President Joe Biden on Friday decried legislation banning biological males from competing in female sports as transgender women.
“These are some of the ugliest, most un-American bills I’ve seen and I’ve been here a long time,” Biden said during a gay and transgender pride reception at the White House.
The president condemned the “hundreds” of anti-LGBTQ bills that were introduced in state legislatures in 2020, which include the transgender bans for women’s sports.
“Let’s be clear. This is no more than bullying disguised as legislation,” Biden said.
Biden celebrated Pride Month with gay and transgender members of his administration including Dr. Rachel Levine and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
“Pride is back at the White House,” Biden said proudly.
Biden boasted that under his administration, gay pride flags were flying at over 130 U.S. embassies around the world.
Buttigieg spoke at the reception and condemned Republicans for supporting the transgender bans for women’s sports.
“There’s an especially dangerous political strategy arising in some states right now as some politicians try to gain advantage by picking on transgender kids,” Buttigieg said. “Some of the most vulnerable people in this country.”
Buttigieg suggested that political figures were directly causing more transgender suicides, calling it a “matter of life and death” and of “national character.”
“You need to understand the weight of your words,” he warned. “You need to understand that if you go around signaling to people that transgender youth shouldn’t exist, transgender youth will hear you and some of them will believe you.”
Biden was introduced by transgender activist Ashton Mota, a 16-year-old black Afro-Latino high school student from Massachusetts who revealed he was born female but now used “he/him” pronouns.
“This means that while I was assigned female at birth, I’ve always known in my heart that I’m the young man standing before you today,” she said.