President Joe Biden on Saturday welcomed hundreds of LGBTQ policymakers, staffers, advocates and allies for a Pride celebration at the White House designed to highlight the administration’s ongoing commitment to protect the community’s rights and freedoms.
The festive event — headlined by openly queer singer Betty Who — was originally scheduled for Thursday, but had to be rescheduled due to the poor air quality caused by the Canadian wildfires.
Billed as the largest Pride event ever held at the White House, the festivities kicked off with a short speech by First Lady Jill Biden, who noted the celebration this year would be “a little different than before.”
Instead of just hosting a “reception that recognizes the leaders and the activists of this movement,” the administration decided to have an “all-American picnic right here on the South Lawn.”
President Biden later addressed the rainbow-wearing audience, saying the event was a way to honor “the extraordinary courage and contribution of the LGBTQ community [and] to celebrate their legacy and progress,” noting that “real challenges still remain.”
Earlier this week, Biden announced a series of actions designed to protect the rights of the nation’s LGBTQ community, amid an unprecedented number of anti-LGBTQ laws being enacted in states across the country.
His announcement came just a few days after the Human Rights Campaign issued its first-ever state of emergency for LGBTQ people in the U.S., citing the more than 75 new bills targeting the rights of the LGBTQ community — particularly transgender youth — signed into law this year.
“Today, I want to send a message to the entire community — especially to transgender children,” Biden told the crowd Saturday. “You are loved. You are heard. You’re understood. And you belong.”
“And as I made clear, including in my State of the Union address, your president, my entire administration has your back,” he added.