The U.S. Senate voted 52-41 on Tuesday to confirm Mary Kay Costello as a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, thereby setting a record for the number of LGBTQ federal judicial appointments made under the Biden-Harris administration, 12.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights says less than three percent of the country’s nearly 900 federal judges are LGBTQ. Until this week, the Obama-Biden administration had appointed the most, 11, over two terms.

Costello is a prosecutor who has served as assistant U.S. attorney in Philadelphia since 2008.

In a post on X, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s Democratic majority wrote that she “exhibits a breadth of experience and a strong dedication to public service” and is “ready to serve as a federal judge.”

CONFIRMED: Mary Kay Costello to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania

Ms. Costello exhibits a breadth of experience and a strong dedication to public service.

She’s ready to serve as a federal judge. pic.twitter.com/nBAf8pusty

— Senate Judiciary Committee (@JudiciaryDems) September 17, 2024

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the Democratic majority whip and chair of the committee, shared another post on X celebrating the administration’s record-breaking number of LGBTQ judicial appointments, writing, “We’re diversifying the federal judiciary for generations to come.”

We’re diversifying the federal judiciary for generations to come. https://t.co/WQfOus1YDE

— Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) September 17, 2024

Writing about President Joe Biden’s legacy is difficult without the distance and time required to assess a leader of his stature, but what becomes clear from talking with him is the extent to which his views on LGBTQ rights come from the heart.

Biden leads an administration that has been hailed as the most pro-LGBTQ in American history, achieving major milestones in the struggle to expand freedoms and protections for the community.

Meanwhile, conservative elected officials at the local, state, and national levels have led an all-out assault against LGBTQ Americans — especially those who are transgender, and especially transgender youth, who face an uncertain future with Donald Trump promising to strip them of their rights and reverse the gains of the past four years if he is elected in November.

Biden shared his thoughts and reflections on these subjects and more in a wide-ranging sit-down interview with the Washington Blade on Sept. 12 in the Oval Office, which marked the first time in which an LGBTQ newspaper has conducted an exclusive interview with a sitting U.S. president.

Looking back on the movement, the president repeatedly expressed his admiration for the “men and women who broke the back of the prejudice, or began to break the back” starting with those involved in the nascent movement for gay rights that was kicked off in earnest with the 1969 Stonewall Riots.

They “took their lives in their own hands,” Biden said. “Not a joke. It took enormous courage, enormous courage, and that’s why I’ve spent some time also trying to memorialize that,” first as vice president in 2016 when President Barack Obama designated a new national monument at the site of the historic uprising, and again this summer when speaking at the opening ceremony of the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center.

“I think it set an example,” Biden said, not just in the U.S. but around the world.

Stonewall “became the site of a call for freedom and for dignity and for equality,” he said, and at a time when, “imagine — if you spoke up, you’d be fired, or you get the hell beat out of you.”

The president continued, “I was really impressed when I went to Stonewall. And I was really impressed talking to the guys who stood up at the time. I think the thing that gets underestimated is the physical and moral courage of the community, the people who broke through, who said ‘enough, enough,’ and they risked their lives. Some lost their lives along the way.”

Through to today, Biden said, “most of the openly gay people that have worked with me, that I’ve worked with, the one advantage they have is they tend to have more courage than most people have.”

“No, I’m serious,” he added, “I think you guys underestimate that.”

The president has spoken publicly about his deep respect and admiration for LGBTQ people, including the trans community, and trans youth, whom he has repeatedly said are some of the bravest people he knows.

A record-breaking number of LGBTQ officials are serving in appointed positions throughout the Biden-Harris administration. Among them are Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, the first openly gay Senate-confirmed Cabinet member; Rachel Levine, the highest-ranking transgender appointee in history, who serves as assistant secretary for health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; the first out White House communications director and press secretary, Ben LaBolt and Karine Jean-Pierre; and 11 federal judges (the same number of LGBTQ judicial nominees who were confirmed during the Obama-Biden administration’s two terms).

Even though “everyone was nervous,” Biden said, “I wanted an administration that looked like America,” adding, “all the LGBTQ+ people that have worked for me or with me have reinforced my view that it’s not what your sexual preference is, it’s what your intellectual capacity is and what your courage is.”

