HRC compiles 85 actions Biden can take for LGBTQ rights

The Human Rights Campaign published a “Blueprint for Positive Change 2020”, with 85 policy recommendations for president-elect Joe Biden’s administration — none of which require going to Congress.

The recommendations include reversing outgoing president Donald Trump’s transgender military ban, ending the ban on gay men donating blood, and applying across all federal agencies the Supreme Court’s Bostock v. Clayton County decision, which held that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects employees against discrimination because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Using the Bostock decision would reinstate discrimination protections put in place by the Obama Administration that was removed by the Trump administration, including in the Departments of Education and Justice.

“The momentous election of pro-equality champions Joe Biden and Kamala Harris puts us on a path to move equality forward by advancing policies to improve the lives of millions of LGBTQ people,” Human Rights Campaign President Alphonso David said in a statement.

“Over the last four years, the Trump-Pence administration has systemically attacked LGBTQ people and our nation’s most sacred institutions — our courts, our Constitution, and our fundamental civil rights.”

“These are steps that the Biden-Harris administration can take affirmatively and administratively to protect LGBTQ people and really not only put us back in positions that we were in before the Trump administration but advance us forward toward equality,” David told the Washington Blade.

He said the Biden-Harris transition team has already been provided a copy of the blueprint and their reaction has been “positive.”

“They have been very hospitable, very open to receiving the blueprints, and very accommodating in discussing any concerns or questions that may arise as we go through the process,” he said.

The document also calls for the Department of Housing and Urban Development to restore the Equal Access Rule, which HUD Secretary Ben Carson removed this past summer to allow federally-funded homeless shelters to refuse to help transgender people more easily. HUD even issued advice to homeless shelters on how to spot transgender women to refuse to help them.

The document also calls for the Federal Trade Commission to “implement industry-wide regulations prohibiting the false and misleading advertising, marketing, and other business practices of any individual or organization that provides conversion therapy.”

People who promise to change others’ sexual orientation or gender identity — even though the practice has been widely discredited by mental health and medical organizations — would face sanctions for accepting money in exchange for a fake service.

Other policy suggestions in the Blueprint include more diverse judicial and administration appointments, increased data collection on LGBTQ people in various areas of government operations, and a call for non-binary gender markers on U.S. passports.