This week marks the end of President Joe Biden’s administration, the most pro-LGBTQ leader our country has ever known. With his departure, our community enters a period of uncertainty and alarm over how trans Americans will be treated under Trump’s tenure. 

Before we begin coping with that unfortunate reality, let’s take a moment to celebrate Biden. His legacy includes many landmark achievements, from ending the COVID pandemic and implementing the infrastructure bill to restoring America’s reputation around the world, supporting Ukraine, and standing up to Vladimir Putin’s aggressions.

Biden’s advocacy on behalf of LGBTQ Americans will be a key part of his overall legacy. Never have we had a president so committed to our equality and inclusion.

One of the most memorable moments in Biden’s long record of LGBTQ support came in 2012 when he famously endorsed marriage equality in a live TV interview days before President Obama did the same. It marked the first time a sitting vice president publicly supported marriage equality and Biden did it just six months before the election, something that even LGBTQ activists had advised against.

As president, Biden fought successfully to preserve marriage equality in the increasingly likely event that the Obergefell ruling is overturned by the Supreme Court. The Respect for Marriage Act ensures that the federal government and all U.S. states and territories must recognize same-sex and interracial marriages. Biden signed it in 2022 and held a massive event on the White House lawn bringing together hundreds of LGBTQ advocates from around the country to celebrate.

“Today’s a good day,” he said during the signing ceremony. “Today America takes a big step towards equality.”

Biden began his term on Jan. 20, 2021, and on that same day, issued an executive order establishing workplace protections for LGBTQ Americans and prohibiting discrimination in education, credit, health care, and housing. 

Biden ensured that his administration and the federal government looked like America, naming record numbers of out LGBTQ judicial appointees and senior staff. He gave us the nation’s first Senate-confirmed gay Cabinet member in Pete Buttigieg, thus opening the door for future LGBTQ top staff like Scott Bessent, Trump’s pick for Treasury Secretary, who’s gay. 

“LGBTQ+ people have received a record number of federal appointments, including Cabinet members, judges, and around 14% of the administration,” according to the Victory Fund. In addition to Buttigieg, he appointed Dr. Rachel Levine as the first out transgender person to hold an office that requires Senate confirmation. And he named Karine Jean-Pierre, a Black lesbian, as his press secretary.

His advocacy wasn’t merely symbolic. President Biden in June 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.”

“This is about dignity, decency, and ensuring the culture of our Armed Forces reflect the values that make us an exceptional nation,” Biden said at the time. “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.”

Veterans who were discharged for their sexual orientation or gender identity were barred from accessing benefits through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs but veterans who obtain certificates of pardon can now petition for a change in their discharge status, which can facilitate their access to benefits.

On a personal note, I am grateful to President Biden and his talented and thoughtful communications team for granting the Blade the first-ever presidential sit-down interview with an LGBTQ newspaper. It was a moment I’ve worked toward for more than 20 years, holding endless calls and meetings with President Obama’s team trying to land that interview; and even working with Trump’s team early on in the hopes he might talk to the queer media. But it took Biden to again make history for our community. The Blade’s Sept. 20, 2024 cover photo of our White House reporter Chris Kane sitting across the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office from President Biden — an image snapped by longtime Blade Photo Editor Michael Key — fills me with immense pride. It was a moment that took decades of hard work and perseverance by pioneering queer journalists to realize. 

Thank you, Mr. President, for having our backs, not just for these past four years but throughout a long and impactful career in public service.  

Kevin Naff is editor of the Washington Blade. Reach him at [email protected].

Some are asking if the majority of Americans really care, or even understand, what it means if Trump brings a wrecking ball to the rule of law, both here at home, and around the world. 

Our first indication will be how the public reacts, especially Trump voters, to what he does based on his promises to grant clemency to those sentenced for their actions during the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the United States Capitol. Trump has called it a day of love; others have referred to it as his failed effort to stage a coup. There can be no debate about the actions of many in the crowd who stormed the Capitol that day, as they are on film. The question for many will be whether Trump grants clemency to any who were sentenced for just being there, or will he grant broad clemency to everyone, including those who were seen breaking windows, destroying property, and injuring police. Let us never forget 140 officers were injured protecting the building, and members of Congress we elected. 

