Donald Trump vows to introduce ‘Christian Visibility Day’ as he blasts Biden in trans row
Donald Trump has slammed President Biden’s declaration of Transgender Day of Visibility, which this year happened to fall on Easter Sunday.
Biden has faced backlash after his annual day to honour the transgender movement, which has taken place since 2009.
Trump, the presumptive Republican candidate, has vowed to introduce November 5 as “Christian Visibility Day” if he is elected.
Estimates from the Pew Research Centre from 2021 suggest that about 63 per cent of the US population is Christian, roughly 210 million. A study from 2022 estimates that nearly 1.64 million people over the age of 13 in the United States identify themselves as transgender.
Speaking at a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Trump said: “And what the h*** was Biden thinking when he declared Easter Sunday to be trans visibility day?… Such total disrespect to Christians.
“And on November 5, it is going to be called something else. You know, it’s going to be called Christian Visibility Day.”
President Biden faced backlash to his post on social media marking the event, which has been held annually on March 31 since 2009.
Trump’s national press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, previously called the Trans Day of Visibility “appalling and insulting”.
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A statement by the White House responding to the claims said: “As a Christian who celebrates Easter with family, President Biden stands for bringing people together and upholding the dignity and freedoms of every American.
“Sadly, it’s unsurprising politicians are seeking to divide and weaken our country with cruel, hateful, and dishonest rhetoric. President Biden will never abuse his faith for political purposes or for profit.”
The Republican candidate has previously been called out for seeming to flip sides on issues surrounding transgender rights. In since unreported radio and television interviews from spring and summer 2012, Trump celebrated the interest in a 23-year-old transgender woman named Jenna Talackova participating in a Canadian pageant.
The then-owner of the Miss Universe pageant would go on to cite the possible participation of transgender women in Olympic sports to justify his decision to end a ban on transgender pageant participants.
However, in the run-up to the upcoming election, Trump promised to “ban men from participating in women’s sports,” when speaking about transgender athletes.
He has also referred to gender-affirming surgery for minors as “child sexual mutilation,” and said he would seek to make such surgeries illegal if he returned to the White House