The White House on Friday announced “transgender day of visibility” for March 31, which this year falls on Easter Sunday.
“NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim March 31, 2024, as Transgender Day of Visibility,” President Biden wrote in a Friday statement.
Celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Easter Sunday is the holiest day in the Christian calendar.
“I call upon all Americans to join us in lifting up the lives and voices of transgender people throughout our Nation and to work toward eliminating violence and discrimination based on gender identity,” the statement added.
Since its inception, the Biden administration has made LGBT activism a cornerstone of its policy platform. Biden boasted in his statement that he appointed transgender leaders to his administration and ended the ban on transgender Americans serving openly in the military.
In the past, some of Biden’s transgender inclusivity events at the White House have backfired. A transgender influencer was banned from the White House in June 2023 for posing topless at President Biden’s Pride celebration. Rose Montoya, who exposed his bare prosthetic breasts to the camera and onlookers at the official event, violated basic standards of decency and social manners, a spokesperson for the White House told the New York Post at the time.
This year, children of the National Guard are also barred from sending in religious Easter egg designs for the “Celebrating National Guard Families” art event at the White House, according to a flyer obtained by First Liberty. The White House hosts many Easter traditions, including this military family art initiative and the annual Easter Egg Roll.
Easter egg submissions “must not include any questionable content, religious symbols, overtly religious themes, or partisan political statements,” according to the flyer.
“As part of the White House Easter traditions, America’s Egg Farmers – for nearly 50 years – have proudly presented an intricately decorated Commemorative Easter Egg to the First Lady of the United States,” the flyer said. “In 2021, the White House expanded on this longstanding tradition by displaying youth-designed Easter eggs in the White House East Colonnade.”
Children are also forbidden from making creations that include “bigotry, racism, hatred or harm against any group or individual or promotes discrimination based on race, gender, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age.”
On Monday, Biden responded to criticism that his trans declaration was offensive to people of faith in America. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson was one of many conservative politicians and pundits who blasted Biden over the weekend for his timing tone-deafness and the Easter egg design prohibitions that he alleged had disrespected Christianity.
“The Biden White House has betrayed the central tenet of Easter — which is the resurrection of Jesus Christ,” Johnson wrote on X. “Banning sacred truth and tradition—while at the same time proclaiming Easter Sunday as ‘Transgender Day’—is outrageous and abhorrent. The American people are taking note.”
On Monday at the White House Easter Egg Roll, Biden retorted that Johnson was “thoroughly uninformed” in his condemnation of trans recognition being issued by the White House on Easter Sunday. Elizabeth Alexander, the communications director for first lady Jill Biden, defended on X that the egg-designing restrictions have been established for decades and were not uniquely imposed by the Biden White House.
“*Fyi on all the misleading swirl re White House and Easter: the American Egg Board flyer’s standard non-discrimination language requesting artwork has been used for the last 45 years, across all Dem & Republican Admins—for all WH Easter Egg Rolls —incl previous Administration’s,” she said.