“I never sat down and said, ‘it’s going to be hard, man, she’s gay, or he’s gay,’ or ‘she’s a lesbian’” he said, and likewise, “it wasn’t like the people I work with, I went, ‘God, I’m surprised they’re competent as anybody else.'”

And then there is Sarah McBride, the Delaware state senator who is favored to win her congressional race in November, which would make her the first transgender U.S. member of Congress, a sign that “we’re on the right track,” Biden said.

A close friend of the Biden family, McBride worked for the president’s eldest son, Beau, who died from cancer in 2015. (As the Blade reported on Friday, Biden called to congratulate her on winning the Democratic primary race last week.)

While the president’s close personal and professional relationships with LGBTQ friends and aides has often been highlighted in the context of Biden’s leadership on efforts to expand freedoms and protections for the community, he credits first and foremost the values he learned from his father.

“I think my attitude about this, from the very beginning, was shaped by my dad,” Biden said. “You think I’m exaggerating, but my dad was a well-read guy who got admitted to college just before the war started” and in addition to being well educated was “a decent, decent, decent, honorable man.”

“My dad used to say that everyone’s entitled to be treated with dignity,” the president said, recalling a story he has shared before about a time when, as a teenager, he was surprised by the sight of two men kissing in downtown Wilmington, Del., and his father responded, “Joey, it’s simple. They love each other.”

“As a consequence of that, most of the things that I’ve done have related to just [what] I think is basic fairness and basic decency,” Biden said.

In his 2017 memoir, “Promise Me, Dad,” Biden writes that the country was too slow to understand “the simple and obvious truth” that LGBTQ people are “overwhelmingly good, decent, honorable people who want and deserve the same rights as anyone else.”

Plus, “It’s not like someone wakes up one morning says, ‘you know, I want to be transgender,’ that’s what I want to do,” he said. “What do they think people wake up, decide one morning, ‘that’s what I wanted’ — it’s a lot easier being gay, right?”

As vice president, Biden had pushed for the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and for the designation of a national monument to honor Stonewall, but he took a lot of heat — along with a lot of praise from the LGBTQ community — for voicing his support for same-sex marriage before Obama had fully come around to embracing that position.

His remarks came in the heat of the 2012 reelection campaign during an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Biden told the Blade he had just “visited two guys who had children” and “if you saw these two kids with their fathers, you’d walk away saying, ‘wait a minute, they’re good parents.’”

At the event, a reception hosted by Michael Lombardo, an HBO executive, and Sonny Ward, an architect, Biden pointed to the children and said, “Things are changing so rapidly, it’s going to become a political liability in the near term for someone to say, ‘I oppose gay marriage.’”

Nevertheless, “I remember how everyone was really upset, except the president,” Biden said, when he told David Gregory, “I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men and women marrying women and heterosexual men and women marrying men and women are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties and, quite frankly, I don’t see much of a distinction beyond that.”

It was a watershed moment. Obama would pledge his support for marriage equality three days later. And 10 years later, as president, Biden would sign the Respect for Marriage Act, a landmark bill codifying legal protections for married same-sex and interracial couples, rights that conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has expressed an interest in revisiting.

The president glanced at a print-out with bullet points, presumably a list of the various ways in which he and his administration have advanced LGBTQ rights over the past four years. “I forgot half the stuff I had done,” he said. “But you know, I’m just really proud of a lot of things we did.”

Ticking through some highlights, Biden started with the Respect for Marriage Act. “I was very proud” to sign the legislation, he said, with a ceremony in December 2022 that included Vice President Kamala Harris, first lady Jill Biden, and second gentleman Doug Emhoff.

Biden pointed to several advancements in health equity, such as the FDA’s decision to change “the law so that you could no longer discriminate against using the blood of a gay man or a gay woman,” progress in the national strategy to end HIV by 2030, an initiative coordinated by HHS, and a push to expand access to prophylactic drug regimens to protect against the transmission of HIV.

He added, “I directed the administration to promote human rights for LGBTQ [people] everywhere, particularly, for example, Uganda — they want help from us; they’ve got to change their policy, in terms of the discrimination.”

President Yoweri Museveni in May 2023 signed a law that carries a death penalty provision for “aggravated homosexuality.” The U.S. subsequently imposed visa restrictions on Ugandan officials and removed the country from a program that allows sub-Saharan African countries to trade duty-free with the U.S. The World Bank Group also announced the suspension of new loans to Uganda.

