Washington Blade

With the current administration winding down — despite continued bluster and refusal to concede from President Trump — LGBTQ hopefuls shut out from the U.S. government for four years are eager to reemerge amid high hopes for change when President-elect Joe Biden takes office.

The process of finding those appointees is underway. Last week, the Biden team sent out interest surveys to LGBTQ people who are looking to join the Biden administration and signed up with the Presidential Appointments Project, an initiative spearheaded by the LGBTQ Victory Institute to get LGBTQ people into the federal government.

Ruben Gonzales, vice president of the LGBTQ Victory Institute, affirmed in an interview with the Washington Blade on Tuesday the Biden team sent emails to potential LGBTQ applicants.

“Victory has received over 600 resumes from LGBTQ people from across the country who are interested in serving at all levels of government,” Gonzales added. “We’ve shared a number of resumes that we are really excited about. And we know that a lot of those folks have heard back from the administration and have been asked to submit information. So really excited that they’ve been recognized as folks that can play a role in the administration.”

The Biden team will have to make a lot of appointments from the LGBTQ community if it wants to catch up to President Obama, who made a record number of more than 250 LGBTQ appointees over his eight years in the White House, according to the LGBTQ Victory Institute.

But the Victory Institute has specific requests in mind for Biden: the nomination of the first Senate-confirmed openly LGBTQ Cabinet member; the nomination an openly LGBTQ U.S. Supreme Court justice for the first time; and appoint openly lesbian ambassadors, LGBTQ ambassadors of color, and transgender ambassadors for the first time.

Gonzales said he’s hoping at least one part of those requests pertaining to LGBTQ ambassadors in the Biden administration would “happen in the first quarter of 2021” after the Cabinet officials are named.

Will Biden make it happen? The comprehensive LGBTQ plan he issued during his campaign signaled his intent to appoint LGBTQ people to the U.S. government, as does guidance from the Biden transition team on building an administration that looks like America.

One LGBTQ appointment in particular was named just this week: On Tuesday, the Biden team announced Anthony Bernal, who’s gay and served as deputy campaign manager and chief of staff to Jill Biden, would join the East Wing as senior adviser to the first lady.

An adviser to the Biden family for more than decade, Bernal was chief of staff in the Office of Dr. Biden from 2017 to 2019 and served in the Obama administration in multiple roles, including as director of scheduling and trip director for Dr. Biden, and as special assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff to Dr. Biden, according to his bio.

Gonzales said Bernal is the first LGBTQ person named as a Biden appointment and said he’d be a welcome addition to the next administration.

“We feel really good that there’s an LGBTQ person who’s been active in the community already a part of that list, and we think it’s going to continue to make history,” Gonzales said.

A number of LGBTQ appointees have also been named to the Biden landing teams to review policy at specific federal agencies, including former U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commissioner Chai Feldblum; Jeff Marootian, director of the D.C. Department of Transportation; and Shawn Skelly, a transgender veteran who’s also an alumnus from the Obama administration.

Feldblum, who as an EEOC commissioner successfully pushed the agency to begin taking up cases of anti-LGBTQ employment discrimination as a form of sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, comes to the role after the Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton.

LGBTQ advocates are pushing for the Biden administration to implement that ruling, which reached the same conclusion anti-LGBTQ discrimination is a form of sex discrimination, across federal agencies in implementation of all laws against sex discrimination, including laws in housing, credit, health care and education.

Skelly, who during the Obama administration was special assistant to the under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology, and logistics and coordinator of the Department of Defense Warfighter Senior Integration Group, comes to the position amid expectations Biden will undo Trump’s transgender military ban expeditiously.

But let’s face it: The big question is what job the Biden team will offer Pete Buttigieg. After making history as a gay candidate in the Democratic presidential primary, Buttigieg made an early exit and endorsed Biden, putting himself in a good spot for a high-level appointment. The media outlet Axios reported after the election Buttigieg was “near-certain” to win a Cabinet role in the Biden administration.

Talk has ensued in Washington circles that Buttigieg could get the nod as chief for the Department of Veterans Affairs, which would build off his experience as an Afghanistan war veteran. The nomination would also set him up to become the first Senate-confirmed openly LGBTQ Cabinet member in U.S. history.

