(The day on which Easter falls changes each year, depending on cycled of the moon of all things.)

Transgender Day of Visibility is always on March 31. Naturally, Christian Nationalists insist Biden is persecuting Christians.

Today is the Transgender Day of Visibility. For 15 years, it’s been a way to celebrate the trans community (as opposed to the Transgender Day of Remembrance, which honors victims). For 15 years, the event has occurred on March 31.

Let me repeat that: It’s always on March 31.

President Joe Biden issued a proclamation celebrating the event, just as he did in 2021 and 2022 and 2023, saying that trans people were “part of the fabric of our Nation” and that we need to “work toward eliminating violence and discrimination based on gender identity.”

Easter, on the other hand, falls on a different Sunday each year—sometime between late March and late April. This year, both events happen to fall on the same date.

You know exactly where this is going.

Conservative Christians are now acting like Biden selectively chose March 31 to honor trans people as a slap in the face to their faith. (Which is to say, his faith.)

Donald Trump’s National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt demanded an apology from Biden and claimed this was part of a “years-long assault on the Christian faith.” (It’s not.)

Speaker Mike Johnson, one of the most powerful Christians in the country, ran with the lie, proclaiming, “Banning sacred truth and tradition—while at the same time proclaiming Easter Sunday as “Transgender Day”—is outrageous and abhorrent.”

Johnson also posted an image claiming the White House banned religious Easter eggs, as if Biden implemented that rule… even though that rule has been in effect for nearly five decades. The American Egg Board, which sponsors the event, says it has always been religiously neutral despite the Easter connection and it’s merely a way to promote their product. That was true when Trump was in the White House, too. (FOX updated its own misleading article to point that out, but only after initially spreading the lie. It did not update its headline.)

Which is all to say the most powerful conservative Christian in America would rather spread lies that serve a political purpose than tell a truth that undercuts GOP talking points. Either he and his staffers don’t know how to do basic research or don’t care. It says a lot about his supposed faith-based values.

There’s no shortage of other conservative Christians who are jumping on the bandwagon, insisting that an event whose date has never changed is somehow part of a Biden-led plan to destroy Christianity. Evangelist and liar Franklin Graham falsely said Biden was “[using] this opportunity to flaunt sin, to glorify sin, and to celebrate sin.”

Even if Biden picked the date himself, which he did not, the idea that no one’s allowed to celebrate anything else on Easter except Easter is absurd. Christians do not own the calendar. (They don’t own all of December either, while we’re at it.) There are non-Christians who will enjoy their Sundays without thinking about Easter, and there are Christians who will honor trans people on Sunday because they can do two things at once and they’re not assholes.

All of those people spreading the lie are either willfully spreading false propaganda or too dumb to check the facts for themselves.

Their followers are eating it up because they, too, revel in their own ignorance.

They don’t believe Biden is a real Christian, anyway. Recall that a recent Pew Research Center survey found that 69% of Republicans don’t really believe Biden is religious, even though he wears his Catholicism on his sleeve.

None of the critics, by the way, bothered to explain how Easter would be ruined by this proclamation. If your Easter Sunday was spoiled because of what Biden said, maybe your faith isn’t as strong as you think it is. And if Biden actually wanted to persecute Christians, then why the hell would he do via a proclamation honoring trans people? None of this makes sense even on the bigots’ terms.

Where are the prominent conservative Christians willing to call out the misinformation? If they’re out there, they’re few and far between. Admitting the truth could alienate the die-hards, and conservative Christians have shown an incredible lack of courage over the past several years when it comes to calling out their own congregations even when reality is staring them in the face.

As many critics pointed out, Easter 2025 will be held on April 20. That would be Hitler’s birthday. That’s a coincidence, of course, but you can bet the same people alleging a conspiracy of sorts now will be utterly silent next year. Or maybe they’ll find a way to blame Biden for that, too, because why not. Or maybe they’ll start attacking marijuana enthusiasts.

While we’re at it, the first night of Hanukkah this year will be on Christmas Day. You can bet the right-wing conspiracists will have a field day with that one.

To his credit, Biden didn’t back down in the face of the fake controversy:

In response to the criticism, White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates told Newsweek via email on Saturday afternoon: "As a Christian who celebrates Easter with family, President Biden stands for bringing people together and upholding the dignity and freedoms of every American. Sadly, it's unsurprising politicians are seeking to divide and weaken our country with cruel, hateful, and dishonest rhetoric. President Biden will never abuse his faith for political purposes or for profit."

Give his administration credit for that. It would have been perfectly easy to issue any proclamation at all, especially given how much conservative zealots flip out when trans people are brought up in any context. This kind of right-wing response was predictable. But he did it anyway, and he did so forcefully. It may be symbolic but symbols still carry a lot of weight.

If any of these Christian liars actually gave a shit about the sanctity of their faith, they would condemn Trump, who made headlines last week for selling an expensive Christian Nationalist Bible in order to take another cut of cash from the most gullible MAGA cultists in the country