Posted by A Joe Biden White House spokesperson said Republicans who have spent the Easter weekend criticizing the president for declaring Sunday’s annual Transgender Day of Visibility “are seeking to divide and weaken our country with cruel, hateful and dishonest rhetoric”.
“As a Christian who celebrates Easter with family, president Biden stands for bringing people together and upholding the dignity and freedoms of every American,” the White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said. “President Biden will never abuse his faith for political purposes or for profit.”
Bates’s statement came as the president faced criticism from the campaign of his Republican presidential challenger Donald Trump – along with religious conservatives who support him – for going through with issuing the annual proclamation recognizing 31 March as Transgender Day of Visibility even though that coincided with Easter Sunday.
The Democrat issued the proclamation Friday, calling on “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”.
But Republicans objected to the fact that the Transgender Day of Visibility’s designated 31 March date in 2024 overlapped with Easter, among the holiest celebrations for Christians. Trump’s campaign accused Biden, a Roman Catholic, of being insensitive to religion. And the former president’s Republican allies piled on.
“We call on Joe Biden’s … White House to issue an apology to the millions of Catholics and Christians across America who believe tomorrow is for one celebration only – the resurrection of Jesus Christ,” said the Trump campaign’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt.
US House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said on social media that the “Biden White House has betrayed the central tenet of Easter” and called the president’s declaration “outrageous and abhorrent”.
Biden devoutly attends Catholic mass and considers his religious upbringing to be a core part of his morality and identity. In 2021, he met with Pope Francis at the Vatican and afterward told reporters that the pontiff said he was a “good Catholic” who should keep receiving Communion.
But Biden’s political stances in support of gay marriage and for women having the right to abortion have put him at odds with many conservative Christians.
Trump’s allies took aim at Biden’s Transgender Day of Visibility proclamation as the former president prepares for a criminal trial tentatively set for 15 April. In that case, he is charged with improperly covering up hush-money paid to an adult film actor who claims to have previously had an extramarital sexual encounter with him.
Trump is also battling charges for attempting to forcibly overturn his defeat to Biden in the 2020 election as well as retaining classified materials after his presidency. And he is also facing multimillion-dollar civil penalties for business practices deemed fraudulent and a rape allegation that a judge has found to be substantially true.