The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) and Equality PAC, three of the nation’s leading LGBTQ+ organizations, endorsed President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign on Tuesday — the eve of National Coming Out Day.
“Without question, the Biden Administration has been the strongest advocate for the needs of transgender Americans of any presidential administration in American history,” Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, the executive director of the NCTE Action Fund, the group’s political arm, said in a statement.
HRC President Kelley Robinson pointed to Biden’s signing the Respect for Marriage Act — which codified same-sex marriage into law — and his appointment of a record number of openly LGBTQ+ people to judgeships as the organization’s reason for backing the president. Biden and First Lady Jill Biden are set to speak at HRC’s national dinner in Washington on Saturday.
“This leadership is crucial now more than ever as LGBTQ+ Americans are living in a state of emergency — experiencing unprecedented attacks from extremist politicians and their right wing allies in states across the country, who are working tirelessly to erase us,” Robinson said in a statement.
The groups’ joint endorsement comes as 2024 Republican presidential hopefuls have made restrictions on LGBTQ+ issues a part of their campaign pitch to voters.
At last month’s Republican primary debate, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy falsely said that “transgenderism, especially in kids, is a mental health disorder,” using a term to describe transgender people that many trans supporters view as bigoted. The medical community does not consider being transgender a mental illness.
On the debate stage in September, former Vice President Mike Pence promised, “We’re going to pass a federal ban on transgender chemical or surgical surgery anywhere in the country. We’ve got to protect our kids from this radical gender ideology agenda.”
