Connect with us

Politics

Biden defends trans community, supports the Equality Act in State of the Union

President also spoke out against book bans

Published

on

President Joe Biden speaks at the 2024 State of the Union. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

President Joe Biden spoke in defense of the transgender community, called for passage of the Equality Act and voiced his opposition to book bans during his 2024 State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress on Thursday.

“Banning books,” he said, “It’s wrong! Instead of erasing history, let’s make history!”

The president added, “I want to protect other fundamental rights! Pass the Equality Act and my message to transgender Americans: I have your back!”

First introduced decades ago, the Equality Act would codify LGBTQ-inclusive nondiscrimination rules in employment, housing, public accommodations, education, federally funded programs, credit and jury service.

“My lifetime has taught me to embrace freedom and democracy,” Biden said, “A future based on the core values that have defined America: Honesty, decency, dignity, equality. To respect everyone. To give everyone a fair shot. To give hate no safe harbor.”

He then drew a contrast between this vision and the worldview of his political opponents.

“Now some other people my age see a different story: An American story of resentment, revenge and retribution,” Biden said. “That’s not me.”

Shortly into his speech, the president took aim at Republicans who supported the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, that was fomented by former President Donald Trump. Without using his name, Biden then inveighed against his presumptive 2024 GOP rival for refusing to abide protections for NATO allied countries and appointing U.S. Supreme Court justices who have taken rights away from Americans.

Reproductive freedom was a major theme of the speech. Biden touted the electoral wins for Democrats in 2022 and 2023 that were attributed to the mobilization of voters, especially women, who were outraged by the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned the constitutional right to abortion.

Repeating a promise that he has often made, in the aftermath of that ruling, Biden said “If Americans send me a Congress that supports the right to choose I promise you: I will restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land again.”

Most of the president’s address, however, concerned economic accomplishments of his administration over the past three years and plans for policies like a 25 percent minimum tax rate for billionaires “that would raise that would raise $500 billion over the next 10 years.”

Biden also addressed provisions of the bipartisan immigration bill that House Republicans — under pressure from Trump, because he wants to campaign on the issue — vowed to oppose, even though it contained many of the policy changes they have long pushed for.

At this point, Republican members heckled the president.

Drawing another distinction between his approach to immigration reform and his predecessor’s, Biden said, “I will not demonize immigrants saying they’re poisoning the blood of our country. I will not separate families. I will not ban people because of their faith.”

As expected, the president acknowledged that Thursday marked the 59th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday,” the civil rights march from Selma, Ala., to Birmingham, which was led by the late-Congressman John Lewis, who was then a 25-year-old activist.

“There are forces taking us back in time,” Biden said. “Voter suppression. Election subversion. Unlimited dark money. Extreme gerrymandering.”

“John Lewis was a great friend to many of us here,” he said, calling on Congress to pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act to honor him and his legacy.

LGBTQ leaders praise Biden’s speech

In a statement, GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis wrote “President Biden accurately included LGBTQ people in the greatness of American diversity and the fight for fundamental freedoms. The freedom of LGBTQ people to be ourselves, to live in peace and not be discriminated against, to read books about our lives, to have our votes and voices count, are connected to everyone’s freedoms.”

@POTUS just reaffirmed solidarity with trans folks across America,” Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson wrote in a post on X. “We know visibility and allyship matters, especially in times of crisis. This support by President Biden is a critical step in the fight for equality.”

(Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Advertisement
FUND LGBTQ JOURNALISM
SIGN UP FOR E-BLAST

Congress

51 lawmakers sign letter to Rubio about Andry Hernández Romero

U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) spoke about gay Venezuelan asylum seeker

Published

on

Andry Hernández Romero (Photo courtesy of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center)

Forty nine members of Congress and two U.S. senators, all Democrats, signed a letter Monday to Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanding information about Andry Hernández Romero, a gay Venezuelan national who was deported to El Salvador and imprisoned in the country’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center, a maximum-security prison known by the Spanish acronym CECOT

“We are deeply concerned about the health and wellbeing of Mr. Hernández Romero, who left
Venezuela after experiencing discriminatory treatment because of his sexual orientation and
opposition to Venezuela’s authoritarian government,” the lawmakers wrote. They urged the State Department to facilitate his access to legal counsel and take steps to return him.

After passing a credible fear interview and while awaiting a court hearing in March, agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reportedly transported Hernández out of the U.S. without due process or providing evidence that he had committed any crime.

In the months since, pressure has been mounting. This past WorldPride weekend in Washington was kicked off with a rally in front of the U.S. Supreme Court and a fundraiser, both supporting Hernández and attended by high profile figures including members of Congress, like U.S. Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.)

U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) was among the four members who wrote to Rubio about Hernández in April. On Friday, he spoke with the Washington Blade before he and his colleagues, many more of them this time, sent the second letter to Rubio.

“There’s a lot of obviously horrible things that are happening with the asylum process and visas and international students and just the whole of our value system as it relates to immigration,” he said, which “obviously, is under attack.”

