discussed in a previous post. A high percentage of the victims outlined in the map are women of color. These combined intersectionalities further limit the life expectancy of a person. The fact is, whether someone is Black or female or transgender shouldn't matter at all. Instead, all lives should be treated equally.
Tackling racism starts with housing, education and jobs. These issues are ultimately all related.
The final step to supporting the LGBTQ community involves the police and the justice system. Very few of the murders inflicted upon the transgender community were actually charged. One of the victims died at the hands of a state trooper. In many cases, the police misgendered the victim in the police report.
Biden needs to create a government and police training program on LGBTQ sensitivity as well as pronoun training. He needs to understand that if transgender people are continually shot and yet don't trust the police, they never feel safe. The mother of a transgender child who asked Biden a question had every right to be concerned about her daughter's future. We need a president that can reassure her with words and actions.
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