Christian conservative Tony Perkins has
criticized President Joe Biden's executive order on LGBT rights,
calling it an attack on Christians.
On his first day in office, Biden
signed an executive order implementing the U.S. Supreme Court's
ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County. While the decision was
handed down in June, the Trump administration largely ignored it.
In Bostock, the high court found
that anti-LGBT discrimination is a form of sex discrimination. It
specifically prohibits workplace discrimination and affects policies
that prohibit discrimination based on sex.
(Related: On
first day, Biden signs order implementing SCOTUS LGBT ruling in
Bostock.)
While the Trump administration was
negligent in implementing the court's opinion, Perkins claimed that
Biden was acting unilaterally in promulgating the court's opinion.
“President Biden’s executive order
effectively targets people of faith and faith-based organizations
that provide social services that are even more vital in the midst of
a pandemic,” said Perkins, president of the Family Research Council
(FRC), which was labeled a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty
Law Center (SPLC) for its opposition to LGBT rights. (SPLC
said that FRC's “real specialty is defaming LGBTQ people.”)
“Ultimately, if this executive order
is able to be fully carried out, it will affect everyday Americans
who hold biblical and conservative values.”
“With a stroke of a pen, President
Joe Biden has turned 50-year-old civil rights legislation on its
head, hollowing out protections for people of faith.”
“President Biden is unilaterally
enacting a sweeping policy change that has routinely failed to win
the approval of Congress, the body the Constitution tasks with
actually passing laws,” he said, ignoring that Biden was merely
implementing a Supreme Court ruling that must be upheld by lower
courts.
“The party that claims to be the
party of science is advancing policies on day one that deny reality,”
he added.
Perkins has strongly backed former
President Donald Trump and in 2016 was largely responsible for adding
anti-LGBT planks – including a call to overturn marriage equality –
to the Republican platform. Republicans didn't update their platform
in 2020.