Buttigieg, however, has also reportedly been in contention for the role of U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, which would give the multilingual former presidential hopeful a boost to his foreign policy credentials in a future second attempt to win the White House. 

Despite his ambitions for the role, Buttigieg lacks the foreign policy background that would normally be found in that high-level appointment. According to Politico, another potential pick as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations is Wendy Sherman, who helped lead nuclear negotiations with Iran and served as the State Department’s under secretary for political affairs during the Obama administration

Gonzales said whether Buttigieg gets an appointment as secretary of Veterans Affairs or U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, he would “expect that he will have a prominent role” based on the former South Bend mayor’s work for the Biden team.

“We think very highly of Mayor Buttigieg and his experience,” Gonzales said. “I think he’d be well suited for either of those roles. I think he has served with President-elect Biden’s campaign very well as a spokesperson, really representing [not just] himself but our community very well throughout his campaign and throughout the campaign for president. So I think he’s well positioned.”

But as more Americans are growing impatient with Trump for refusing to concede the election — which is holding up the transition process allowing Biden to have access to federal health data to begin implementation of his coronavirus plan — the same holds true for potential appointees.

Asked about any meetings or talks with the transition team about LGBTQ appointments, Gonzales said that team “isn’t officially working” because the General Services Administration hasn’t been able to sign off on it.

“We’re very heartened by the number of LGBTQ people who were named to landing teams for specific agencies,” Gonzales said. “We’re also excited by the number of LGBTQ people who are working on the transition. But there has not been a federal meeting, because there’s not a formal sort of transition team.”

Asked if Trump refusing to back down has delayed the presidential appointment process, Gonzales said “it seems like it is” because Trump’s intransigence has “delayed everything.”

“That concession by the president, and the move by [General Services Administration] just kind of triggers a lot of functions to start happening,” Gonzales said. “And so, I think everyone’s waiting for that to happen. They’re doing as much as they can, obviously prioritizing a lot of positions already, but haven’t been able to sort of really dig into some of the agency pieces.”

The GSA didn’t respond Wednesday to the Washington Blade’s request to comment on when Emily Murphy, head of the agency, would begin to certify the election to allow the transition to move forward.

Does the Victory Institute want Trump to concede? Gonzales gave a veiled signal that was the case.

“We think that there’s a lot of work to be done on the transition, and the sooner that we can all get to work, the better for our country,” Gonzales said.

Despite the anti-LGBTQ record Trump built over his tenure, defenders will point out he had significant gay appointments, most prominently Richard Grenell, who before becoming the face of LGBTQ outreach for the 2020 Trump campaign was acting director of national intelligence, making him the first openly gay Cabinet member, though he was not Senate confirmed.

Grenell, also former U.S. ambassador to Germany, was one of at least five openly gay ambassadors nominated by Trump and confirmed by the Senate during his administration. Trump named Circuit Judge Patrick Bumatay to the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, making him the highest-ranking openly gay federal judge.

Other notable appointments were R. Clarke Cooper, assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs; John Ring, chair of the National Labor Relations Board; and Tyler Goodspeed, acting chair of the Council of Economic Advisors.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere touted the LGBTQ appointments under the Trump administration in response to a request for comment from the Washington Blade.

“President Trump has hired and promoted LGBT Americans to the highest levels of government, including positions at the White House, agencies, judgeships, ambassadorships and appointed the first openly gay Cabinet member in our history,” Deere said. “While an individual’s sexual identity is not a qualification, the president’s appointments of LGBT people are significant and historic.”

Gonzales didn’t dispute the importance of those LGBTQ appointments, but said the Presidential Appointments Project “had a drastic reduction” in the number of LGBTQ hopefuls who wanted a position in the U.S. government with Trump in the White House.

Although Gonzales said most LGBTQ appointees “support full equality for LGBTQ people and therefore are best informed and best positioned to advance equality for our community,” he made an exception for Grenell, who has publicly criticized the LGBTQ Victory Fund for not helping Republican LGBTQ candidates.

“Ric Grenell excludes trans people from his vision of equality and cheerleads Trump’s record on LGBTQ rights despite an administration-wide effort to erode protections for our community and especially trans people,” Gonzales said. “Not much to celebrate, unfortunately.”

Grenell didn’t respond Wednesday to a request to respond to Gonzales for this article or weigh in on LGBTQ appointees in federal government.