Several of the administration’s pro-LGBTQ accomplishments and ongoing work address Republican-led efforts to restrict rights and freedoms. For instance, the president noted the importance of protecting in-vitro fertilization treatments, which are threatened by Trump “and his buddies” who were involved in Project 2025, the 900+ page governing blueprint that was drafted in anticipation of the former president’s return to the White House. The document contains extreme restrictions on reproductive healthcare and provisions that would strip away LGBTQ-inclusive non-discrimination rules.

“Fighting book bans” is another example, Biden said, adding, “I mean, come on, these guys want to erase history instead of make history.”

Last year, the president appointed an official to serve in the Education Department for purposes of advising schools on instances where their restrictions on reading material, which have been shown to disproportionately target content with LGBTQ characters or themes, may run afoul of federal civil rights law.

Before “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was repealed, Biden said, “I spoke up when they were dismissing people, discharging people in the military because they were gay.” In 2021, just a few days after his inauguration, the president issued an executive order reversing the Trump administration’s ban on military service by transgender service members.

Lowering his voice for emphasis, Biden added, “They can shoot straight. They can shoot just as straight as anybody else.”

Other major pro-LGBTQ moves by the Biden-Harris administration include:

• • Issuance of a new Title IX policy prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in public schools, educational activities, and programs;
• • A proposed rule from HHS that would protect LGBTQ youth in foster care;
• • Expansion of mental health services, including the establishment of a 988 suicide and crisis lifeline, which provides the option for callers to be connected with LGBTQ-trained counselors;.
• • Legal challenges of anti-trans state laws, such as those restricting access to health treatments;
• • Repeated pushback against these bills by the president and other officials like Jean-Pierre;
• • The president’s remarks reaffirming his support for the LGBTQ community, including in all of his State of the Union addresses;
• • The administration’s work tackling the mpox outbreak;
• • Expanded non-discrimination protections in the healthcare space;
• • Issuance of new guidelines allowing for changes to gender markers on official government-issued IDs;
• • Efforts to bring justice to veterans who were discharged other than honorably under discriminatory military policies, and;
• • ‘The biggest Pride month celebrations ever held at the White House.

“But the one thing I didn’t get done was the Equality Act,” Biden said, “which is important. important.”

The president and his administration pushed hard for Congress to pass the legislation, which would codify LGBTQ-inclusive nondiscrimination protections in areas from housing and employment to lending and jury service.

Biden raised the issue again when the conversation turned to his plans to stay involved after January 2025. “Look,” he said, “when a person can get married” to a spouse of the same sex but might “show up at a restaurant and get thrown out of the restaurant because they’re LGBTQ, that’s wrong.”

“That’s why we need the Equality Act,” Biden said. “We need to pass it. So, I’m going to be doing everything I can to be part of the outside voices, and I hope my foundations that I will be setting back up will talk about equality across the board.”

“Lawmakers, aides, and advocates say that significant obstacles to progress on the Equality Act remain, including polarized views on how to protect the rights of religious institutions that condemn homosexuality and Republicans’ increasing reliance on transgender rights as a wedge issue,” the Washington Post wrote in 2021, after the bill was passed by the House but left to languish in the Senate.

On LGBTQ issues more broadly, Biden said, “I think there are a lot of really good Republicans that I’ve served with, especially in the Senate, who don’t have a prejudiced bone in their body about this but are intimidated.”

“Because if you take a position, especially in the MAGA Republican Party now, you’re going to be — they’re going to go after you,” he added. “Trump is a different breed of cat. I mean, I don’t want to make this political, but everything he’s done has been anti, anti-LGBTQ, I mean, across the board.”

Project 2025, the president said, “is just full of nothing but disdain for the LGBTQ community. And you have Clarence Thomas talking about, when the decision was made [to overturn] Roe v Wade, that maybe we should consider changing the right of gays to marry — I mean, things that are just off the wall — just pure, simple, prejudice.”

“What I do worry about is I do worry about violence,” Biden said. “I do worry about intimidation. I do worry about what the MAGA right will continue to try to do, but I’m going to stay involved.”

“I’m going to remain involved in all the civil liberties issues that I have worked for my whole life.”

