Franklin Graham, the son of the late Charlotte-based televangelist Billy Graham has yet again taken aim at the LGBTQ Community, and this time he’s throwing stones at President Joe Biden, as well.
Neither comes a surprise, actually.
Graham whole-heartedly endorsed Donald Trump during the last election and continues to support him, while he has continued to steer the remnants of his father’s legacy towards the fringes of the far right.
Seems Graham’s beyond upset with the Biden administration for issuing a U.S. passport with the gender designation X on it to Dana Zzyym, a non-binary individual (someone who does not specifically identify as male or female) on October 28.
Graham posted on Facebook:
“I hope countries will reject recognizing this passport and refuse the person carrying it into their country. The State Department is wrong. This is not truth or science. We only have two genders: Male and Female.”
“Gender X is not only nonsense, it is going against God,” Graham continued. “The State Department is turning the American passport into a farce, not to mention flaunting God.”
While it is unclear what Graham specifically means when he claims the Biden Administration is “flaunting God,” he didn’t end his outraged diatribe there.
“Pray that those running our government will come to their sense[s],” he added. “Or be voted out of office.”
Graham’s ranting – as one would suspect – serves two purposes. Continue his effort to debase support for the LGBTQ community and undermine President Biden by calling for anti-LGBTQ counttries to refuse to accept a U.S. passport.
Other countries around the globe, such as Canada and New Zealand, have already issued passports with gender expansive designations. In 2019, a United States federal judge ruled in favor of Dana Zzyym (after many years of litigation) that her passport should indicate she identified as non-binary, or intersex. As a result of that ruling, Zzyym became the first person issued a U.S. passport with an X gender marker yesterday.
“I almost burst into tears when I opened the envelope, pulled out my new passport, and saw the ‘X’ stamped boldly under ‘sex,’” Zzyym said in a statement through Lambda Legal. “I’m also ecstatic that other intersex and non-binary U.S. citizens will soon be able to apply for passports with the correct gender marker. It took six years, but to have an accurate passport, one that doesn’t force me to identify as male or female but recognizes I am neither, is liberating.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed earlier in the year the U.S. would begin passports with X gender markers. The State Department has also confirmed the designation for passport applications in 2022.