Politics
Obama calls for ENDA passage at White House reception
No word from president on executive order for federal contractors
Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama at the White House Pride reception (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
President Obama energized attendees at the annual Pride reception held at the White House on Thursday by saying “we need to get” the Employment Non-Discrimination Act passed.
Citing a letter he said he received from a PFLAG mom from Ohio named “Susan” expressing concern that LGBT people aren’t protected from harassment in the workplace, Obama said, “I share that concern,” and issued a call to pass ENDA — without mentioning the bill by name.
“There’s a bipartisan bill moving forward in the Senate that would ban discrimination against all LGBT Americans in the workplace, now and forever,” Obama said. “We need to get that passed. I want to sign that bill. We need to get it done now.”
Despite difficulties in passing ENDA — mostly notably the fact that Republicans are in control of the House — Obama told attendees in the East Room of the White House that he sees a path for passing the bill based on the successes the LGBT community has seen in recent years.
“And I think we can make that happen — because after the last four and a half years, you can’t tell me things can’t happen,” Obama said. “Look around. We’ve got gay and lesbian soldiers, and sailors, and airmen, and Marines who are here today. We’ve got married couples from places like New York and Washington State.”
The White House Pride reception took place amid renewed calls for Obama to sign an executive order that would bar federal contractors from discriminating against LGBT workers. Activists are calling the measure a campaign promise and say it’ll protect millions of workers from discrimination.
Last week, Ellen Sturtz, a lesbian activist affiliated with GetEQUAL, made headlines when she confronted first lady Michelle Obama about signing the executive order. Earlier on Thursday, eight activists from Ohio and Texas affiliated with GetEQUAL were arrested outside House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) office in D.C. after they called on him to move forward with ENDA. Receiving no commitments from him, they also called on Obama to issue the executive order.
Tico Almeida, president of Freedom to Work, said “it’s fantastic” that Obama spoke out in favor of ENDA during the reception, but wants the president to take additional action behind the scenes.
“He should follow up his speech today by placing phone calls to lobby ENDA’s holdout Democratic senators like Florida’s Bill Nelson, West Virginia’s Joe Manchin and Mark Pryor of Arkansas,” Almeida said. “Between the president, Joe Biden, and the White House legislative team, I bet they could convince those Democrats to support ENDA.”
Despite the call to pass ENDA, LGBT advocates who have been calling for the executive order — and weren’t in attendance — said they still expect Obama to take administrative action to protect LGBT workers from discrimination.
Fred Sainz, vice president communications of the Human Rights Campaign, said he appreciates Obama’s support for legislation, but reminded him that issuing the executive order takes only the stroke of a pen.
“We’re elated to have the president’s support for ENDA,” Sainz said. “But we also want his support for an executive order. ENDA need not come before an EO. People’s jobs are on the line and there’s no time to waste.”
Almeida also renewed his call on President Obama to sign the executive order, saying previous responses from White House spokesperson Shin Inouye that the directive is “hypothetical” aren’t truthful.
“But no presidential speech or Champagne reception compares to the strong workplace protections that we will achieve once President Obama honors his five-year-old campaign promise to sign the federal contractor executive order,” Almeida said. “It’s time for President Obama to instruct his staffer Shin Inouye to stop pretending the executive order [is] ‘hypothetical.’ Shin is insulting gay and transgender victims of discrimination. It’s time for the president to sign.”
Inouye didn’t respond to a request for comment on Almeida’s assertions.
On Monday, the Washington Blade published an email from Democratic National Committee Treasurer Andrew Tobias asserting that the directive will happen. But Tobias wrote that “a process” is holding up the directive “that is broader than just this one very important and long delayed agenda item.”
Just hours before the reception, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney addressed the executive order in response to a question from NBC News’ Peter Alexander and maintained the administration prefers a legislative approach to the issue.
“I’ve answered this question a few times,” Carney said. “And we have said that we are supporting a legislative effort, the so-called ENDA legislation. And that’s the approach that we’ve taken. So I would not expect any executive order to be signed at the reception.”