With LGBTQ advocacy organizations eager for change in the new Biden administration, the Human Rights Campaign has laid out proposals lighting the way forward with a detailed guide on administrative actions to reverse President Trump’s anti-LGBTQ policies.

The 24-page document, titled the “Blueprint for Positive Change 2020,” lays out guidance across all federal agencies to reverse the anti-LGBTQ policies under the Trump administration and advance equality after President-elect Biden takes office.

Alphonso David, president of the Human Rights Campaign, pointed out in an interview with the Washington Blade on Wednesday his organization prepares a blueprint at the start of a new administration, but this time at the end of the Trump era things are different.

“These are steps that the Biden-Harris administration can take affirmatively and administratively to protect LGBTQ people and really not only put us back in positions that we were in before the Trump administration, but advance us forward toward equality,” David said.

The Human Rights Campaign, David said, has been identifying policies for the past year under the Trump administration in anticipation of producing the blueprint and having the chance to reverse them if President Trump was voted out of office.

Key among the recommendations is implementation of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, which found anti-LGBTQ discrimination is a form of sex discrimination, thus illegal under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

David pointed out the Trump administration has never implemented the decision even though it was handed down in June.

“Bostock is not just simply about employment protections,” David said. “The court clearly says if federal statutes prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, that should also include sexual orientation and gender identity. So we have many federal statutes, housing, credit, other federal statutes that would provide protections to LGBTQ people, so a full implementation of Bostock would take us steps forward in terms of protecting LGBTQ rights and advancing those rights.”

Also highlighted in the blueprint is reversing the transgender military ban, establishing an interagency working group to address anti-transgender violence, appointing openly LGBTQ federal officials, and uniform standards in federal surveys for data collection on the LGBTQ community.

The Human Rights Campaign isn’t the only LGBTQ advocacy group putting out guidelines for the new administration to advance LGBTQ rights. 

Other LGBTQ organizations — including the Movement Advancement Project, the Center for American Progress, the Equality Federation, GLSEN, the National Center for Transgender Equality, and the LGBTQ elder group SAGE — issued their own document with 10 priorities for the Biden administration. Much of the guidance is similar, including implementation of the Bostock decision, reversing the transgender military ban and restoring non-discrimination regulations for LGBTQ people.

David said he has been in conversations with the Biden transition team and provided a copy of the blueprint to them and the reaction was “positive.”

“They have been very hospitable, very open to receiving the blueprints, and and very accommodating in discussing any concerns or questions that may arise as we go through the process,” David said.

Some of the policy changes, David said, could be done immediately, such as implementation of the Bostock ruling, but others would take additional time because of federal law governing regulations.

As the U.S. Supreme Court determined earlier this year in its decision on DACA-protections for undocumented immigrants, the Administrative Procedure Act prohibits any administration from making policy changes too quickly or without going through an open process allowing for due consideration.

David identified the Department of Health & Human Services withdrawing an Obama-era rule interpreting Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in health care, to apply to cases of anti-trans discrimination as one Trump-era measure that would take some time to reverse.

“We certainly suspect that anti-equality forces will be attacking the Biden-Harris administration in their attempts to protect LGBTQ people,” David said. “So we want to make sure that we take all of the steps necessary to implement regulations that would be appropriate in protecting LGBTQ people, so that’s one example of where we would have to go through a process.”

Reggie Greer, the Biden-Harris campaign’s LGBTQ+ engagement director, spoke generally about Biden’s support for LGBTQ rights in response to a request to comment on the blueprint.

“President-elect Biden has dedicated his life to advancing LGBTQ+ rights and will work to usher in the most pro-equality administration in history,” Greer said.

Biden as a presidential candidate, however, trumpeted his support for LGBTQ rights and issued a detailed policy plan on the way forward on LGBTQ issues that encompass many of the same plans.

But what about the Equality Act?

The new blueprint is for administrative actions, so it doesn’t take into consideration legislative items such as the Equality Act to advance LGBTQ rights, which Biden has said would be his No. 1 legislative priority and signed within 100 days of his administration.

The failure of Democrats to capture to the U.S. Senate, however, has thrown a wrench into the anticipated majority Biden would have for his legislative agenda. 

The Associated Press Wednesday morning called the Senate race in Alaska in favor of Republican Dan Sullivan. The Senate would be at most split 50-50, and that would be the case only if Democrats are successful in both races in the upcoming run-off elections in Georgia.

