The White House on Friday condemned what it called “shameful, hateful and dangerous” attacks on the LGBTQ community, and transgender people in particular, pointing to comments from a speaker at a major conservative conference last week and a barrage of bills introduced in GOP-led state legislatures.
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre spoke at Friday’s briefing about the rhetoric and legislation targeting transgender people, pointing to a speech given at the Conservative Political Action Conference by Michael Knowles in which he said “transgenderism must be eradicated from public life.”
“It started with a speaker at a conservative conference calling for the eradication of transgender people, language that not a single national Republican leader has condemned,” Jean-Pierre said.
She highlighted that Republicans in Iowa and Tennessee have called for legislation attacking gay marriage, while in Florida GOP lawmakers have introduced a slew of bills to roll back the rights of LGBTQ communities.
Those bills are part of a larger trend, with Jean-Pierre noting more than 450 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced at the state level in the first 70 days of the year.
“The same leaders that tout freedom apparently don’t extend their love for freedom if they disagree with who you are, who you love, or how you parent,” Jean-Pierre said. “It’s government overreach at its worst, taking away rights from the vulnerable all to distract from a deeply unpopular agenda that caters to the ultra-rich.”
Jean-Pierre vowed the Biden administration would continue to support members of the LGBTQ community.
President Biden last year signed a sweeping executive order aimed at protecting LGBTQ youth from a raft of conservative state laws and addressing barriers they face to health care and housing.
In his State of the Union address last month, Biden called on Congress to pass the Equality Act to “ensure LGBTQ Americans, especially transgender young people, can live with safety and dignity.”