LGBTQ groups say Biden missed chance to denounce attacks in State of the Union

LGBTQ groups this week broadly commended President Biden for vowing to protect the rights of LGBTQ Americans in his 2023 State of the Union address but said the president missed a rare opportunity to explicitly denounce recent attacks against the community in front of Congress and the nation.

Biden during Tuesday evening’s address, which clocked in at roughly 1 hour and 13 minutes, referenced LGBTQ rights only twice: once when touting the passage of the Respect for Marriage Act — federal legislation safeguarding the right of same-sex and interracial couples to marry — and again when urging Congress to pass the Equality Act, which would broaden the definition of sex discrimination in existing civil rights law to include sexual orientation and gender identity.

Biden on Tuesday said passing the Equality Act was crucial to ensuring that “LGBTQ Americans, especially transgender young people, can live with safety and dignity.”

While the Biden administration has made historic strides in advancing LGBTQ rights over the last two years, some advocates said the president’s State of the Union address this week could have — and perhaps should have — said more about an escalation of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and violence so extreme that it was the subject of a House hearing in December.

“Representation is power,” Sean Meloy, the vice president of political programs at the LGBTQ Victory Fund, told The Hill. “We’re still not at the point where we have elected an LGBTQ president, so we need our allies to really go to the floor with us and for us.”

Just over 0.2 percent of elected officials nationwide identify as LGBTQ, according to the LGBTQ Victory Fund, despite more than 7 percent of Americans identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

Meloy said it would have sent a powerful message of support from the White House if Biden had used his State of the Union address this year to condemn a recent tidal wave of proposed legislation seeking to restrict the basic rights and freedoms of LGBTQ Americans.

This year alone, more than 270 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced in state legislatures across the country, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, already nearing 2022’s record-breaking year-end total of 315 bills.

“[Biden] calling that out at the rostrum would have been really powerful and I think it was a missed opportunity in this moment,” Meloy said.

Bills and policy affecting the LGBTQ community may also be a big part of next year’s presidential election given the positions of two Republicans seen as the leading contenders for that party’s nomination: former President Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.  

Sarah Kate Ellis, the president and chief executive of the LGBTQ media advocacy organization GLAAD, told The Hill in an email that Biden has highlighted the need to protect young transgender people who face “rampant harassment and attacks at the state level” in prior national addresses.

In his 2022 State of the Union, Biden explicitly condemned legislation targeting transgender people.

“The onslaught of state laws targeting transgender Americans and their families is wrong,” he said, and told transgender youths that he “will always have your back as president.” In 2021, Biden similarly told transgender young people to remember that “your president has your back.”

Even then, LGBTQ advocates said Biden and his administration were doing the “bare minimum” to defend transgender individuals and LGBTQ Americans more broadly.

“You say trans youth are brave and claim to have their backs, and your administration has not done enough to sufficiently protect them,” actress Angelica Ross said last year during an LGBTQ State of the Union. “Talk is cheap. We need you to act.”

LGBTQ people following Biden’s Tuesday address expressed similar frustrations, arguing Biden should have said more — not less — about escalating attacks on LGBTQ identities over the last year.

“Feels like a walk back in the face of unprecedented hatred from the right,” Katelyn Burns, a freelance journalist and frequent MSNBC contributor, wrote on Twitter. “Awful big rhetoric gap on this issue between the parties.”

“Last night, @POTUS only mentioned marriage equality but not legislative attacks to LGBTQ+ rights,” the National LGBTQ Task Force tweeted Wednesday, adding: “Was Biden’s speech enough?”

Still, “the president only has one voice,” Ellis noted.

“It’s time for all of us to make our voices heard,” Ellis said. “Voters must put their individual members of Congress on notice: the legislative branch can and must take measures to move bills forward to advance LGBTQ rights.”