“Andry’s case, I think, is very unique and different,” the congressman continued. “There is, right now, public support that is building. I think he has captured people’s attention. And it’s growing — this is a movement that is not slowing down. He’s going to be a focal point for Pride this year. I mean, I think people around the world are interested in the story.”

Garcia said he hopes the momentum will translate to progress on requests for proof of life, adding that he was optimistic after meeting with Hernández’s legal team earlier on Friday.

“I mean, the president, Kristi Noem, Marco Rubio — any of these folks could could ask to see if just he’s alive,” the congressman said, referring to the secretary of Homeland Security, whom he grilled during a hearing last month. ICE is housed under the DHS.

“People need to remember, the most important part of this that people need to remember, this isn’t just an immigration issue,” Garcia noted. “This is a due process issue. This is an asylum case. We gave him this appointment. The United States government told him to come to his appointment, and then we sent him to another country, not his own, and locked him up with no due process. That’s the issue.”

Garcia said that so far neither he nor his colleagues nor Hernández’s legal team were able to get “any answers from the administration, which is why we’re continuing to advocate, which is why we’re continuing to reach out to Secretary Rubio.”

“A lot more Democrats are now engaged on this issue,” he said. U.S. Sens. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla, both from California, joined Monday’s letter. “The more that we can get folks to understand how critical this is, the better. The momentum matters here. And I think Pride does provide an opportunity to share his story.”

Asked what the next steps might be, Garcia said “we’re letting his legal team really take the lead on strategy,” noting that Hernández’s attorneys have “already engaged with the ACLU” and adding, “It’s very possible that the Supreme Court could take this on.”

In the meantime, the congressman said “part of our job is to make sure that that people don’t forget Andry and that there is awareness about him, and I think there’s a responsibility, particularly during WorldPride, and during Pride, all throughout the month — like, this is a story that people should know. People should know his name and and people should be aware of what’s going on.”

Continue Reading

Congress

Wasserman Schultz: Allies must do more to support LGBTQ Jews

A Wider Bridge honored Fla. congresswoman at Capital Jewish Museum on Thursday

Published

on

U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) speaks at the Capital Jewish Museum in D.C. on June 5, 2025, after A Wider Bridge honored her at its Pride event. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz on Thursday said allies need to do more to support LGBTQ Jewish people in the wake of Oct. 7.

“Since Oct. 7, what has been appalling to me is that LGBTQ+ Jewish organizations and efforts to march in parades, to be allies, to give voice to other causes have faced rejection,” said the Florida Democrat at the Capital Jewish Museum in D.C. after A Wider Bridge honored her at its Pride event.

Wasserman Schultz, a Jewish Democrat who represents Florida’s 25th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, added the “silence of our allies … has been disappointing.”

“It makes your heart feel hollow and it makes me feel alone and isolated, which is why making sure that we have spaces that we can organize in every possible way in every sector of our society as Jews is so incredibly important,” she said.

The Israeli government says Hamas militants on Oct. 7, 2023, killed roughly 1,200 people, including upwards of 360 partygoers at the Nova Music Festival, when it launched a surprise attack on the country. The militants also kidnapped more than 200 people on that day.

The Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry says Israeli forces have killed nearly 55,000 people in the enclave since Oct. 7. Karim Khan, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, has said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who the Israel Defense Forces killed last October, are among those who have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza and Israel.

A Wider Bridge is a group that “advocates for justice, counters LGBTQphobia, and fights antisemitism and other forms of hatred.”

Thursday’s event took place 15 days after a gunman killed two Israeli Embassy employees — Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim — as they were leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum.

Police say a man who injured more than a dozen people on June 1 in Boulder, Colo., when he threw Molotov cocktails into a group of demonstrators who were calling for the release of the remaining Israeli hostages was yelling “Free Palestine.” The Associated Press notes that authorities said the man who has been charged in connection with the attack spent more than a year planning it.

Continue Reading

Congress

Sen. Schiff proposes resolution urging DOD not to rename U.S. Naval Ship Harvey Milk

Pentagon reportedly plans to change the name of ship named for gay rights icon

Published

on

U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Thursday introduced a resolution urging the U.S. Department of Defense not to rename ships that bear the names of civil rights leaders like gay rights pioneer Harvey Milk.

The move comes just after reports on Tuesday that U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had ordered U.S. Navy Secretary John Phelan to rename the U.S. Naval Ship Harvey Milk, with an announcement deliberately planned for Pride month on June 14.

The vessel, a replenishment oiler, is part of the John Lewis class fleet. The Pentagon is also considering renaming other ships in the fleet including the USNS Thurgood Marshall, USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and USNS Harriet Tubman, according to CBS News.

“By naming these ships,” Schiff wrote in his resolution, “the United States Navy has appropriately celebrated notable civil rights leaders and their legacy in promoting a more equal and just United States.”

Milk was assassinated in 1978 while serving on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Prior to his election to the Senate last year, Schiff represented California districts in the U.S. House since 2001.

Part one of his resolution “strongly supports the naming of John Lewis-class fleet replacement oilers after the aforementioned civil rights leaders as a fitting tribute to honor their contributions to the advancement of civil rights,” while part two “strongly encourages the Department of Defense not to take any action to change the names.”

Continue Reading

Popular