Two news stories in the last week underscore the Biden administration‘s balancing act with LGBT causes as the 2024 election approaches.
The first was that, having declared March 31 the annual Transgender Day of Visibility in 2021, President Joe Biden honored the new tradition alongside Easter on Sunday, outraging conservatives in the process.
The second is that the administration will reportedly delay implementing new rules on transgender sports participation until after the November election.
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended the White House from controversy, noting that Transgender Day of Visibility consistently falls on March 31, with the timing of Easter Sunday being a coincidence. Even so, her response indicates how out of touch the Biden White House has become, argues Republican strategist Jai Chabria.
“I don’t think that this one issue will have a huge impact on the election, but I do think it points out how co-opted the Biden White House has become by the hard Left,” he said. “It’s another brush stroke that paints a picture of him being out of touch with most Americans.”
The episode is one of many where Biden’s support of LGBT causes, and transgender rights in particular, has resulted in conservative backlash. He appointed Rachel Levine as the first transgender four-star admiral in 2021 and held an elaborate Pride month celebration at the White House last June that was marred by controversy over its display of the six-year-old progress pride flag between two American flags on the Truman Balcony. The president also faced criticism after a transgender influencer went topless at the event.
The Biden White House and Department of Education appear to be taking split tracks when it comes to reinterpreting Title IX rules to reflect transgender inclusion.
The DoE will soon finalize rules governing sex discrimination to include gender identity, the Washington Post reported, but will delay a companion regulation regarding transgender athletes participating in school sports. That delay will be until after the Nov. 5 election, two sources said.
Half of all states have laws banning transgender women from competing in women’s sports, and the proposed regulation stops short of guaranteeing their inclusion. But the hesitation, at least to Republicans, indicates that the White House — or its leader, in particular — is not confident in public support for its new rules.
Republicans have repeatedly attempted to drive a wedge between Democrats and parents using issues such as participation in school sports and parental notification on gender transitions, among other political flashpoints.
“I actually think sometimes Joe Biden is uncomfortable with where his party is, and it shows,” Chabria said.
Democratic strategist Brad Bannon counters that the controversies may excite the press but will be a wash at election time.
“The debate over this [Title IX] rule is a potent issue for the Trump base, but won’t have much impact on the outcome of the election,” he said. “When Trump pushes a button to activate MAGA, it also gins up young Democratic voters who are very liberal on lifestyle issues. This is not an issue that will matter much to swing suburban voters in the battleground states who are focused on concerns about the economy and who fear GOP attempts to restrict contraception and abortion rights.”
The Department of Education says the high volume of feedback it got regarding transgender sports rules, rather than election-year politics, is behind the delay.
“The Department of Education has taken the next step to advance a rule, first proposed in 2022, that strengthens protections for students from sexual harassment and for LGBTQI+ students,” a spokesperson said. “The department is still reviewing a second rule related to athletics, which was first proposed nine months after the first rule, and which received 150,000 public comments which by law must be carefully considered.”
Meanwhile, the White House has not shied away from attacking Republicans over their focus on culture war issues.
“As a Christian who celebrates Easter with family, President Biden stands for bringing people together and upholding the dignity and freedoms of every American,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said of the holiday controversy. “Sadly, it’s unsurprising politicians are seeking to divide and weaken our country with cruel, hateful, and dishonest rhetoric. President Biden will never abuse his faith for political purposes or for profit.”
Heritage Action, the lobbying arm of the Heritage Foundation, was one of multiple conservative groups that launched portals soliciting comments against the Title IX move, and the group argues that the delay is clear evidence the public simply does not want it.
“When Team Biden announced their plans to upend 50 years of Title IX protections for female athletes, a record number of people responded in opposition,” Heritage Action Vice President Ryan Walker said. “Like so many of Biden’s policies, making young women share locker rooms and playing fields with males is deeply out of touch with the American people.”
Walker argued that Biden is delaying rather than scrapping the rule to avoid upsetting his left flank, which forms the core of the Democratic Party.
A Gallup poll taken last summer found that 69% of respondents think transgender athletes should compete on sports teams that conform with their gender at birth, a number that had risen 7 points from a similar poll taken two years earlier.
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But with the rule delayed, and with both Easter and Transgender Day of Visibility now in the past, it remains to be seen how much the issue will move the needle in the general election. Chabria argues that other topics should supersede it in Republican messaging.
“The biggest issues will be the economy and immigration, how expensive it is to buy groceries and how unsecure the border is,” he said. “Those are the two biggest issues no matter what. These [transgender] stories though take on a life of their own, and I don’t think Republicans need to do a lot to fan the flames.”
