After acknowledging during an interview on Tuesday that he is considering a bid for the White House in 2028, Pete Buttigieg stepped onto a stage in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for a 45-minute town hall where he looked and sounded very much a candidate launching his presidential campaign.

The former U.S. Transportation Secretary warned that “we are being tested on nothing less” than the strength of America’s commitments to freedom and democracy over the next four years of President Donald Trump’s second term.

Rather than “hang back” while those in power “screw up,” he said now is the time to advance and articulate an agenda charting a new path forward for the country, including by restoring access to abortion and better addressing the challenges and meeting the needs of the nation’s veterans and with their families and communities.

As Democrats work to rebuild with an eye toward retaking control of the White House and both chambers of Congress, the party has wrestled with questions of whether and to what extent last year’s electoral defeat may have been attributable to the adoption of policy positions that were unpopular or out of step with views held by key parts of the electorate.

Buttigieg on Tuesday stressed the importance of identifying which parts of the platform should be revisited, the areas in which a greater diversity of viewpoints should be tolerated and welcomed into the Democratic coalition, and when to provide room for disagreement and debate. 

As an example, he took the matter of whether and in which circumstances athletes should be allowed to compete on sports teams that are consistent with their gender identity but inconsistent with their birth sex. 

“I think we do need to revisit some of the things that we have had to say policy-wise that haven’t kept up with the times as a party,” he said, adding, “Americans may have questions about how to make sure sports are safe and fair, which I get.” 

At the same time, “that doesn’t ever mean throwing vulnerable people under the bus,” Buttigieg said — and not just because that would be wrong, but also because it’s bad politics for Democrats. 

For example, “Americans understand that your gender identity shouldn’t affect whether you get to vote,” Buttigieg said, referencing policies passed by conservative lawmakers in Iowa and several other states that would render voters ineligible to cast their ballots in cases where there are discrepancies in the information listed on their official documents, records, and government-issued IDs. The rules are expected to disproportionately impact transgender people who are far likelier than their cisgender counterparts  to have updated the gender markers and names listed on their driver’s licenses, for example.

Buttigieg, a decorated U.S. Navy Reserve officer who was deployed to Afghanistan, also raised an example of unpopular anti-trans policymaking, the Trump-Vance administration’s ban on military service by trans soldiers: “Americans understand,” he said, “that if you are, for example, a soldier who is doing a good job, who is getting good ratings from commander who is contributing to the readiness of this mission, who is ready to put their life on the line, who happens to be transgender, you ought to be honored and not kicked out of the military.”

The line drew applause from attendees, who included a number of veterans including members and staff from VoteVets, the progressive advocacy group that organized the town hall.

Also in attendance on Tuesday were supporters who wore official merchandise from Buttigieg’s 2020 run, which began with his surprise first-place finish in the Iowa Democratic presidential caucuses ahead of then-former Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) — a transformational moment for the openly gay former mayor of South Bend, Ind., who thereafter emerged as a rising star in his party and quickly become a formidable force in American politics on the national stage.

Many elected officials and other influential stakeholders within the Democratic Party now consider Buttigieg the strongest or one of the strongest of its communicators. His name has often been floated as a strong choice to lead the ticket as the Democratic presidential nominee.And he seems well positioned for a run in 2028. Even so, this far in advance of the election candidates are more circumspect about discussing their plans or their thinking about a bid for the White House so far in advance of the election.

However, Trump’s second administration and the new Congress led in both chambers by Republican loyalists seems to have prompted a number of other top Democrats to dispense with the coquettishness. A report in Politico notes that Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and former U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo have recently either made overtures signaling they are considering a run or declined opportunities to deny it.

The Washington Blade’s 18th annual Summer Kickoff Party is scheduled for today in Rehoboth Beach, Del.

Ashley Biden, daughter of President Joe Biden, has joined the list of speakers, the Blade announced on Friday. She will accept an award on behalf of her brother Beau Biden for his LGBTQ advocacy work as Delaware attorney general. 

Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer has also joined the list of speakers. 

