President Biden will sign an executive order "Advancing Equality for LGBTQI+ Individuals," the White House announced Wednesday.
In a statement, the administration said the order cracks down on the "discredited and dangerous practice" of conversion therapy, directs the Department of Health and Human Services to help prevent LGBT youth suicide by expanding access to mental health resources, and calls on HHS to "study and address the disproportionate rates of child removals that LGBTQI+ parents face, especially women of color."
"I have no room in my heart for hatred and I have no time for intolerance, but we don't live in a world where everyone feels that way, and this administration understands that more action is needed," said HHS Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Rachel Levine, who is transgender.
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Ryan T. Anderson, the president of the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center, called the proposal "Orwellian." Biden's order, Anderson wrote, "would prevent efforts to help girls identify as girls. That's what they're calling 'conversion therapy.' Meanwhile it'll expand efforts to give girls puberty blockers and testosterone. That's what they're calling 'gender affirmation.'"
Politico notes that the order "comes on the heels of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' move to end gender-affirming care for minors." Earlier this month Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, asked the Florida Board of Medicine to "establish a standard of care" that would prohibit doctors from providing puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and gender-reassignment surgery to minors.
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