Lambda Legal: Biden Delivered Results for LGBTQ+ and HIV Communities in First Year, But Critical Work Remains

New analysis identifies ending "Licenses to Discriminate," protecting trans kids, and ensuring access to health care as key priorities for administration to address in Year Two.

Washington, D.C. January 20, 2022 - Lambda Legal released a new comprehensive report today that assesses the Biden-Harris administration's first year with respect to its impact on the LGBTQ+ community and everyone living with HIV. While the report identifies significant achievements, such as quickly rescinding the transgender military ban and correctly interpreting federal nondiscrimination laws as protecting LGBTQ+ people, much more work is needed, as many promises remain unfulfilled one year into the Biden presidency.

"When President Biden took office, he faced a tall task to reverse four years of damage done by the Trump administration, which actively took aim at the LGBTQ+ community, as it did with respect to Black, brown, immigrant, and other communities, whenever it could," said Sharon McGowan, chief strategy officer and legal director of Lambda Legal. "Our analysis shows that while the Biden administration has made progress putting our country back on the right track, we are nowhere close to where we need to be. They should use this report, and the unfulfilled priorities we have identified in it, as a guidepost for the direction our country should be headed over the coming months."

"President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris promised to use their office to ensure everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed," said Kristine Kippins, deputy legal director for policy at Lambda Legal. "While many important steps have been taken, our assessment after year one is that this administration's homework must be rated as "incomplete." Particularly with LGBTQ+ people, especially Black transgender women and transgender youth, facing increased harassment, violence, and discrimination across our country, we hope the Biden-Harris administration will act with the urgency that the situation demands, and take bold action to tackle the immense challenges we face to build a more perfect union."

The one-year report released by Lambda Legal today follows up on 10 key asks the organization made to the administration as it prepared to take office. It finds that:

• The Biden administration took decisive action on a number of issues of tremendous importance to the LGBTQ+ community, including clarification of the scope of sex discrimination protections in federal law and the renunciation of the ban on open service by transgender people currently in the military, and those wishing to serve. The significance of these actions cannot be overstated.
• And yet, significant work remains to be done, particularly in areas affecting some of the most vulnerable members of the LGBTQ+ community. For example, the Biden administration must take more decisive action to ensure that all programs funded by federal dollars are operated in a nondiscriminatory manner even when services are provided by third parties, including religiously affiliated entities. And the federal government must end discrimination in its own programs and policies, ranging from barriers to transition-related health care in federally-run health care programs to its outdated and discriminatory blood donation policy, which limits the ability of many gay, bisexual, and transgender people to donate.
• With respect to restoring the integrity of our federal judiciary, the Biden administration still has a long way to go in addressing the gross underrepresentation of LGBTQ+ people on the federal bench. The administration must nominate more openly LGBTQ+ people, and particularly LGBT people of color, for judicial vacancies, focusing on the five circuits-D.C., First, Fourth, Eighth, and Tenth-that do not have a single openly LGBTQ+ judge on the bench of either the circuit court or the district courts in its jurisdiction. The administration must also nominate the country's first transgender or nonbinary judge and the first openly bisexual judge in order to ensure the judiciary reflects the society it serves.

A copy of the full report released by Lambda Legal today can be downloaded by clicking here.

Lambda Legal is a national organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people, and everyone living with HIV through impact litigation, education, and public policy work.