Then there is the issue of the boundaries Trump crossed by calling Supreme Court Justice Alito before his case on the hush money sentencing was decided. Will Trump have these kinds of conversations with other justices when his administration, and even he personally, will have future cases pending before them? Will his administration potentially disregard a court ruling? 

Then we move on to the world stage. Trump has made statements to the effect that he would consider using military force to take Greenland and the Panama Canal. Would he actually consider invading another country without any provocation? Those words, even before any action is taken, make me think of Vladimir Putin and Adolf Hitler. Both men, Trump at one time or another, has said he admires. He has nominated as Director of National Intelligence a person who supported deposed Syrian dictator Assad and Putin. Then he said he would consider economic coercion to get Canada to become part of the United States. Remember, these are all sovereign nations. 

Just knowing that Trump, and many he has chosen to surround himself with, think like this, should frighten all decent Americans, as well as the rest of the world. Trump often says outrageous things like this without any real thought, or knowledge, as to what they entail, and what the repercussions would be. Remember his suggestion about swallowing bleach to battle COVID? Clearly, he often doesn’t know what he is talking about. Some think these statements are just meant as diversions, to take our attention from the outrageous things he is actually doing. Too often the news media takes the bait, and they along with the American people, end up losing track of the real and immediate damage he is doing to the nation. 

It is clear many of these outrageous thoughts seem to come from the last person who whispered in his ear. Today that is often Elon Musk, who has been getting involved in the politics of the United Kingdom, Germany, and other nations. Musk’s closeness to Trump seems based mostly on how much money he has given to Trump and his causes. Some think he may have even promised Trump a few billion dollars after his presidency is over. Other social media moguls, and billionaires, are now clearly trying to kiss Trump’s ass. One who has clearly sealed his lips to Trump’s rear end is Mark Zuckerberg of Meta. His announcement that Facebook will no longer fact check posts because he claims he believes in ‘free speech,’ led to a wonderful meme I recently saw. It said, “Mark Zuckerberg, who passed away recently at the age of 36, a convicted pedophile…” It seems Musk, Zuckerberg, and others have now joined Trump in accepting lying on social media is fine in the name of free speech. Hey, it worked to get Trump elected, and a whole cable network, Fox News, has found how effective lying can be in generating viewers and poisoning the minds of the uneducated, and those who want to believe the bullshit they spout for their own benefit. 

We live in an uncharted time. I think it’s hard to predict what will happen in the next four years. Will people tire of this dangerous, liar, racist, homophobe, misogynist, felon, found liable for sexual assault? Or will they accept all that he does and speaks? I pray they tire of him, and rebel, before he destroys our country.

Peter Rosenstein is a longtime LGBTQ rights and Democratic Party activist.

When Andrew Joseph White, a 26-year-old transgender author, released his third novel, “Compound Fractures,” a young adult thriller, last fall, it became an instant New York Times, USA Today, and Indie bestseller. 

This book is a story about an autistic trans* boy who was dragged into a generational feud. It also mentioned President-elect Donald Trump and his influence on the working class in the American South. The popularity of this novel among young readers shows that modern day teenagers are more political than some folks from older generations expect them to be. 

The novel became a bestseller in the midst of the 2024 presidential campaign and White, in his letter to readers, confessed that he wanted to give it a different intro, but had to speak about how tough it is to be a young trans* person in modern-day America. 

Donald Trump on Dec. 22 confirmed the fears of A.J. White and millions of other LGBTQ folks from Z and Alpha Generations. At the AmericaFest conference, Trump promised to “stop the transgender lunacy” on the first day of his presidency. He was particularly speaking up against trans* young people’s rights, and against trans* adults’ rights to work with young people. 

Donald Trump’s election also increased worries about censorship around children’s and young adult literature, especially in public and school libraries. 

A new report by PEN America showed that during the 2023-2024 school year, book bans increased by nearly 200 percent, targeting not just books about gender and sexuality, but also about racial discrimination, mental health, substance abuse, and other social problems that young people are facing in the everyday world. Such bans are not just making printed books unacceptable for youth who cannot afford buying their own copies. They may prevent authors from writing new books for younger generations, which will also affect American mass culture.

