President Biden lashes out at critics of LGBTQ agenda

June 09, 2023

President Joe Biden on June 8 lashed out at critics of the LGBTQ agenda, calling them “prejudiced” persons who engage in a “thoroughly unjustified and ugly” “appeal to fear”

Taking aim at state legislation that protects girls from the presence of boys in locker rooms and bathrooms, and legislation that protects minors from permanent surgical mutilation, he decried “hateful bills targeting transgender children, terrifying families, and criminalizing doctors.”

Efforts to remove books that advance the LGBTQ agenda from school libraries, he added, are “civil rights violations,” as he announced a “new coordinator to protect LGBT students from book bans.”

At a joint press conference with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of the UK, Laura Barrón-López of the PBS NewsHour asked tendentiously:

All over the country, Mr. President, Republican-led states are passing laws—passing anti-LGBTQ, anti-transgender laws that restrict rights and medical care. Intimidation is on the rise. This week, anti-LGBTQ protestors turned violent in California. And also recently, I spoke to the parents of a transgender girl in Texas who told me that they’re afraid and that they are considering leaving not just their state, but the country. Sir, why do you think this is happening? And what do you say to parents, like the ones that I spoke to, to those families who are contemplating leaving the country because they don’t feel safe anymore?

President Biden replied:

First of all, maybe quietly when we finish this, you can give me the number of that family, and I will call them and let them know that the President and this administration has their back. And I mean that.

Look, as President, I was proud to end the ban on te-—transgender troops in our military, sign the Respect for Marriage Act, strengthen the civil rights protections for LBG-—LBGT Americans, and advance LGBT human rights around the globe.

But our fight is far, far from over because we have some hysterical and, I would argue, prejudiced people who are engaged in all of what you see going on around the country. It’s—it’s an appeal to fear, and it’s an appeal that is totally, thoroughly unjustified and ugly.

It’s wrong for—that a person can be married in the morning in the United States and fired in the afternoon by their employer because they are—they’re gay.

It’s wrong that the violence and hate crimes targeting LGBTQ people is rising. It’s wrong that extreme officials are pushing hateful bills targeting transgender children, terrifying families, and criminalizing doctors.

These are our kids. These are our neighbors. It’s cruel and it’s callous. Not somebody else’s kids; they’re all our kids. They’re the kids—and our children are the kite strings that hold our national ambitions aloft. It matters a great deal how we treat everyone in this country.

And the fact is that I’m announcing today a series of new initiatives that we’re taking to protect the LGBT community. I was going to do this at the fore out on South Lawn. We’re having Pride Day, but we’re going to have to postpone it because of the—the climate, because of the weather and the pollution out there because of the fires.

But number one, we’re going to strengthen the physical safety, dedicated resources, the federal coordination to better protect Pride celebrations, marches, community centers, healthcare providers, and small businesses.

Secondly, we’re addressing civil rights violations, a new coordinator to protect LGBT students from book bans, which make it harder for kids to learn and may violate their civil rights at the same time.

We’re also engaging in mental health and—and other supports, more mental health resources and funding to help families support their kids, new efforts to protect LGBTQ kids in foster care, and steps to end—the absolute end of LGBTQ homelessness.

Congress has to pass—and I’m not giving up on this. Just like they told me we couldn’t get Marriage Act passed. Congress must pass—must pass the Equality Act and send it to my desk.

LGBTQ Americans, especially children: You’re loved, you’re heard, and this administration has your back—and I mean it. We are not relenting one single second to make sure that they’re protected.

Addressing chastity and homosexuality, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, citing Sacred Scripture, teaches that homosexual acts are “acts of grave depravity” that “under no circumstances” may be approved. At the same time, persons with homosexual tendencies “must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity,” and “every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.” The Catechism also warns against medically unnecessary mutilations and sterilizations and calls on everyone to accept his or her sexual identity as male or female,

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops opposes the Equality Act, which President Biden mentioned. The House of Representatives passed the legislation in 2021, during the 117th Congress (2021-22), but neither the House nor the Senate has voted on it during the current Congress (2023-24).

 

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Further information:

• Remarks by President Biden and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of the United Kingdom in Joint Press Conference (White House)