During a briefing with reporters on Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended the Biden-Harris administration’s expansion of Title IX to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. 

Changes to the rules came pursuant to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, which held that LGBTQ employees are legally protected from sex-based discrimination under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 

The new policy, which took effect last week, also revokes Trump-era rules governing how schools must respond to allegations of sexual assault, which were widely considered imbalanced in ways favoring those accused of sex crimes.

Asked to respond to conservatives who warn the policy will harm women and girls, including the Republican state attorneys general who have filed legal challenges and the GOP governors who have vowed to disregard the new rules, Jean-Pierre began by stipulating that “there’s still ongoing litigation, so I would have to refer you to DOJ.” 

“More broadly,” she said, “every student deserves the right to feel safe. Every student deserves the right to feel safe in schools. That’s what the rule is all about: Strengthening and restoring vital protections that the previous administration took away.”

“Ending violence against women and girls has been a priority” for President Joe Biden not just during his tenure in the White House but also throughout his decades-long career in the U.S. Senate, the press secretary added. 

“This is an important step in an ongoing work to end campus sexual assault,” Jean-Pierre said. “That’s what we want to see. And I cannot speak any further to the litigation.”

Written correspondence between U.S. Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) and transgender attorney Sofia Nelson, a former friend and Yale Law School classmate, sheds new light on the extent of the Trump critic-turned-running mate’s right-wing, anti-LGBTQ pivot.

In about 90 emails that the Detroit-based public defender shared with the New York Times, which were largely dated from 2014 through 2017, the Republican vice presidential nominee emerges as a thoughtful and respectful debate partner who, in one instance, took pains to apologize for inaccurately referring to Nelson as a lesbian in his memoir “Hillbilly Elegy.”

“I hope that you recognize that the description came from a place of ignorance, when I first started writing [the book] years ago,” he wrote. “I hope you’re not offended, but if you are, I’m sorry! Love you, JD.”

The two ultimately fell out in 2021 over Vance’s endorsement of an Arkansas bill banning gender affirming care for patients younger than 18. Then, as the author and attorney pursued his political ambitions, he firmly embraced the Republican Party’s anti-LGBTQ extremism.

In 2022, Vance came out against the Respect for Marriage Act, a law supported by 12 GOP senators that codified legal protections for married same-sex and interracial couples. Shortly after he took office the following year, when far-right U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) proposed a nationwide gender affirming care ban with criminal penalties for healthcare providers of up to 15 years in prison, Vance introduced the companion bill in the Senate.

The senator has also espoused anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, including in campaign appearances with Trump. On social media, he endorsed the “groomer” slur against opponents of laws criminalizing classroom discussion of matters concerning sexual orientation and gender identity.

Along with his vocal criticism of former President Donald Trump, which was well documented before he officially joined the 2024 GOP ticket on July 15, Vance’s positions on policy matters as reflected in the exchanges with Nelson stand in stark contrast with those espoused since his campaign for and election to the Senate in 2022.

For instance, Vance voiced support for “anything that puts cops back in the mindset of service and protection instead of control and coercion,” proclaiming “I hate the police. Given the number of negative experiences I’ve had in the past few years, I can’t imagine what a Black guy goes through.”

As Trump campaigned on proposals to stem immigration from Muslim countries in 2015, Vance told Nelson “I worry most of all about how welcome Muslim citizens feel in their own country.” Americans have always been susceptible to “demagogues willing to exploit the people who believe crazy shit,” he lamented.

In another exchange about the former president, he wrote “the more white people feel like voting for Trump, the more Black people will suffer. I really believe that.”

President Joe Biden said he is “proud” of his legacy on LGBTQ rights in response to a question from the Washington Blade as he stopped to talk with reporters after midnight on Tuesday on his way back to the White House from the South Lawn.

“I’m very proud of my position,” he said. “I was the first guy to come out for gay marriage” in 2012 when serving as vice president under former President Barack Obama.

Biden’s remarks, during an interview with David Gregory on “Meet the Press,” hastened the administration’s embrace of same-sex marriage and led to Obama’s announcement days later of his support for marriage equality.

Also in response to the Blade question, Biden shared a story he has told since at least 2014.

When he was a teenager in the 1960s in Wilmington, Del., “My dad was dropping me off to get a license to be a lifeguard in the city,” Biden said. “When we get out of the car, two guys leaned in and kissed each other. I’d never seen that before.”

