National
Biden holds reception for LGBTQ leaders: ‘Pride is back at the White House’
Anti-trans bills denounced as ‘bullying disguised as legislation’
President Biden commemorated Pride Month for first his year in office on Friday with a reception at the White House, detailing the initiatives his administration has made on behalf of the LGBTQ community and declaring “Pride is Back at the White House.”
“We’re also making progress, but I know we still have a long way to go, a lot of work to do,” Biden said. “We must protect the gains we’ve made and fend off the cruel and unconscionable attacks that we’re seeing now to ensure the full promise of dignity and equal protection.”
Joining Biden on stage for the reception in the East Room was first lady Jill Biden and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who could claim historic status of participating in the event as the first openly gay official to obtain Senate confirmation for a Cabinet-level role.
Buttigieg, paying heed to his spouse, Chasten Buttigieg, who was seated in the audience, said being able to serve in the Biden administration as an openly gay man was important.
“Not that long ago, well within the lifetimes of many people in this room, being outed could be disqualifying from public service, any public service ā not just being a Cabinet officer, or a member of the military, but being a bookkeeper or an astronomer,” Buttigieg said, making a reference to Frank Kameny’s termination from the U.S. government in the 1950s.
A heavy focus of the event was the wave of state laws against transgender youth, including restricting their access to transition-related health care and schools sports. Biden called them ānothing but bullying disguised as legislation.ā
“These are some of the ugliest, un-American bills I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been around a while,” Biden said.
Listing the initiatives his administration has undertaken for the LGBTQ community, Biden recalled he signed an executive order on his first day in office against anti-LGBTQ discrimination that have led to non-discrimination measures stemming from various federal agencies.
Two other news items on same dayā Biden signing a congressional resolution designating the Pulse Nightclub as a national memorial and the appointment of Jessica Stern as international envoy for LGBTQ human rights, also were part of Biden’s remarks.
Biden also renewed his call to pass the Equality Act, legislation he said in the 2020 election would be priority, but has languished in Congress and is all but dead.
Introducing Biden at the event was Ashton Mota, a 16-year-old transgender advocate from Lowell, Mass., and a leader with the GenderCool Project.
Mota, delivering a personal speech about his transition and his advocacy for transgender youths, thanked President Biden for the actions taken by his administration
āMr. President, thank you for having our back,” Mota said.
Notables in attendance, and pointed out by Biden, were Assistant Secretary for Rachel Levine, the first openly transgender presidential appointee to obtain U.S. Senate confirmation; Delaware State Sen. Sarah McBride, the first openly transgender state senator; Virginia State Del. Danica Roem, the first openly transgender elected and seated to a state legislature.
Biden, who signed an executive order reversing President Trump’s transgender military ban, also pointed out in the audience Lt. Col. Bree Fram, a high-ranking openly trans service member.
Members of the Congress were are openly LGBTQ were also in attendance for the event, including Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), Rep. Sharice Davids (D-Kansas). A notable absence, however, was Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), the only out bisexual in Congress.
Ruben Gonzales, executive director of the LGBTQ Victory Institute, was also in attendance at the event and pointed out it included many LGBTQ appointees his organization has supported.
“It’s something to celebrate,” Gonzalez said. “It’s great to see a collection of so many appointees, LGBT leaders in a space together to be welcomed and affirmed by this administration. I think it’s a testament to what Biden is creating.”
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of Ruben Gonzales. The Blade regrets the error.
Federal Government
Lambda Legal praises Biden-Harris administration’s finalized Title IX regulations
New rules to take effect Aug. 1
The Biden-Harris administration’s revised Title IX policy “protects LGBTQ+ students from discrimination and other abuse,” Lambda Legal said in a statement praising the U.S. Department of Education’s issuance of the final rule on Friday.
Slated to take effect on Aug. 1, the new regulations constitute an expansion of the 1972 Title IX civil rights law, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in education programs that receive federal funding.
Pursuant to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the landmark 2020 Bostock v. Clayton County case, the department’s revised policy clarifies that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity constitutes sex-based discrimination as defined under the law.
āThese regulations make it crystal clear that everyone can access schools that are safe, welcoming and that respect their rights,ā Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said during a call with reporters on Thursday.
While the new rule does not provide guidance on whether schools must allow transgender students to play on sports teams corresponding with their gender identity to comply with Title IX, the question is addressed in a separate rule proposed by the agency in April.
The administration’s new policy also reverses some Trump-era Title IX rules governing how schools must respond to reports of sexual harassment and sexual assault, which were widely seen as imbalanced in favor of the accused.
Jennifer Klein, the director of the White House Gender Policy Council, said during Thursday’s call that the department sought to strike a balance with respect to these issues, “reaffirming our longstanding commitment to fundamental fairness.”
āWe applaud the Biden administration’s action to rescind the legally unsound, cruel, and dangerous sexual harassment and assault rule of the previous administration,” Lambda Legal Nonbinary and Transgender Rights Project Director Sasha Buchert said in the group’s statement on Friday.
“Todayās rule instead appropriately underscores that Title IX’s civil rights protections clearly cover LGBTQ+ students, as well as survivors and pregnant and parenting students across race and gender identity,” she said. “Schools must be places where students can learn and thrive free of harassment, discrimination, and other abuse.”
Michigan
Mich. Democrats spar over LGBTQ-inclusive hate crimes law
Lawmakers disagree on just what kind of statute to pass
Michigan could soon become the latest state to pass an LGBTQ-inclusive hate crime law, but the stateās Democratic lawmakers disagree on just what kind of law they should pass.