The event, held at the Blue Moon (35 Rehoboth Ave.) from 5-7 p.m., is a fundraiser for the Blade Foundation’s Steve Elkins Memorial Fellowship in Journalism, which funds a summer position reporting on LGBTQ news in Delaware. This year’s recipient will be introduced at the event.

The event will also feature remarks from state Sen. Russ Huxtable, who recently introduced a state constitutional amendment to codify the right of same-sex couples to marry. CAMP Rehoboth Executive Director Kim Leisey and Blade editor Kevin Naff will also speak. The event is generously sponsored by Realtor Justin Noble, The Avenue Inn & Spa, and Blue Moon.

A suggested donation of $20 is partially tax deductible and includes drink tickets and light appetizers. Tickets are available in advance at bladefoundation.org/rehoboth or at the door. 

Activists around the world will mark the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia against the backdrop of efforts to curtail LGBTQ rights that are gaining traction in the U.S. and other countries.

The Trump-Vance administration since it took office in January has issued a number of executive orders that have specifically targeted transgender and nonbinary people. They include a declaration that the federal government will recognize “only two genders, male and female” and a directive that bans the State Department from issuing passports with an “X” gender marker.

ILGA-Europe on Wednesday released its annual update to its Rainbow Map, which documents LGBTQ rights in European countries.

The ILGA-Europe press release notes Hungary’s “prohibition of Pride events and criminalization of participants” and the U.K. Supreme Court ruling last month that restricts “the legal recognition of trans people.” The European advocacy group also highlighted a “sweeping ban on all forms of LGBTI representation and assembly” that Georgian lawmakers passed last fall.

“They are merely the most striking examples of a broader trend in which LGBTI human rights are being systematically dismantled under the guise of preserving public order,” said ILGA-Europe. “In reality, such measures pave the way for sweeping restrictions on fundamental freedoms, including the rights to protest and to political dissent.”

Argentine President Javier Milei in February issued a decree that restricts minors’ access to gender-affirming surgeries and hormone treatments. An appeals court in Trinidad and Tobago in March recriminalized consensual same-sex sexual relations in the Caribbean country.

The Trump-Vance administration’s decision to suspend most foreign aid has forced several LGBTQ rights groups and HIV/AIDS service organizations in South Africa, Kenya, and other African countries that received U.S. funding to curtail operations or shut down. Lawmakers in Vanuatu are considering an amendment to the country’s constitution that would recognize only two sexes: Male and female.

“This Pride season is different,” said Outright International, a global advocacy group, in an email it sent to supporters on Thursday. “From funding cuts and escalating violence to increases in anti-LGBTIQ legislation, the global backlash against our movement is growing.”

IDAHOBiT commemorates the World Health Organization’s declassification of homosexuality as a mental disorder on May 17, 1990. This year’s IDAHOBiT theme is “the power of communities.”

“This year, and always, LGBTQIA+ people around the world are with feminist, sexual reproductive health rights, and broader social justice movements,” said ILGA World, a global LGBTQ rights group, earlier this week in an email to supporters.

The Namibian High Court last June ruled Apartheid-era laws that criminalized consensual same-sex sexual relations in the country are unconstitutional. A law that extended marriage rights to same-sex couples in Thailand took effect on Jan. 23.

Cuba’s National Center for Sexual Education, an organization directed by Mariela Castro, the daughter of former Cuban President Raúl Castro who spearheads LGBTQ issues on the island, this month has organized a series of LGBTQ-specific events across the country.

Activists in Manningham, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia, on Tuesday marked IDAHOBiT. The first “Ringing the Bell for LGBTIQ+ Equality” ceremony that is part of a campaign to promote LGBTQ inclusion in the private sector took place at the Toronto Stock Exchange on the same day.

The U.N. LGBTI Core Group, a group of U.N. member states that have pledged to support LGBTQ and intersex rights, will hold an event on Friday at the U.N. in New York that will commemorate both IDAHOBiT and the International Day of Families. (The U.S. earlier this year withdrew from the Core Group after President Donald Trump took office.)

Fondation Émerge and Fierté Montréal will organize a march in Montréal on Saturday. Other IDAHOBiT events are scheduled to take place on that day in South Africa, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, the U.K., and elsewhere around the world on that day.