“I looked at my dad,” the president continued, “and he said, ‘Joey, it’s simple, they love each other.’ It’s simple. That’s my position.”

Biden was returning from a trip to Texas, where he delivered remarks to commemorate the 60^th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act during a visit to the L.B.J. Presidential Library in Austin, followed by an event in Houston where he paid respects to the late Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, who died from cancer on July 19.

Taking other questions from reporters, the president said he hopes his legacy for Gen Z will be the economy and the environment.

Asked when he would campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris in her 2024 presidential bid, Biden said he had done so during his trip to Texas. On the question of whom he would support to run alongside Harris, he said “we’ll talk.”

Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson issued a strong rebuke on Tuesday of the Biden-Harris administration’s position opposing gender affirming surgeries for minors.

The New York Times reported on June 28 that the White House, which broadly supports making medical interventions available for transgender youth, had expressed opposition to surgeries for patients under 18, having previously declined to take a specific position on the question.

“Health care decisions for young people belong between a patient, their family, and their health care provider. Trans youth are no exception,” Robinson responded. 

“The Biden administration is flat wrong on this. It’s wrong on the science and wrong on the substance. It’s also inconsistent with other steps the administration has taken to support transgender youth. The Biden administration, and every elected official, need to leave these decisions to families, doctors and patients—where they belong,” she added. “Although transgender young people make up an extremely small percentage of youth in this country, the care they receive is based on decades of clinical research and is backed by every major medical association in the U.S. representing over 1.3 million doctors.”

Robinson said the “administration has committed to fight any ban on healthcare for transgender youth and must continue this without hesitation—the entire community is watching.” 

“No parent should ever be put in the position where they and their doctor agree on one course of action, supported by the overwhelming majority of medical experts, but the government forbids it,” she added.

HRC is a prominent backer of Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign, having pledged $15 million to support efforts in six battleground states. The organization has a strong relationship with the White House, with the president and first lady headlining last year’s National Dinner.

A White House spokesperson declined to respond to Robinson’s statement.

Campaign for Southern Equality President Allison Scott also issued a statement.

“This is a cowardly statement from an administration that promised to support transgender people. It is a troubling concession to the right-wing assault on transgender Americans, falling for their false narratives about surgical care and betraying a commitment to equality and trust in the medical community,” said Scott.

“Let’s be very, very clear: Government has no business inserting itself into private medical decisions that should be exclusively between patients, their providers, and the patients’ parent or guardian,” Scott added.

“It is dangerous to begin endorsing categorical bans or limits on healthcare, and there is no justification for restricting transgender youth’s access to the very same care that many cisgender youth receive every year — that’s literally the definition of discrimination,” Scott concluded. “We demand the Biden administration retract this thoughtless statement and work to undo its damage.” 

First lady Jill Biden and the president and first lady’s daughter, Ashley Biden, headlined the White House Pride celebration on the South Lawn on Wednesday, followed by a performance by singer and actress Deborah Cox.

“My dad has built the most pro-equality administration” in history, Ashley Biden said, crediting the work of LGBTQ people of color like Marsha P. Johnson, a prominent figure in the Stonewall uprising of 1969, as well as “so many of you [who] have continued to lead their fearless fighting against against injustice here and around the world.”

She introduced her mother as “the woman who taught me to be myself up showed me in so many ways how I can make a difference” and who “works every single day, tirelessly, to ensure that all people have the opportunities and freedoms that they deserve.”

“I hope that all of you feel that freedom and love on the South Lawn today,” Jill Biden said.

Her remarks were briefly interrupted by a protestor’s chants of “no Pride in genocide,” which was drowned out by chants of “four more years.”

The first lady noted how many of the attendees came “here from states that are passing laws targeting LGBTQ Americans.”

“There are those who see our communities and our families and wish to tear them down,” she said, “those who can’t see that the world is so much bigger and [more] beautiful than they know — but when our homes are threatened, when they strip away our rights, and deny our basic humanity, we say, ‘not on our watch.'”

“Pride is a celebration, but it is also a declaration,” the first lady said, highlighting the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges nine years ago, which established marriage equality as the law of the land.