Currently, Michiganās Ethnic Intimidation Act only offers limited protections to victims of crime motivated by their ārace, color, religion, gender, or national origin.ā Bills proposed by Democratic lawmakers expand the list to include āactual or perceived race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, ethnicity, physical or mental disability, age, national origin, or association or affiliation with any such individuals.ā
Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel have both advocated for a hate crime law, but house and senate Democrats have each passed different hate crimes packages, and Nessel has blasted both as being too weak.
Under the house proposal that passed last year (House Bill 4474), a first offense would be punishable with a $2,000 fine, up to two years in prison, or both. Penalties double for a second offense, and if a gun or other dangerous weapons is involved, the maximum penalty is six years in prison and a fine of $7,500.
But that proposal stalled when it reached the senate, after far-right news outlets and Fox News reported misinformation that the bill only protected LGBTQ people and would make misgendering a trans person a crime. State Rep. Noah Arbit, the bill’s sponsor, was also made the subject of a recall effort, which ultimately failed.
Arbit submitted a new version of the bill (House Bill 5288) that added sections clarifying that misgendering a person, āintentionally or unintentionallyā is not a hate crime, although the latest version (House Bill 5400) of the bill omits this language.
That bill has since stalled in a house committee, in part because the Democrats lost their house majority last November, when two Democratic representatives resigned after being elected mayors. The Democrats regained their house majority last night by winning two special elections.
Meanwhile, the senate passed a different package of hate crime bills sponsored by state Sen. Sylvia Santana (Senate Bill 600) in March that includes much lighter sentences, as well as a clause ensuring that misgendering a person is not a hate crime.
Under the senate bill, if the first offense is only a threat, it would be a misdemeanor punishable by one year in prison and up to $1,000 fine. A subsequent offense or first violent hate crime, including stalking, would be a felony that attracts double the punishment.
Multiple calls and emails from the Washington Blade to both Arbit and Santana requesting comment on the bills for this story went unanswered.
The attorney generalās office sent a statement to the Blade supporting stronger hate crime legislation.
āAs a career prosecutor, [Nessel] has seen firsthand how the stateās weak Ethnic Intimidation Act (not updated since the late 1980ās) does not allow for meaningful law enforcement and court intervention before threats become violent and deadly, nor does it consider significant bases for bias. It is our hope that the legislature will pass robust, much-needed updates to this statute,ā the statement says.
But Nessel, who has herself been the victim of racially motivated threats, has also blasted all of the bills presented by Democrats as not going far enough.
āTwo years is nothing ā¦ Why not just give them a parking ticket?ā Nessel told Bridge Michigan.
Nessel blames a bizarre alliance far-right and far-left forces that have doomed tougher laws.
āYou have this confluence of forces on the far right ā¦ this insistence that the First Amendment protects this language, or that the Second Amendment protects the ability to possess firearms under almost any and all circumstances,ā Nessel said. āBut then you also have the far left that argues basically no one should go to jail or prison for any offense ever.ā
The legislature did manage to pass an āinstitutional desecrationā law last year that penalizes hate-motivated vandalism to churches, schools, museums, and community centers, and is LGBTQ-inclusive.
According to data from the U.S. Department of Justice, reported hate crime incidents have been skyrocketing, with attacks motivated by sexual orientation surging by 70 percent from 2020 to 2022, the last year for which data is available.
Twenty-two states, D.C., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands have passed LGBTQ-inclusive hate crime laws. Another 11 states have hate crime laws that include protections for āsexual orientationā but not āgender identity.ā
Michigan Democrats have advanced several key LGBTQ rights priorities since they took unified control of the legislature in 2023. A long-stalled comprehensive anti-discrimination law was passed last year, as did a conversion therapy ban. Last month the legislature updated family law to make surrogacy easier for all couples, including same-sex couples.
A bill to ban the āgay panicā defense has passed the state house and was due for a Senate committee hearing on Wednesday.
Indiana
Drag queen announces run for mayor of Ind. city
Branden Blaettne seeking Fort Wayne’s top office
In a Facebook post Tuesday, a local drag personality announced he was running for the office of mayor once held by the lateĀ Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry, whoĀ died last monthĀ just a few months into his fifth term.
Henry was recently diagnosed with late-stage stomach cancer and experienced an emergency that landed him in hospice care. He died shortly after.
WPTA, a local television station, reported that Fort WayneĀ resident Branden Blaettne, whose drag name is Della Licious, confirmed he filed paperwork to beĀ one of the candidatesĀ seeking to finish out the fifth term of the late mayor.
Blaettner, who is a community organizer, told WPTA he doesnāt want to āget Fort Wayne back on track,ā but ratherĀ keep the momentum started by HenryĀ going while giving a platform to the disenfranchised groups in the community. Blaettner said he doesnāt think his local fame as a drag queen will hold him back.
āItās easy to have a platform when you wear platform heels,ā Blaettner told WPTA. āThe status quo has left a lot of people out in the cold ā both figuratively and literally,ā Blaettner added.
The Indiana Capital Chronicle reported that state Rep. Phil GiaQuinta, who has led the Indiana House Democratic caucus since 2018, has added his name to a growing list of Fort Wayne politicos who want to be the cityās next mayor. A caucus of precinct committee persons will choose the new mayor.
According to theĀ Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, the deadline for residents to file candidacy was 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday. A town hall with the candidates is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Thursday at Franklin School Park. The caucus is set for 10:30 a.m. on April 20 at the Lincoln Financial Event Center at Parkview Field.
At least six candidates so far have announced they will run in the caucus. They include Branden Blaettne, GiaQuinta, City Councilwoman Michelle Chambers, City Councilwoman Sharon Tucker, former city- and county-council candidate Palermo Galindo, and 2023 Democratic primary mayoral candidate Jorge Fernandez.
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