‘We’ve made our world a little more full of love’
In addition to touting his support for ENDA, Obama ticked off various accomplishments over the past four-and-a-half-years with Vice President Joseph Biden at his side.
Among the noted achievements were “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal, reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act with explicit LGBT protections and the first national HIV/AIDS strategy. His mention of putting in place “new policies that treat transgender Americans with dignity and respect” elicited considerable shouts of approval from the audience.
Additionally, Obama commended the Senate for confirming — just hours earlier — Nitza Quinones Alejandro as the first openly gay federal Hispanic judge, saying she couldn’t attend because she’s getting ready to take her seat on the bench.
Obama also drew attention to his support for marriage equality — and speaking out in states where there have been efforts to legalize it — including the recent effort in Illinois where the session ended before the vote took place.
“I’ll continue to support marriage equality and states’ attempts to legalize it, including in my home state of Illinois,” Obama said. “We’re not giving up on that.”
Introducing Obama on stage were nine-year-old twins Zea and Luna, who began the reception by talking about a letter they wrote to Obama on LGBT issues. Upon entering the stage, Obama said, “I will not beat that act.”
Obama concluded his remarks by predicting that the efforts of those in the room would make for new achievements because “people who love this country can change it.”
“And I hope that when we gather here next year, and the year after that, we’ll be able to say, with pride and confidence, that together we’ve made our fellow citizens a little more free,” Obama said. “We’ve made this country a little more equal. We’ve made our world a little more full of love.”
LGBT attendees said they were pleased that the White House was holding the event, but are frustrated the issue of federal workplace non-discrimination protections hasn’t been addressed.
Those in attendance munched on hors d’oeuvres and stood around circular tables with refreshments while sipping Champagne from wine glasses. No crowd estimates were included in the pool report for the evening.
Lori Schreiber, a 54-year-old lesbian who serves as township commissioner in Abingdon, Pa., said she’s “very pleased” the White House held the Pride reception because “it acknowledges a group of people that are often not acknowledged.”
Still, she said an executive order to protect LGBT workers from discrimination would be helpful in her state of Pennsylvania, where there’s no law on the books prohibiting such discrimination.
“How it’s going in Pennsylvania is we’re going municipality by municipality, which isn’t working well,” Schreiber said. “It should just be across the country that everybody has the same rights in employment, housing, everything, and that doesn’t currently exist, so some of us are second-class citizens.”
Mike Manning, a 26-year-old bisexual actor known for being in MTV’s “Real World” in D.C., said he supports the president, but also said he “absolutely” wants him to issue the executive order and doesn’t understand why he hasn’t taken action.
“I’m surprised that hasn’t happened yet because it seems like a no-brainer, especially in a nation like the U.S.,” Manning said. “We’re such a power economy, we should have the best men and women doing the jobs…regardless of their sexual orientation or [gender] identity.”
Cathy Renna, 48, a lesbian communications specialist from Long Island, N.Y., said the Pride reception is “a symbol in and of itself” of the progress on LGBT issues in recent years, but noted she was frustrated by the lack of movement on workplace discrimination.
“I think I probably feel like the vast majority of other people in our community, who are wondering and sort of scratching their head — because I think the challenge is this is somebody who’s with us, so we’re just wondering why it’s not happening,” Renna said.
Among the LGBT notables who were in attendance at the event were Eric Fanning, under secretary of the Air Force; Daniel Baer, a State Department official recently nominated as U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe; and Rev. R. Guy Erwin, who was recently elected the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s first openly gay bishop.
Congress
McBride, other US lawmakers travel to Denmark
Trump’s demand for Greenland’s annexation overshadowed trip
Delaware Congresswoman Sarah McBride is among the 11 members of Congress who traveled to Denmark over the past weekend amid President Donald Trump’s continued calls for the U.S. to take control of Greenland.
McBride, the first openly transgender person elected to Congress, traveled to Copenhagen, the Danish capital, with U.S. Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and U.S. Reps. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.), Don Bacon (R-Neb.), and Sarah Jacobs (D-Calif.). The lawmakers met with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenlandic MP Pipaluk Lynge, among others.
