Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has pledged to enact a landmark Equality Act bill during his first 100 days of presidency.
The Act in question is commonly referred to as the Equality Act which aims to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation, and for other purposes.
If passed, it would “prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation, and for other purposes.”
Biden has long been a proponent of LGBTQ+ rights. Under the Obama administration, the Democrat has been a vocal advocator of the queer community.
Since then, he has helped in repealing the Clinton Administration’s ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy, which impacted LGBTQ+ identifying individuals who were enlisted for military service, to his open support of marriage equality in 2012.
Now equal marriage has been passed, an arguably symbolic victory in the trajectory of LGBTQ+ rights, Biden is believed to be focusing on securing the community more fundamental grass root policies.
During a speech last year, the presidential candidate was quoted saying “No one should be fired, denied a home or access to services because of who they are or who they love” and it is a sentiment he seems willing to uphold.
LGBTQ+ people continue to face discrimination in varying aspects of their lives, including employment, housing, military service, to starting a family. But these issues have only grown under the Trump Administration.
Rights that were once instated or the brink of breakthroughs have since been undone.
Now, in 2020, we have seen an unaddressed national epidemic of transgender deaths, the Republican party have further blocked trans rights in preventing individuals from being able to serve in the military or allowing them access certain homeless shelters as those that are federally funded withhold the right to reject transgender people in need.
On Biden’s proposal page, the presidential candidate promises radical change. A few of this groundbreaking promises include a further integration of LGBTQ+ people within the federal agencies to ensure greater representation and diversity across the board.
Biden also aims to support transgender and non-binary people in the workforce to ensure a clamp down on discrimination. This policy of discrimination and prejudice extends to Trump’s transgender military ban; the Democrat is seeking to reverse this ruling. Alongside this, Biden has promised to tackle the policy allowing federally funded shelters ability to turn away transgender people.
The presidential hopeful is also working to undo stigma imposed on the LGBTQ+ community and to open up accessibility to resources.
This promise would reverse the Department of Defences policies which unfair discriminate against those living with HIV and Trump-Pence’s Deploy or Get Out policy which, again, targets HIV positive individuals.
The campaign trail for the 2020 US Election is reaching its conclusion ahead of the voting polls closing on 3 November.
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