Republicans throughout the U.S. for a long time have behaved more and more authoritarian toward youth. Republicans are trying to attack LGBTQ youth everywhere, erasing them from academia and implementing social media restrictions.

It is tough to be a young person in modern-day America under any administration, even without new laws. All American citizens under 18 can easily be prevented from expressing their religious and political beliefs, forced to stay in abusive environments, can be medicated and institutionalized without their consent, can be separated from their supportive community if their parents say so. Young people under 18 can also be tried in adult court, but they cannot vote or run for office. 

All the decisions about their rights are made by people from the older generation. 

It is legal to pay young people less for their work, and deny the right to manage their property. Young people from non-supportive families are denied any chances to have normal lives until they turn 18, or even 21. This is basically the situation in most Western cultures, but American teenagers could start to change the system with more informational freedom and support.

But now Donald Trump and his supporters are trying to make everyone believe that young people cannot have their own gender identity, do not have any rights to their body autonomy, and should not be asked about their own feelings until they turn 18. Republicans have also tried to deny young people basic knowledge about the complicated world around them, as if this knowledge could be magically downloaded into a person’s mind when they turn 18. 

These dangerous trends will create a generation who is used to obeying, but not very used to thinking for themselves and trusting their own feelings. It is basically a very anti-American, anti-individualistic, and authoritarian tendency. 

This tendency could have a long-lasting impact on world politics. 

It is not an exaggeration to say that no other culture has had such a global impact on the way people around the world think than the American culture, and it is especially true on LGBTQ issues.

When I was an LGBTQ activist in Russia and Ukraine, my fellow post-Soviet activists spoke more about Stonewall and the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco than about the persecution of LGBTQ people in the Soviet Union. By my own experience as a person who was into LGBTQ blogging and journalism in the post-USSR; the videos, posts, features, and essays on LGBTQ issues that you could find on Ukrainian and Russian social media were either a direct translation from English or based on language that American LGBTQ activists created. 

Young LGBTQ people around the world are learning to speak for themselves by watching their peer influencers on English-language platforms.

As a young transgender person from Ukraine who had never heard the word trans* until I was a teenager, I understood that I was trans* since I could remember myself. I began accepting myself only after I read more about the American LGBTQ movement.

I saw a lot of young people from Eastern Europe and the Middle East for whom Lana Watchevski became a first name when they came out to their parents, or the first person who helped them to believe that yes, they could be trans* and have a fulfilling life. Folks accepted their transgender peers because there was a transgender person in a Kardashian show. And we badly need more LGBTQ films, cartoons and books for young people, and more freedom for LGBTQ youth to find their own communities. All of this will more likely come from the U.S.

I think Americans would wonder if they find out how often I saw a situation like that — a young queer Gen Z Tatar person from a small, almost isolated Russian village — or situations when a Gen Z refugee person from Iran felt comfortable to chat about American LGBTQ culture, and use it to explain their own cultural context. American culture, and America’s online spaces are quite universal. 

The same rules work for conservatives. 

It is not enough that such dictators as Vladimir Putin, who mirror old American anti-LGBTQ conspiracies in his statements, say that LGBTQ ideas are dangerous for children, or conservative people all around the world began to use “groomer” rhetoric to describe people who support LGBTQ rights for young people when the pro-Trump Q-Anon movement went global. It is not just endangering LGBTQ youth worldwide, but increasing a gap in mentality between different generations. 

But LGBTQ young people already know that there is something unusual about them, and they need information to figure out who they are. Americans could provide it via mass culture. It is worthy to note that Gen Z is much better at understanding the power of the internet, and American Gen Zers could literally make America greater by helping marginalized people in other countries.

Moreover, LGBTQ young people in America are speaking about their experience. 

They are able to say what they need. All we need to do is listen, or we will have an international atmosphere where the new generation was raised in denial of basic rights to be themselves, and prevented from learning and thinking independently. 

Editor’s note: The author uses trans* in order to be inclusive of nonbinary and gender queer people.