“I’m grateful to Sen. Coons for his leadership in bringing together a bipartisan, bicameral delegation to reaffirm our support in Congress for our NATO ally, Denmark,” said McBride in a press release that detailed the trip. “Delaware understands that our security and prosperity depend on strong partnerships rooted in mutual respect, sovereignty, and self-determination. At a time of growing global instability, this trip could not be more poignant.”
Greenland is a self-governing territory of Denmark with a population of less than 60,000 people. Trump maintains the U.S. needs to control the mineral-rich island in the Arctic Ocean between Europe and North America because of national security.
The Associated Press notes thousands of people on Saturday in Nuuk, the Greenlandic capital, protested against Trump. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is among those who have criticized Trump over his suggestion the U.S. would impose tariffs against countries that do not support U.S. annexation of Greenland.
A poll that Sermitsiaq, a Greenlandic newspaper, and Berlingske, a Danish newspaper, commissioned last January indicates 85 percent do not want Greenland to become part of the U.S. The pro-independence Demokraatit party won parliamentary elections that took place on March 12, 2025.
“At this critical juncture for our countries, our message was clear as members of Congress: we value the U.S.-Denmark partnership, the NATO alliance, and the right of Greenlanders to self-determination,” said McBride on Sunday in a Facebook post that contained pictures of her and her fellow lawmakers meeting with their Danish and Greenlandic counterparts.
Congress
Van Hollen speaks at ‘ICE Out for Good’ protest in D.C.
ICE agent killed Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on Jan. 7
U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) is among those who spoke at an “ICE Out for Good” protest that took place outside U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s headquarters in D.C. on Tuesday.
The protest took place six days after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis.
Good left behind her wife and three children.
(Video by Michael K. Lavers)
Congress
Advocates say MTG bill threatens trans youth, families, and doctors
The “Protect Children’s Innocence” Act passed in the House
Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has a long history of targeting the transgender community as part of her political agenda. Now, after announcing her resignation from the U.S. House of Representatives, attempting to take away trans rights may be the last thing she does in her official capacity.
The proposed legislation, dubbed “Protect Children’s Innocence Act” is among the most extreme anti-trans measures to move through Congress. It would put doctors in jail for up to 10 years if they provide gender-affirming care to minors — including prescribing hormone replacement therapy to adolescents or puberty blockers to younger children. The bill also aims to halt gender-affirming surgeries for minors, though those procedures are rare.
Greene herself described the bill on X, saying if passed, “it would make it a Class C felony to trans a child under 18.”
According to KFF, a nonpartisan source for health policy research, polling, and journalism, 27 states have enacted policies limiting youth access to gender-affirming care. Roughly half of all trans youth ages 13–17 live in a state with such restrictions, and 24 states impose professional or legal penalties on health care practitioners who provide that care.
Greene has repeatedly introduced the bill since 2021, the year she entered Congress, but it failed to advance. Now, in exchange for her support for the National Defense Authorization Act, the legislation reached the House floor for the first time.
According to the 19th, U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.), the first trans member of Congress, rebuked Republicans on the Capitol steps Wednesday for advancing anti-trans legislation while allowing Affordable Care Act tax credits to expire — a move expected to raise health care costs for millions of Americans.
“They would rather have us focus in and debate a misunderstood and vulnerable one percent of the population, instead of focusing in on the fact that they are raiding everyone’s health care,” McBride said. “They are obsessed with trans people … they are consumed with this.”
Polling suggests the public largely opposes criminalizing gender-affirming care.
A recent survey by the Human Rights Campaign and Global Strategy Group found that 73 percent of voters in U.S. House battleground districts oppose laws that would jail doctors or parents for providing transition-related care. Additionally, 77 percent oppose forcing trans people off medically recommended medication. Nearly seven in 10 Americans said politicians are not informed enough to make decisions about medical care for trans youth.
The bill passed the House and now heads to the U.S. Senate for further consideration.
According to reporting by Erin Reed of Erin In The Morning, three Democrats — U.S. Reps. Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez of Texas and Don Davis of North Carolina — crossed party lines to vote in favor of the felony ban, joining 213 Republicans. A total of 207 Democrats voted against the bill, while three lawmakers from both parties abstained.