She then credited the accomplishments of the Biden-Harris administration on matters of LGBTQ rights, including the repeal of the previous administration’s ban on military service by transgender servicemembers and the FDA’s loosening of restrictions on blood donation by gay and bisexual men.

The first lady also celebrated the president’s announcement earlier on Wednesday that he will pardon LGBTQ veterans who were discharged and court martialed because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

“We will never stop fighting for this community,” she said.

President Joe Biden on Wednesday issued historic pardons for military service members who were discharged over their sexual orientation or gender identity under discriminatory policies of the past, like “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

“Our nation’s service members stand on the frontlines of freedom, and risk their lives in order to defend our country,” he said in a statement. “Despite their courage and great sacrifice, thousands of LGBTQI+ service members were forced out of the military because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.”

“Some of these patriotic Americans were subject to court-martial, and have carried the burden of this great injustice for decades,” the president said.

“As commander-in-chief, I am committed to maintaining the finest fighting force in the world. That means making sure that every member of our military is safe and respected — so they can focus on their mission,” he said.

“This is about dignity, decency, and ensuring the culture of our Armed Forces reflect the values that make us an exceptional nation,” Biden said. “We have a sacred obligation to all of our service members — including our brave LGBTQI+ service members: to properly prepare and equip them when they are sent into harm’s way, and to care for them and their families when they return home.”

“Today we are making progress in that pursuit.”

The president also issued a Proclamation on Granting Pardon for Certain Violations of Article 125 Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which specifies that “the Military Departments (Army, Navy, or Air Force), or in the case of the Coast Guard, the Department of Homeland Security, in conjunction with the Department of Justice, shall provide information about and publicize application procedures for certificates of pardon.”

Veterans who were discharged for their sexual orientation or gender identity are barred from accessing benefits through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Senior administration officials explained during a call with reporters on Tuesday that veterans who obtain certificates of pardon will be able to petition for a change in their discharge status, which can facilitate their access to benefits.

Officials on Tuesday’s call said they will proactively reach out to these service members to make them aware of the president’s clemency action and to connect them with pro-bono attorneys who can help them navigate the process.

“We intend, and have intended, to design this process in a way where people do not need attorneys to go through it, and we think it is easily accessible, but we also recognize that for some people, that would be beneficial, and so are busy at work trying to make those connections happen,” an official said.

The officials did not address a question from the Washington Blade about whether LGBTQ groups including those representing LGBTQ veterans were involved in the administration’s work leading up to the president’s issuance of the pardons, but several organizations celebrated the announcement on Wednesday.

“We applaud President Biden for taking action today, and the Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to address this historic injustice that impacted thousands of LGBTQ+ people in the military for decades, with the effects still felt by many to this day,” said Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson.

“This move to rightfully restore reputations lost and gratitude owed to service members who were punished for who they loved is long overdue, and a significant step in the right direction,” she said.

GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis wrote on social media, “Today’s move by President Biden to pardon LGBTQ service members who were unfairly forced out of the military under the discriminatory ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ is his administration’s 343rd pro-LGBTQ action. It is an important signal not only to the thousands of brave LGBTQ Americans who deserved better for defending our country but to all who understand that diversity, respect, and inclusion are American values.”

The Congressional Equality Caucus released a statement from the chair, U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.): “I thank President Biden for taking this important step to right the wrongs of the past and restore honor to LGBTQI+ Americans who bravely served their nation in uniform.” 

“This is an important step forward in addressing the wrongs of anti-equality policies like ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ and I urge the Military Departments to ensure these pardons are processed as swiftly as possible,” the congressman said. “I am committed to building upon this important action, including by passing my Restore Honor to Service Members Act into law to ensure that the service and sacrifice of every veteran is honored, regardless of who they are or who they love.”

“PFLAG families have advocated for the dignity and respect due our LGBTQ+ heroes in uniform since the dark days of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ and the shadow discharges that predated that discriminatory policy,” said PFLAG National CEO Brian K. Bond.

“As someone who worked on repeal during the Obama-Biden administration I met incredible patriots that just wanted to serve their country,” he said. “Thank you to the Biden-Harris administration and those who continue to fight for military families’ freedom to serve. This welcomed day is long overdue for thousands of LGBTQ+ veterans and their families.”

