Federal Government
Xavier Becerra and Karine Jean-Pierre headline HHS Pride summit
Secretary said ‘Supporting the LGBTQI+ community is a top priority’
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services held a Pride Summit on Monday that featured appearances by HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
Each delivering remarks about the administration’s commitment to continuing its work fighting for LGBTQ Americans, they were joined at the event by other top officials from the Biden-Administration and other U.S. federal agencies including Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Dr. Rachel Levine, White House Deputy National Mpox Coordinator Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, and Harold Phillips, director of the White House’s Office of National AIDS Policy.
“Supporting the LGBTQI+ community is a top priority for me and HHS,” said Becerra, who noted the agency’s work to facilitate greater access to gender-affirming healthcare and on issues of health equity and access for the LGBTQ community more broadly.
“We are facing daunting challenges right now – with some politicians spewing hateful rhetoric and imposing restrictions against the LGBTQI+ community,” the secretary said. However, “thanks to the leadership of President Biden, I am confident we will make it through this moment.”
Especially right now, when the United States participates in international fora and urges other countries around the world to unequivocally support women’s rights and “have protections for the LGBTQI+ community,” the strength of those calls are compromised by America’s failures to live up to those commitments at home, Becerra said.
Therefore, he said, it is insufficient to merely protect the rights and freedoms currently in place: “We’re here because this game of defense can get tiring. We want offense.”
Taking the stage after Becerra, Jean-Pierre began her remarks by telling the audience, “As the first openly queer person to hold the position of press secretary, I have learned a lot this year.” (She also holds the distinction of being the first Black person ever to serve in the role.)
“One thing I can say for sure being in my position is that representation matters,” she said. “It matters at the White House podium. It matters in agencies like HHS. It matters who is sitting at the table making incredibly important policy decisions as we have seen through these last two years of this administration, especially as it relates to our community.”
Despite this progress, Jean-Pierre said, “It’s been a scary year. A very difficult year” in which “over a dozen states have enacted anti-LGBTQ+ laws that violate our most basic values and freedoms as Americans,” policies that are “careless,” and “callous to our kids, our neighbors, and those in our community.”
The press secretary listed some of the Biden-Harris administration’s accomplishments in advancing rights and protections for LGBTQ Americans as well as plans to continue that work in the face of major challenges facing the community, including from these harmful policies coming from state legislatures.
For example, she highlighted the White House’s announcement earlier this month of new actions to better protect LGBTQ youth and the community’s physical safety. She noted these measures come in response to challenges ranging from the homelessness and mental health crises afflicting young LGBTQ people in America to the escalation of bias-motivated acts of violence.
Also in attendance at Monday’s Summit were leaders from LGBTQ advocacy organizations including Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson and National Center for Lesbian Rights Executive Director Imani Rupert-Gordon.
HHS issued a press release following the event in which the agency listed forthcoming actions on a variety of matters concerning health access and equity for the LGBTQ community: a Behavioral Health Care Advisory on Transgender and Gender Diverse Youth, which will serve as a resource for mental health providers; guidance for state child welfare agencies clarifying directives for them to support LGBTQ youth in their care, including by facilitating access to gender affirming medical treatments; advising providers of their right to deny requests for private patient information, including that which concerns these types of clinical care; and notice of proposed rulemaking that will codify legal protections under the Affordable Care Act for trans people in healthcare and health insurance coverage.
Additionally, on Tuesday, HHS debuted its FindSupport.Gov webpage, which features resources to help LGBTQ people find “inclusive and affirming mental health care and support,” including for problems with drugs and alcohol, along with guidance on how to avoid and deal with “harmful approaches like ‘conversion therapy.’”
This year, HHS kicked off Pride Month with a flag raising ceremony on June 1, which was followed by a string of appearances by Becerra at LGBTQ celebrations across the country, which included events focused on mental health and gender affirming care — as well as the D.C. Pride parade, where the secretary marched with Levine and other HHS appointees and their families.
“I have crossed the country,” Becerra said during his remarks on Monday. “I have met with trans teens to find out how we can serve them better. We have met with folks who have been attacked during Pride months. We have met with those who are seeing their children denied the gender affirming care that they need. And we know that those are our families. Those are our kids. Those are our teems in school. And so we’re gonna do everything we can.”
“When we raised the flag earlier this month, it was interesting that in such a short order of time, I was no longer able to say we are the first and only agency who has claimed that flag at the very top of this building,” he said. “It was great to see that we were joined by essentially the U.S. Federal Government, the Biden administration.”
Federal Government
So far, virtually no acknowledgement of Pride month by federal gov’t
Trump-Vance administration proclaimed ‘no more drag shows’ at Kennedy Center
Just a few days from the start of June, there has been virtually no acknowledgment of Pride month by federal government agencies this year, a striking departure from recent policy and practice under the Biden-Harris administration and even under President Donald Trump’s first term.
