Former President Joe Biden posted on X Saturday to celebrate International Women’s Day, and many Americans called out his administration’s record of enabling transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports.
“Like so many of you, I’m celebrating the incredible women in my life today. International Women’s Day is a time to recognize the achievements of women and girls everywhere and recommit our efforts to advance dignity, opportunity, and equality for all. When women and girls succeed, communities, economies, and democracies succeed,” Biden wrote.
During Biden’s presidency, he signed an executive order that allowed trans athletes to compete in women’s and girls sports, attempted to rewrite Title IX to allow it and even tried to punish states for taking their own steps to combat the issue.
Since Biden left office, Democrats in Congress and state governments have done plenty to combat Republican attempts to address the issue.
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There was a wave of criticism against his celebratory post Saturday.
Critics included U.S. Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, who posted a screenshot of the House of Representatives’ vote on the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, which 203 Democrats voted against. The bill was then filibustered in the Senate when 45 Democrats voted against it.
XX-XY Athletics, the sportswear brand dedicated to promoting the activism of protecting female athletes from trans inclusion, lambasted Biden for “eroding” women’s rights.
Other Americans shared their own thoughts.
“They don’t succeed when men take over their spaces,” one X user wrote.
Another X user wrote, “Is that why you humiliated our women by putting men in women’s sports? Asking for my Sisters and Daughters ? Or do you even know you did it?”
“Hey Joe. What is a woman? Is your way to celebrate it by letting men into women’s sports? Taking away the identity of actual women?” another user wrote.
Biden’s record of allowing trans athletes to compete in women’s and girls sports became one of the Democratic Party’s biggest vulnerabilities in the 2024 election.
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On the first day of his presidency in January 2021, Biden signed an executive order on “Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation.”
The order included a section that said, “Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports.”
In March 2023, Democrats advocated for a transgender bill of rights, proposing a resolution “recognizing that it is the duty of the Federal Government to develop and implement a Transgender Bill of Rights.” The resolution specifically called for federal law to ensure that biological men can “participate in sports on teams and in programs that best align with their gender identity; [and] use school facilities that best align with their gender identity.”
In April 2023, Biden’s Department of Education proposed a rule change that would have punished schools for preventing trans athletes from competing in women’s sports.
The proposition was titled “Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Sex in Education Programs or Activities Receiving Federal Financial Assistance: Sex-Related Eligibility Criteria for Male and Female Athletic Teams.”
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The rule would have outlawed individual states from banning participation in single-sex sports by gender identity rather than just sex. There are 23 states in the U.S. that have legislation in place to restrict trans athletes from competing as females in public school sports.
In April 2024, Biden issued a sweeping Title IX rewrite that issued a ban on “sex” discrimination in schools based on gender identity, sexual orientation and “pregnancy or related conditions.” The rule took effect Aug. 1, and, for the first time, the law stated that discrimination based on sex includes conduct related to a person’s gender identity.
It led to more than two dozen attorneys general suing over the rule, arguing it would conflict with some of their state laws that block transgender students from participating in women’s sports.
The Supreme Court struck down an emergency request by Biden to enforce the rewrite in states that defied the rewrite in August.
When the election came around in Novemeber, Biden’s record on the issue may have backfired on his party because it lost the White House, Senate and House of Representatives.
A national exit poll conducted by the Concerned Women for America legislative action committee found that 70% of moderate voters saw the issue of “Donald Trump’s opposition to transgender boys and men playing girls’ and women’s sports and of transgender boys and men using girls’ and women’s bathrooms” as important to them.
Additionally, 6% said it was the most important issue of all, while 44% said it was “very important.”
After President Donald Trump returned to office, he signed an executive order banning trans athletes in women’s and girls sports Feb. 5. However, many Democrat-led states have refused to comply with the order despite most Democrats being opposed to it.
A recent New York Times/Ipsos survey found that the vast majority of Americans, including a majority of Democrats, don’t think transgender athletes should be permitted to compete in women’s sports. Of the 2,128 people who participated, 79% said that biological males who identify as women should not be allowed to participate in women’s sports.
Of the 1,025 people who identified as Democrats or leaning Democrat, 67% said that transgender athletes should not be allowed to compete with women.
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