JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Outrage was voiced domestically and nationally after President Joe Biden issued a proclamation for Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31. It’s an observance held on the identical date yearly since 2009.
However this yr, Easter Sunday additionally occurs to fall on March 31, which sparked backlash to the president’s proclamation.
The president of PFLAG Jacksonville, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, mentioned she needs individuals weren’t upset a couple of day that has been celebrated on March 31 for over a decade and needs the eye can be shifted to creating certain individuals within the transgender group are being accepted for who they’re.
The proclamation that some individuals domestically and nationally are upset about declares March 31 as Transgender Day of Visibility. It’s a day of celebrations and academic occasions designed to carry consideration to transgender individuals.
The day was created in 2009 and has at all times been noticed on March 31, together with throughout all 4 years of the Trump administration. The one different time that Easter has fallen on March 31 since Transgender Day of Visibility was created was in 2013, throughout the Obama administration.
Easter often falls between March 22 and April 25 yearly. The vacation is well known on the primary Sunday after the complete moon or following the spring equinox.
The Republican Get together of Florida and the Republican Get together of Duval County each issued statements about Biden’s proclamation, which was amongst 11 proclamations the president signed on Friday, together with declaring March 31 Cesar Chavez Day.
This can be a portion of the assertion from Duval County social gathering chair Dean Black:
“As an alternative of celebrating Easter, Joe Biden proclaimed March thirty first as ‘Transgender Day of Visibility.’ This can be a slap to the face to all Christians! Not solely has Biden determined to usurp Easter within the title of appeasing his excessive base, however the White Home has additionally banned any ‘religious-themed’ Easter eggs for the annual White Home Easter Egg Roll.”
News4JAX reached out to completely different LGBTQ+ organizations in regards to the backlash, and Mason Manion, the Northeast Florida Improvement Chief for Equality Florida, shared this assertion:
“I’m a working towards Christian and I lead the music at Avondale United Methodist Church and I can converse for myself and different members of our Congregation and we don’t care. We don’t care that it’s on the identical day as Easter. We’re going to have a good time Easter and we’re going to have a good time the Resurrection Day as some individuals check with it and we’re additionally going to have a good time our Transgender Neighborhood and we will do each of these issues on the similar time. They’re not mutually unique.”
The opposite proclamations signed by Biden on Friday included declaring April 1-7 Nationwide Public Well being Week and declaring all of April:
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