Despite the lack of a Democratic majority in the Senate, David said he sees opportunities to move the Equality Act.

“If we’re not able to obtain full majority in the Senate, we will expect to work both with the House of Representatives and the Biden-Harris administration to push through with the Equality Act,” David said. “You know, there are certain pieces of legislation that were passed during the Obama administration, with a Republican Senate that were progressive, pro-equality pieces of legislation, so we anticipate that we can do the same here.”

David conceded challenges would exist in moving forward with the Equality Act, but pointed out the president-elect has a record of reaching out across the aisle.

“Even if we’re not able to control the Senate, the Senate majority will need certain things from the Biden-Harris administration just in order to make sure governments function, and Joe Biden has always been someone who reaches across the aisle to make sure he can get things done,” David said. “So we anticipate working with them, and working with President Biden to make sure that we get through pro-equality legislation.”

The Biden transition team has named transgender veteran Shawn Skelly as a member of its agency review team as LGBTQ advocates are pushing the new administration to undo President Trump’s transgender military ban expeditiously.

Skelly, who co-founded Out in National Security, an affinity group for LGBTQ national security professionals, and served on active duty in the U.S. Navy for 20 years as a naval flight officer, is named a member of the agency review team for the Defense Department in a news statement that went out Wednesday.

Ted Kaufman, a former U.S. senator and co-chair of the Biden-Harris transition team, said in a statement members of the agency review team would rigorously evaluate operations of federal agencies as Joe Biden prepares to take office as president.

“Our nation is grappling with a pandemic, an economic crisis, urgent calls for racial justice, and the existential threat of climate change,” Kaufman said. “We must be prepared for a seamless transfer of knowledge to the incoming administration to protect our interests at home and abroad. The agency review process will help lay the foundation for meeting these challenges on Day 1. The work of the agency review teams is critical for protecting national security, addressing the ongoing public health crisis, and demonstrating that America remains the beacon of democracy for the world.”

In 2013, Skelly joined the Obama administration and was the first transgender veteran to serve as presidential appointee, according to her bio. 

Skelly was special assistant to the under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology, and logistics; coordinator of the Department of Defense Warfighter Senior Integration Group. Skelly also served as director of the Office of the Executive Secretariat at the Department of Transportation during the Obama-Biden administration.

LGBTQ advocates are pressing Biden to reverse Trump’s ban on transgender military service in short order upon taking office as litigation against the policy continues in federal courts. According to a memo from the San Francisco-based Palm Center, Biden could lift the ban against transgender service members in as little as 30 days.

Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee guided through President Trump’s nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, said Saturday her confirmation demonstrates women in America can achieve anything — provided they follow a “traditional family structure.”

“You know what I like about Judge Barrett? She’s got everything!” Graham told a crowd in Conway, S.C. “She’s just not wicked smart, she’s incredibly good. She embraces her faith. I want every young woman to know there’s a place for you in America if you are pro-life, if you embrace your religion and you follow traditional family structure. That you can go anywhere, young lady.”

In addition to suggesting women who are support abortion rights and have no faith cannot achieve success in the United States, Graham indicated they must follow a “traditional family structure,” which has been a longtime dog whistle used by social conservatives to denigrate and exclude single people and LGBTQ families.

Graham, who is himself single, has been dogged by rumors about his sexual orientation and taunts on social media of being “Lady G,” although he has consistently denied being gay.

The remarks comes weeks after Graham was widely criticized for saying that Black Americans and immigrants can “go anywhere” in South Carolina, but they “just need to be conservative, not liberal.”

Graham is in the middle of a serious political challenge from Democratic candidate Jaime Harrison, who in some polls neck-and-neck — if not ahead — of the Republican incumbent. Harrison has raised a stunning $57 million in the third quarter of 2020 in his effort to oust Graham from the Senate.

Meanwhile, Barrett’s confirmation to the Supreme Court, which solidified a 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court, has raised fears LGBTQ rights, including same-sex marriage, are in jeopardy with her on the bench. Progressive advocates have been calling for expanding the judiciary with Democratic picks if Joe Biden is elected, otherwise known as packing the court.

The Washington Blade has placed a request in Graham’s office seeking comment on whether he stands by his comment on the “traditional family structure.”