While Joe Biden has delivered some results for LGBTQ+ folks and people living with HIV, critical work remains unfinished, according to an analysis examining ‘Year One Of The Biden Administration’ on 10 key tasks by LGBTQ+ organization Lambda Legal.

The Biden Administration has clarified that protections on gender-based discminations apply to LGBTQI+ people and rescinded the military ban against trans people.

But it has yet to end discrimination within the federal government’s own programs and policies, including barriers to gender-affirming healthcare and outdated blood donation policies that discriminate against queer-trans people.

“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,” Sharon McGowan, chief strategy officer and legal director of Lambda Legal, said in a statement.

“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,” McGowan said. “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.”


Here is a summary of the 10 key tasks listed Lambda Legal:

1. Repair the Damage to Courts: The organization calls the Biden Administration to restore fairness and impartiality to the federal judiciary, which the Trump administration has inundated with “right-wing extremists who oppose LGBTQ rights, reproductive rights, and civil rights.”

2. Protect Marriage Equality: With Supreme Court judges appointed by Trump and hostile lower court appointments, marriage equality for LGBTQ+ couples is at risk. Lambda Legal calls for a White House ally who protects marriage equality including the right of bereaved families to access Social Security survivor’s benefits.

3. Stop Giving the ‘License to Discriminate’: The Biden Administration must end the misuse of religion as a “license to discriminate” and asset protections for LGBTQI+ folks in hospitals, shelter homes, foster care and in healthcare settings.

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