CLEAR Applauds Biden Administration’s Swift Executive Action to End Anti-LGBTQ+ Discrimination

The Center for LGBTQ Economic Advancement & Research applauds the Biden Administration’s many swift actions in their first days in office to begin healing the wounds that have been inflicted by the COVID crisis, the unconstitutional acts of the previous Administration, and persisting systemic inequalities for black, brown, immigrant, and LGBTQ communities in the United States.

Biden’s bold executive actions have renewed the United States’ commitments to ending systemic racism, to climate justice, to welcoming new citizens, to protecting public health, and to advancing LGBTQ+ equality.

Biden’s historic executive order on January 20th directing all federal agencies to implement the Supreme Court’s holding in Bostock v. Clayton County that sex discrimination under Title VII includes sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination in any “statute or regulation that prohibits sex discrimination” will significantly advance equality for the more than 11 million Americans who identify as LGBTQ.

Biden’s order directs all Federal Agencies to review all current Agency orders, regulations, guidance, policies, programs, and other actions “under Title VII or any other statute or regulation that prohibits sex discrimination,” including Title IX, the Fair Housing Act, and the Immigration and Nationality Act. Any new Agency actions or rules under the order should also ensure the Agency is “accounting for, and taking appropriate steps to combat, overlapping forms of discrimination, such as discrimination on the basis of race or disability.”

CLEAR cheers that the Biden Administration recognizes the intersecting axes of discrimination for LGBTQ Americans based on their race, gender, and disability in their order, and makes additional commitments in other orders to creating disaggregated Federal data and reviewing all Federal programs to ensure they support fair access and opportunities to people of color and other underserved groups.

Fully implementing Biden’s executive order across all Federal Agencies, including at the Departments of Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will take time but will improve the lives of all LGBTQ Americans. Protecting LGBTQ communities under current civil rights laws will significantly advance their fair and equal access to education, healthcare, housing, immigration, and financial services in the United States.

We look forward to many more reasons to cheer in the months ahead, and to supporting the significant work that remains to support the needs of LGBTQ households, organizations, and communities.