by WorldTribune Staff, January 22, 2021

The hashtag #BidenErasedWomen has been spawned by the order signed Jan. 20 by President Joe Biden which called for “preventing and combating discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation.”

“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 said. “People should be able to access health care and secure a roof over their heads without being subjected to sex discrimination.”

“Unfortunately, the Biden administration wasted no time in demanding policies that gut legal protections for women by denying female athletes fair competition in sports, ignoring women’s unique health needs, and forcing vulnerable girls to share intimate spaces with men who identify as female,” said Christiana Holcomb, Alliance Defending Freedom legal counsel.

A report by Valerie Richardson for the Washington Times cited a tweet by Abigail Shrier, author of “Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters” that charged the Biden order “unilaterally eviscerates women’s sports.”

“Any educational institution that receives federal funding must admit biologically-male athletes to women’s teams, women’s scholarships,” she said. “A new glass ceiling was just placed over girls.”

LGBT advocate Charlotte Clymer, labeled critics of the order as “transphobes.”

“To recap: President Biden signed an … order banning discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation,” she tweeted. “Transphobes are claiming this attacks the rights of cis women. It does not, of course. It’s just tragic logic and sad bigotry.”

Alphonso David, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said that “millions of Americans can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that their President and their government believe discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity is not only intolerable but illegal.”

Noted Richardson: “Mr. David’s email said nothing about transgender access to women’s sports, and there may be a reason for that: The issue is a loser in the polls.”

A Rasmussen Reports poll in late 2019 found that just 29 percent supported allowing biological males who identify as women to compete against biological females, and 51 percent were opposed .

Last year the ADF filed a lawsuit on behalf of three Connecticut high school female track athletes who said they were deprived of fair competition, honors and scholarship chances by two transgender runners who took 15 state titles.

“This isn’t equality, and it isn’t progress,” Holcomb said. “President Biden’s call for ‘unity’ falls flat when he seeks to hold those receiving federal funds hostage if they don’t do tremendous damage to the rights, opportunities, and dignity of women and girls.”

The Trump White House sided with the Connecticut female athletes, and contended the state policy violated Title IX by discriminating against biological girls and women.

Biden’s executive order is expected to roll back many Trump-era policies including those impacting religious freedom.

Under the Biden directive, medical professionals could be required to perform sex-change procedures in violation of their religion, the report by Richardson noted. Companies and organizations with a religious orientation could be forced to offer health-care plans that cover gender reassignment.

“With a stroke of a pen, President Joe Biden has turned 50-year-old civil rights legislation on its head, hollowing out protections for people of faith,” Family Research Council president Tony Perkins said. “President Biden is unilaterally enacting a sweeping policy change that has routinely failed to win the approval of Congress, the body the Constitution tasks with actually passing laws.”

A statement by Ryan Anderson, Heritage Foundation senior research fellow, and Emilie Kao, director of the DeVos Center for Religion & Civil Society, addressed other implications:

“Men who identify as women must be allowed in women-only spaces, boys who identify as girls must be allowed to compete in the girls’ athletic competitions, healthcare plans must pay for gender-transition procedures, doctors and hospitals must perform them, [and] adoption agencies may not seek only married moms and dads to care for children in need,” they said.

  Hashtag #BidenErasedWomen trending after Day One executive orders, WorldTribune.com