Biden can begin quickly reversing Trump’s damaging impact on LGBTQ rights — with or without Congress

The president’s painful record on LGBTQ rights won’t be erased overnight, but immediate steps can be taken to restore basic protections for millions of Americans.

President Donald Trump rolled back a multitude of protections for transgender Americans and others over the last four years while attempting to court LGBTQ voters.

Mr Biden pledged along the campaign trail to undo Mr Trump’s ban on transgender people from serving in the military in a statement on the anniversary of the repeal of the controversial “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

A simple executive order could quickly reverse that policy, once again allowing transgender Americans to join and serve openly in the US military, according to the Palm Center, a think tank at the University of California dedicated to promoting the study of LGBTQ people in the armed forces. .

Mr Biden could reverse other rollbacks of protections for LGBTQ Americans on his first day in office, reinstating rules at the Department of Housing and Urban Development which protected transgender people from housing discrimination.

He could also eliminate the new rule finalized by the Department of Health and Human Services under Mr Trump that effectively erased all sorts of protections from health care discrimination for transgender Americans.

Mr Biden has consistently expressed his strong support for the Equality Act, which has already passed in the House of Representatives and would provide many of the protections to LGBTQ Americans that civil rights groups have long said should be implemented at a national level?

If Mr Biden wants to score big victories for LGBTQ rights early on in his administration, he could easily do so with several executive orders designed to undo Mr Trump’s array of policies providing so-called “religious exemptions” for things like adoption and foster care services across government agencies.

The impact would be swift and staggering; the new administration’s orders could immediately prevent federal contractors from discriminating against LGBTQ Americans and restore protections for transgender people across the public and private sector.

President Donald Trump rolled back a multitude of protections for transgender Americans and others over the last four years while attempting to court LGBTQ voters.