- The Washington Times - Friday, June 25, 2021

President Biden will appoint a New York-based expert on human rights violations against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons as a special envoy to the State Department as part of Friday’s efforts to mark Pride Month at the White House.

Mr. Biden said Jessica Stern, executive director of OutRight Action International, will play a role that is “critical to ensuring that U.S. diplomacy and foreign assistance promote and protect the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons around the world.”

“At a time when the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons are increasingly threatened in all regions of the world, the special envoy will bring together like-minded governments, civil society organizations, corporations and international organizations to uphold dignity and equality for all,” Mr. Biden said, using an acronym that includes “intersex” and “queer” or “questioning.”

Mr. Biden appointed the envoy as part of Friday events to mark Pride Month.

He will sign a bill that designates the site of the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando as the “National Pulse Memorial.”

The president will also gather advocates in the East Room to discuss legislation that broadens civil rights protections for LGBT persons and criticize state bills around the country involving the LGBT community — a likely allusion to bills that GOP leaders say are necessary to protect girls’ sports from unfair competition from athletes who are biologically male.

Mr. Biden will have Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who is openly gay, offer remarks as the administration tries to burnish its credentials with the LGBT community.

The president signed an executive order on the first day of his presidency to combat LGBT discrimination and rescinded a ban on openly transgender members from serving in the military.

Mr. Biden’s stance is part of a broader departure from his predecessor, who imposed the military ban and grated LGBT advocates by rescinding Obama-era regulations that said laws barring health care discrimination on the basis of sex should include gender identity.

Trump officials rewrote them, saying “when Congress prohibited sex discrimination, it did so according to the plain meaning of the term.”

However, then-President Trump made history by appointing the first openly gay Cabinet member — Richard Grenell, as director of national intelligence — although he served in an acting capacity for about three months.

• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.

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