WASHINGTON — Tonight’s primary contests across 15 states and the US Territory of American Samoa inch the nation closer to a general election rematch between President Joe Biden and twice-impeached, four-times indicted former President Donald Trump. That general election clash will mark the most critical in US history, as democracy itself hangs in the balance.

“Dr. Maya Angelou said it best: ‘When people show you who they are, believe them. The first time.’,” said Kelley Robinson, Human Rights Campaign President. “We do not have to guess how these two men would be as President; we know. The Biden-Harris Administration has been the most pro-equality in American history, speaking out against anti-LGBTQ+ attacks across the country, taking actions to protect LGBTQ+ people from discrimination, and signing into law the Respect for Marriage Act. And on the other hand, you have Donald Trump, who banned transgender people from serving in the military, fanned the flames of anti-LGBTQ+ hate, attempted to decimate democracy itself, and has promised to go even further should he get the chance. This country’s future hangs in the balance, and the choice could not be clearer. It’s up to all of us to defend freedom, safeguard democracy, and send a message that equality wins. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have beaten Donald Trump before and it’s time to help them do it again.”

The Human Rights Campaign PAC was an early endorser of the Biden-Harris ticket, pledging to energize and engage over 62 million Equality Voters, those for whom LGBTQ+ equality is a make-or-break issue, nationwide. Those voters, who represented 39% of the electorate in 2022, are motivated to vote for pro-equality candidates and see the Human Rights Campaign as a crucial messenger on the issue.

Ahead of tonight’s results, here a few key reminders of the stark contrast between the Biden-Harris Administration and that of the criminally-indicted former President.

Biden-Harris Landmark Pro-Equality Record

• In December 2022, President Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act into law, which guaranteed the federal rights, benefits and obligations of marriages in the federal code for same-sex couples; repealed the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA); and affirmed that public acts, records and proceedings should be recognized by all states. It also codified the same rights for interracial couples.

• The Administration has initiated executive actions and rulemakings in a host of areas including federal employment protections for LGBTQ+ people, military service protections for transgender people, expanding mental health resources for LGBTQ+ youth, ensuring enforcement of LGBTQ+ students’ rights under Title IX, and restoring non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people in healthcare.

• The Biden-Harris Administration updated the guidelines surrounding blood donation by gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM), ending the blanket ban and moving to a science-based, individualized assessment approach to determine who should be allowed to donate blood.

• The Administration finalized a rule to revise a Trump-era policy that dismantled meaningful protections for beneficiaries of federally funded health care programs and stripped away basic notice requirements designed to ensure that beneficiaries know their rights to be free from discrimination and their right to an alternative, non-religious provider. In a major win for equality, the new rule restores those protections and requirements.

• The Administration proposed a rule that will direct state and tribal agencies across the country to fully implement existing protections for LGBTQ+ youth in foster care.

• President Biden has nominated 11 openly LGBTQ+ people to be federal judges, tying the 8 year record of President Obama.

• President Biden nominated the first openly gay cabinet secretary Pete Buttigieg to be Secretary of Transportation and the first Senate-confirmed openly transgender official Admiral Rachel Levin to be Assistant Secretary for Health.

• More than 200 openly LGBTQ+ people have been appointed in the Biden administration, according to the Victory Institute, which they call the "most in history at this point in any administration."

• A more extensive list can be found here.

Trump’s Timeline of Hate

• At a 2023 rally for the anti-LGBTQ+ hate group Moms For Liberty, Trump promised to defund hospitals and health care providers who offer best practice, necessary gender-affirming care to transgender youth and called for Congress to pass a bill banning that care.

• In his campaign kickoff remarks, Trump committed to reinstating the deeply unpopular ban on transgender people serving in the US military that he installed during his first term.

• As President, Donald Trump issued an executive order granting then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions discretion to create a License to Discriminate across federal agencies.

• The Trump Administration eliminated LGBTQ+ data collection from the US Census.

• In 2017, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders made the startling admission that Trump agreed with the position articulated before the Supreme Court by his solicitor general, Noel Francisco, that businesses should be allowed to hang signs that say they won’t serve LGBTQ+ customers.

• In 2018, the Trump Administration announced that it would refuse to respond to civil rights complaints filed by transgender students who are barred from using bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity.

• The Trump Administration publicly opposed the Equality Act, which would extend nondiscrimination protections to the LGBTQ+ community and others.

• As 2019 National Adoption Month began, the Trump Administration issued a federal regulation stripping away nondiscrimination protections and permitting the Department of Health and Human Services’ grant recipients - notably adoption and foster care agencies - to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people and still receive federal funding.

• Trump nominated multiple anti-LGBTQ+, anti-abortion extremists for lifelong appointments to the US Supreme Court. Those eventual appointments led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the decimation of protection for abortion rights.

• A more extensive timeline of hate can be found here.

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