Republican governor thinks Joe Biden is ‘pushing children’ to be trans. Seriously
Mississippi governor Tate Reeves speaks on Covid-19 testing in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC on 28 September 2020. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Mississippi governor Tate Reeves has gone on a bizarre anti-trans rant in response to president Joe Biden’s executive order which protects LGBT+ people from discrimination.
Biden’s executive order underlines the existing Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which requires the federal government not discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
The order makes mention of children being “able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports”.
The White House confirming to USA Today that while the order does not directly tie federal funding to trans inclusion, it does mandate that students should be able to learn without discrimination, including when playing sports.
Tate Reeves attacked efforts to not discriminate against children, claiming the order will harm his own daughters and is part of an effort by “politicians [who] are pushing children into transgenderism.”
Reeves wrote on Twitter that his family is passionate about his daughters’ sports. He explained the lessons learned through team sports have “led to so many successful lives and careers for women and have truly helped provide a more equal opportunity for success in our world”.
Mississippi governor ‘disappointed’ by Joe Biden not being a bigot.
His post continued: “I am so disappointed over president Biden’s actions to force young girls like them to compete with biological males for access to athletics.”
He alleged allowing trans or gender non-conforming children to participate in sports will “limit opportunity for so many competitors like my daughters”.
“It is a bad policy, and it is wrong for America,” Reeves argued.
“I don’t understand why politicians are pushing children into transgenderism in the first place. I certainly don’t understand why the pesident chose to make it a priority.
“And my heart breaks for the young women across America who lose in this radical social experiment.”
Biden’s executive order requires the heads of all executive agencies to “review all existing orders, regulations, guidance documents, policies programmes or other agency actions” to ensure they are interpreting bans on sex discrimination in federal law to also “prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation”.
This would include the department of education, which oversees publicly-funded schools. The order would direct them not to discriminate against trans children by preventing them from playing on a sports team which aligns with their gender identity.
Trans inclusion in youth sport is a topic of hot debate across the US.
According to the ACLU, 11 states have filed legislation excluding transgender youth from athletics in 2021. Legislators in Montana recently passed a bill which would bar trans girls and women from participating in interscholastic teams that correspond with their gender identity.
The ACLU also published a series of tweets debunking myths about transgender athletes. The organisation said the bans are “discriminatory, harmful and unscientific” before posting four facts which explained why common perceptions of trans athletes are wrong.
The facts included that trans girls are girls; trans athletes do not have an unfair advantage in sports; including trans athletes will benefit everyone; and trans people belong on the same teams as other students.
