President Joe Biden has declared March 31 — Easter Sunday — “Transgender Day of Visibility.”
According to Biden’s proclamation:
Today, we send a message to all transgender Americans: You are loved. You are heard. You are understood. You belong. You are America, and my entire Administration and I have your back.
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. 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.
“It is no surprise that the bullying and discrimination that transgender Americans face is worsening our Nation’s mental health crisis, leading half of transgender youth to consider suicide in the past year. At the same time, an epidemic of violence against transgender women and girls, especially women and girls of color, continues to take too many lives,” Biden’s proclamation said.
Last year, The Midwesterner reviewed every case publicized by HRC over the previous four years and made the following findings:
In the 100 highlighted cases, of the suspects identified:
- 60 were black
- 2 were white
- 1 was Latino
In other words, black suspects accounted for 95 percent of black trans murders.
Most recently, Highland Park, Michigan police announced the arrest of Carlos Lamar Scotland, a black man, after the death of Ashia Davis in June 2023.
Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial
MORE NEWS: Mt. Pleasant Indivisible protest draws 40 — read ‘banned’ books, demand taxpayer funding for PBS
According to Fox 2, Davis was “found shot to death in a Highland Park hotel” and Scotland, who was 17 at the time, was charged with “first-degree murder, felony firearm, resisting and obstructing police, and carrying a concealed weapon.”
Joe Biden’s first year in the presidency, 2021, had the most cases, 36, despite his assertion that defeating the Trump administration would end trans murders. There were 22 in 2022, 21 in 2020 and 20 in 2019, according to the HRC listings.
“We’ve already had five, just this year, five black transgender women killed violently in 2019 — that’s outrageous. It must, it must, it must end,” Biden said in June 2019, CNN reported.
“And the fastest way to end it is, end the Trump administration,” he added.
Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial
Biden said Transgender Day of Visibility is meant to “honor the extraordinary courage and contributions of transgender Americans and reaffirm our Nation’s commitment to forming a more perfect Union — where all people are created equal and treated equally throughout their lives.”