How bad actors on the right ruined Easter
by Jason Pauley
On March 31, 2021, President Biden issued this Proclamation honoring Transgender Day of Visibility, he picked that date for his proclamation, because it’s also the date of the holiday. A holiday that he didn’t invent, nor decide where it fell on the calendar.
On March 30, 2022, President Biden issued this Proclamation honoring Transgender Day of Visibility, he picked that date for his proclamation, because it was the eve of Transgender Day of Visibility, a holiday that he didn’t invent, nor decide where it fell on the calendar.
On March 30, 2023, President Biden issued this Proclamation honoring Transgender Day of Visibility. He picked that date for his proclamation, because it was the eve of Transgender Day of Visibility, a holiday that he didn’t invent, nor decide where it fell on the calendar.
This year, On March 29, 2024, President Biden issued this Proclamation honoring Transgender Day of Visibility. He picked that date for his proclamation, because Transgender Day of Visibility, a holiday that he didn’t invent, nor decide where it fell on the calendar is on the 31st of March. Perhaps he even issued the proclamation a couple of days early to avoid any appearance of encroaching on the Easter holiday which falls on March 31st, 3.3% of the time.
It was Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31st, 2009
It was Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31st, 2010
It was Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31st, 2011
It was Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31st, 2012
It was Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31st, 2013
It was Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31st, 2014
It was Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31st, 2015
It was Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31st, 2016
It was Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31st, 2017
It was Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31st, 2018
It was Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31st, 2019
It was Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31st, 2020
It was Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31st, 2021
It was Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31st, 2022
It was Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31st, 2023
…and it’s STILL Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31st, 2024
This day, Transgender Day of Visibility has been recognized for 16 years, and each year it’s on the same day…March 31st. 11 years ago, the day also fell on Easter. In fact, 3.3% of the time, Easter falls on March 31st.
But none of these very easily Googleable facts matter to the right-wing outrage machine. For MAGA grifters, the cable news network Fox News who lost a $800 million dollars in a defamation lawsuit suit, MAGA YouTubers and podcasters, they will all pretend this thing that happens every year at this time, has never ever happened before on this same day every year.
For Donald Trump, the GOP’s Two Corinthians King, and self-proclaimed grabber of women’s vaginas, who hawks golden sneakers and $60 “God bless the USA” bibles, to raise money to pay off legal fees and penalties for fraud, and for defaming a woman whom he sexually abused years earlier, this is just another opportunity to lead his followers to believe they are victims, and their religion is under attack. And it works. It works every. damn. time.
Meanwhile, the target audience of this cynical and bad-faith messaging will parrot the notion that Biden owes them an apology, that Biden somehow planned this to happen on this day. Nextdoor, Twitter/X, Facebook, family dinners and brunches, and conversations at mega-church coffee shops will be littered with more MAGA thought pollution, elevating the temperature and furthering the chasm between “us” and “them”.
The irony is that by being outraged and making this a controversy, they’re making Transgender Day of Visibility much more…visible. Many people haven’t even heard of this day before, and probably wouldn’t have heard of it this time around either. Yet here we are, getting outraged about something we never would have thought to get mad about before. The White House has to waste time responding to the attacks, Christians are wasting headspace that should be spent on Jesus and family, instead it’s being spent on rage and on transgender people, and I’m wasting time writing this piece that won’t change anyone’s mind about anything.
Tomorrow, Easter will be over and the bad actors will find something else to make people mad about. Maybe it’s a black mermaid, maybe it’s Taylor Swift, a tan suit, a French copper pot, a player kneeling…we don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but we do know it will bring another false narrative of how their way of life is under attack. I promise you; they’re already working on it.
To those who celebrate, Happy Easter! To transgender folks, I hope you feel seen and appreciated today…and every day.