Advocates and lawmakers warned the bill is dangerous and unprecedented during a multi-organizational press call Tuesday. Leaders from the Human Rights Campaign and the Trevor Project joined U.S. Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.), Dr. Kenneth Haller, and parents of trans youth to discuss the potential impact of restrictive policies like Greene’s — particularly in contrast to President Donald Trump’s leniency toward certain criminals, with more than 1,500 pardons issued this year.
“Our MAGA GOP government has pardoned drug traffickers. They’ve pardoned people who tried to overthrow the government on January 6, but now they want to put pediatricians and parents into a jail cell for caring for their kids,” said Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson. “No one asked for Marjorie Taylor Greene or Dan Crenshaw or any politician to be in their doctor’s office, and they should mind their own business.”
Balint, co-chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, questioned why medical decisions are being made by lawmakers with no clinical expertise.
“Parents and doctors already have to worry about state laws banning care for their kids, and this bill would introduce the risk of federal criminal prosecution,” Balint said. “We’re talking about jail time. We’re talking about locking people up for basic medical care, care that is evidence-based, age-appropriate and life-saving.”
“These are decisions that should be made by doctors and parents and those kids that need this gender-affirming care, not certainly by Marjorie Taylor Greene.”
Haller, an emeritus professor of pediatrics at St. Louis University School of Medicine, described the legislation as rooted in ideology rather than medicine.
“It is not science, it is just blind ideology,” Haller said.
“The doctor tells you that as parents, as well as the doctor themselves, could be convicted of a felony and be sentenced up to 10 years in prison just for pursuing a course of action that will give your child their only chance for a happy and healthy future,” he added. “It is not in the state’s best interests, and certainly not in the interests of us, the citizens of this country, to interfere with medical decisions that people make about their own bodies and their own lives.”
Haller’s sentiment is echoed by doctors across the country.
The American Medical Association, the nation’s largest organization that represents doctors across the country in various parts of medicine has a longstanding support for gender-affirming care.
“The AMA supports public and private health insurance coverage for treatment of gender dysphoria and opposes the denial of health insurance based on sexual orientation or gender identity,” their website reads.
Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, senior vice president of public engagement campaigns at the Trevor Project, agreed.
“In Marjorie Taylor Greene’s bill [it] even goes so far as to criminalize and throw a parent in jail for this,” Heng-Lehtinen said. “Medical decisions should be between patients, families, and their doctors.”
Rachel Gonzalez, a parent of a transgender teen and LGBTQ advocate, said the bill would harm families trying to act in their children’s best interests.
“No politician should be in any doctor’s office or in our living room making private health care decisions — especially not Marjorie Taylor Greene,” Gonzalez said. “My daughter and no trans youth should ever be used as a political pawn.”
Other LGBTQ rights activists also condemned the legislation.
Tyler Hack, executive director of the Christopher Street Project, called the bill “an abominable attack on the transgender community.”
“Marjorie Taylor Greene’s last-ditch effort to bring her 3-times failed bill to a vote is an abominable attack on the transgender community and further cements a Congressional career defined by hate and bigotry,” they said. “We are counting down the days until she’s off Capitol Hill — but as the bill goes to the floor this week, our leaders must stand up one last time to her BS and protect the safety of queer kids and medical providers. Full stop.”
Hack added that “healthcare is a right, not a privilege” in the U.S., and this attack on trans healthcare is an attack on queer rights altogether.
“Marjorie Taylor Greene has no place in deciding what care is necessary,” Hack added. “This is another attempt to legislate trans and queer people out of existence while peddling an agenda rooted in pseudoscience and extremism.”
U.S. Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, also denounced the legislation.
“This bill is the most extreme anti-transgender legislation to ever pass through the House of Representatives and a direct attack on the rights of parents to work with their children and their doctors to provide them with the medical care they need,” Takano said. “This bill is beyond cruel and its passage will forever be a stain on the institution of the United States Congress.”
The bill is unlikely to advance in the Senate, where it would need 60 votes to pass.
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