President Biden spoke Wednesday in the East Room of the White House at an event to celebrate LGBTQ+ Pride Month. “The message is simple,” he said. “Pride is back at the White House.” Pride may be back, but what about reality? Here are 13 claims from President Biden’s speech. What’s true? What’s false?

Claim 1: “From day one, this has been the most pro-equality administration in history, led by guys like Pete Buttigieg and so many others.”

On January 20, 2021, President Biden issued two executive orders that advanced the LGBT agenda. The first, “on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation,” “requires federal agencies to interpret federal laws that prohibit sex discrimination (including Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972) as also prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity,” according to FRC Action. The second, “on Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government,” according to FRC Action, “directs the executive branch to pursue comprehensive policies that elevate the LGBT agenda.” The Biden administration has consistently reversed Trump-era protections for women, children, and religious freedom where they conflicted with the LGBT agenda, instead reinstating and expanding Obama-era policies. For a full list of relevant actions by the Biden administration, click here.

By “pro-equality,” President Biden meant “pro-LGBT.” Given that meaning, Biden’s claim about his administration is: TRUE

Claim 2: “I think we have more LGBTQ+ people than any administration or every administration combined.”

The Biden administration advertises its LGBT personnel as a badge of pride. In his 2021 Pride Month proclamation, Biden claimed “nearly 14% of my 1,500 agency appointees identify as LGBTQ+,” which comes out to nearly 210. The pro-LGBT Victory Institute gives a similar figure, listing more than 200 Biden appointees who identify as LGBT. That percentage is twice as high as the percentage of Americans who identify as LGBT (7.1%), according to a Gallup survey released in February 2022.

Finding an apples-to-apples comparison is challenging because previous administrations did not advertise the LGBT personnel to the same extent. Given that only 14% of people who identify as LGBT voted for Donald Trump in 2016, it is unlikely his administration contained more, although there were several, including the first cabinet-level official. In 2010, an estimated “more than 150” people who identified as LGBT were serving in the Obama administration, breaking the Clinton administration’s previous record of “nearly 140.” Before President Clinton, under a 1953 executive order, “sexual perversion” disqualified individuals from federal service.

The Biden administration has more LGBT-identifying appointees than “any administration,” but not “every administration combined.” Therefore, his claim is: PARTLY TRUE….

The above comes from a June 18 posting titled “13 Claims President Biden Mad at the White House Pride Event” on WashingtonStand.com.