Some limited and more localized observances have been preserved or renewed in 2025, for example by the U.S. courts’ webpage celebrating history-making LGBTQ jurists like Judges Deborah A. Batts and J. Paul Oetken of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, and by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which notes on its website plans to actively participate in WorldPride 2025.
The paltriness of Pride this year comes pursuant to several policy changes under Trump 2.0 such as executive orders narrowing the definition of gender to exclude trans and nonbinary people and banning activities related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, which have led to agency-wide changes including the removal of LGBTQ focused website content and dissolution of “affinity groups.”
Many of these actions came to light in the first few months of Trump’s second term. For example, in January the Associated Press reported a memo from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency indicating that observances related to Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Pride Month, Holocaust Days of Remembrance, and other cultural or historical annual events would be paused.
While it remains to be seen whether and to what extent the White House, federal government, and Congress will acknowledge Pride month in 2025, in 2024:
- • At the end of May, President Joe Biden issued a proclamation declaring June LGBTQ Pride Month, as he had done for the previous three years of his administration
- • The U.S. Senate, then under Democratic control, introduced a resolution recognizing June 2024 as LGBTQ Pride Month
- • Federal agencies across the whole of government participated in Pride activities, and at a high level — for instance, then-U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken hosted a Pride month convening focused on U.S. foreign policy, national security, inclusive development, and human rights
- • Actions in June, which in many cases were coordinated via LGBTQ employee resource groups or affinity groups, included celebrations of LGBTQ individuals — for example, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration toasted those who made significant contributions to economic growth, while the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office hosted a “Proud Innovation 2024” event, highlighting the accomplishments of LGBTQ innovators, entrepreneurs, and small business owners who utilize intellectual property to grow their businesses and mentor others in their communities.
- Agencies also provided support indirectly — for example, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission sponsored attorneys who wished to represent the FTC at LGBTQ Pride events organized by various bar associations
The Washington Post pointed to some of the challenges facing organizers of WorldPride as they plan festivities in D.C. throughout early June: “This year, the LGBTQ+ celebration is being held in the backyard of a government that has targeted transgender rights and made major cuts to HIV prevention programs. At the Kennedy Center, President Donald Trump has promised “NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA.”
On June 14, Trump is set to preside over a military parade in Washington commemorating the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army, his 79th birthday, and Flag Day, in a celebration that will feature 6,600 soldiers from at least 11 corps and divisions nationwide and 150 military vehicles, including 28 M1 Abrams tanks.
Federal Government
HRC memo details threats to LGBTQ community in Trump budget
‘It’s a direct attack on LGBTQ+ lives’
A memo issued Monday by the Human Rights Campaign details threats to LGBTQ people from the “skinny” budget proposal issued by President Donald Trump on May 2.
HRC estimates the total cost of “funding cuts, program eliminations, and policy changes” impacting the community will exceed approximately $2.6 billion.
Matthew Rose, the organization’s senior public policy advocate, said in a statement that “This budget is more than cuts on a page—it’s a direct attack on LGBTQ+ lives.”
“Trump is taking away life-saving healthcare, support for LGBTQ-owned businesses, protections against hate crimes, and even housing help for people living with HIV,” he said. “Stripping away more than $2 billion in support sends one clear message: we don’t matter. But we’ve fought back before, and we’ll do it again—we’re not going anywhere.”
Proposed rollbacks or changes at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will target the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, other programs related to STI prevention, viral hepatitis, and HIV, initiatives housed under the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and research by the National Institutes of Health and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
Other agencies whose work on behalf of LGBTQ populations would be jeopardized or eliminated under Trump’s budget include the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Small Business Administration, and the U.S. Department of Education.
Federal Government
Trump admin cancels more than $800 million in LGBTQ health grants
As of early May, half of scrapped NIH grants were LGBTQ focused
The Trump-Vance administration has cancelled more than $800 million in research into the health of sexual and gender minority groups, according to a report Sunday in The New York Times.
The paper found more than half of the grants through the National Institutes of Health that were scrapped through early May involved the study of cancers and viruses that tend to affect LGBTQ people.
The move goes further than efforts to claw back diversity related programs and gender affirming care for transgender and gender diverse youth, implicating swaths of research by institutions like Johns Hopkins and Columbia along with public universities.
The Times notes that a $41 million cut impacting Florida State University will stall “a major effort to prevent HIV in adolescents and young adults, who experience a fifth of new infections in the United States each year.”
A surge of federal funding for LGBTQ health research began under the Obama-Biden administration and continued since. Under his first term, Trump dedicated substantial resources toward his Ending the HIV Epidemic in the United States initiative.
Cuts administered under the health secretary appointed in his second term, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have put the future of that program in question.
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