Lawyers for a group of LGBTQ veterans who are plaintiffs in Farrell v. Department of Defense also released a statement:

“We applaud President Biden and his administration for today’s announcement pardoning approximately 2,000 LGBTQ+ veterans who were court-martialed under ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ and similar policies. This is a necessary and important step in recognizing and remediating the harms — that still exist today — caused by these policies, despite their repeals.

“While the pardons represent an important milestone, we must emphasize that there is still critical work to be done. Those pardoned will still need to obtain new discharge papers from the Department of Defense, which are essential for accurately reflecting their service and accessing veterans’ benefits. And, of course, there are tens of thousands of other veterans who continue to suffer the ongoing stigma of their discriminatory discharge. 

“We will continue to vigorously litigate our case, Farrell v. Department of Defense, to ensure that all LGBTQ+ veterans who were wrongfully discharged from the military based on sexual orientation receive upgraded discharge papers with all indicators of sexual orientation removed. This remains a critical step for these veterans to receive the honor and status they rightfully deserve, having served our country with dignity and integrity.”

First lady Jill Biden will host the White House Pride Month celebration on June 26, according to a press release previewed by the Washington Blade.

The party on the South Lawn will also feature a performance by singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer Deborah Cox and musical selections by DJ Trifle.

This year’s event comes on Equality Day this year, which honors the anniversaries of three landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions that expanded rights and protections for LGBTQ Americans: Lawrence v. Texas (2003), which struck down sodomy laws, United States v. Windsor (2013), which struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, and Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), which made marriage equality the law of the land.

The White House highlighted some of the “historic action” taken by President Joe Biden to “advance LGBTQ+ equality for the community,” including:

• Signing into law the landmark Respect for Marriage Act which protects the rights of same-sex and interracial couples;
• Appointing a historic number of LGBTQI+ and transgender appointees, including the first transgender American to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate;
• Directing all federal agencies to strengthen civil rights protections on the basis of gender identity, resulting in agencies working to strengthen protections in housing, health care, education, employment, the criminal justice system, nutrition programs, and more;
• Reversing the ban on open service by transgender members of the military;
• Signing an executive order focused on LGBTQI+ children and families that directs agencies to address the dangerous and discredited practice of so-called “conversion therapy” and finalized rule-making that ends disparities that LGBTQI+ children and parents face in the child welfare and foster care system and protects against disparities in health care; and
• President Biden continues to call on Congress to pass the Equality Act to enshrine civil rights protections for LGBTQI+ Americans in federal law.

Last year, the president and the first lady hosted the celebration, which was the largest Pride event ever held at the White House.

WASHINGTON — White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre began her briefing with reporters on Monday by honoring Pride Month as a time to “reflect on the progress we have made in pursuit of equality, justice, inclusion” and “recommit ourselves to do more to support LGBTQI+ rights at home and around the world.”

She said that while the Biden-Harris administration has taken “historic action” to expand freedoms and protections for the community “since day one,” state legislatures last year filed more than 600 anti-LGBTQ bills, which disproportionately target transgender youth.

Not only are conservative state lawmakers potentially on track to surpass that number in 2024, but Republican members of Congress along with the party’s presumptive presidential nominee, Donald Trump, have pledged their support for at least a dozen anti-LGBTQ policies at the federal level.

Jean-Pierre said this administration “is going to continue to speak out and stand up against these attacks,” adding, “as President Biden says, these young [transgender and queer] people are some of the bravest people he knows, but no one should have to be brave just to be themselves.”

The press secretary concluded her opener by discussing the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, which provides a “line dedicated to serving LGBTQI+ young people that can be reached by dialing nine eight and pressing three.”

Afterwards, when fielding questions from reporters, Jean-Pierre noted how many of the challenges facing LGBTQ youth have dovetailed with the ongoing mental health crisis in America.

She also addressed a ruling on Monday that blocked the administration’s newly passed LGBTQ-inclusive Title IX rules, which clarify that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is covered by the statute’s language barring sex discrimination in education programs and activities that receive federal assistance.

A Trump-appointed judge on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana had issued an injunction against the regulations on Thursday, with a handful of Republican state attorneys general promising more legal challenges.

Declining to address specific legal questions that she noted are best directed to the Justice Department, Jean-Pierre stressed the need for students to feel safe and to be treated equally.

“That is why the protections are all about making sure students have equal rights restored,” she said.