Biden announces 2024 bid with LGBTQ-inclusive video

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris formally announced plans to run for reelection on Tuesday, sharing a video on Twitter along with a press release naming members of the campaign leadership team.

As the video displayed images from the Jan. 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol, Biden warned that “MAGA extremists” are “dictating what health care decisions women can make, banning books, and telling people who they can love.”

“That’s why I’m running for reelection,” the president said.

“Because I know America. I know we are good and decent people. And I know we are still a country that believes in honesty and respect, and treating each other with dignity. That we’re a nation where we give hate no safe harbor. And we believe that everyone is equal, and that everyone should be given a fair shot to succeed in this country.”

Senior Biden adviser Julie Chávez Rodríguez was tapped to run the campaign. She was previously White House Director of Intergovernmental Affairs and deputy campaign manager for Biden and Harris in the 2020 race.

A granddaughter of labor rights icon Cesar Chávez and longtime Democratic aide, Chávez is the highest-ranking Latina serving in the White House.

Quentin Fulks, who just ran the first successful Democratic Senatorial reelection bid in Georgia in more than 30 years with U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.)’s 2022 midterm victory, will serve as principal deputy campaign manager for the 2024 Biden-Harris ticket.

Formerly deputy campaign manager and senior political adviser to Democratic Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Fulks has worked for organizations like the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and EMILY’s List.

Former Assistant White House Press Secretary Kevin Muñoz, who oversaw the administration’s messaging for key public health issues like COVID-19, will lead media relations for the campaign. He previously served on Biden’s transition team and 2020 campaign.

National co-chairs for the campaign include U.S. Reps. Lisa Blunt-Rochester (D-Del.), Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Veronica Es- cobar (D-Texas), along with U.S. Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and producer/media mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg, a top Democratic donor.

GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis issued a statement in response to the announcement: “LGBTQ Americans’ safety is under attack in statehouses across the country, as extremists on the U.S. Supreme Court, federal judiciary and gerrymandered states continue to strip human rights vital to everyone’s future,” she said.

“Essential health care, book bans, and access to society as our authentic selves should never be up for debate but they are on the ballot in 2024. GLAAD will once again be tracking the records and rhetoric of candidates in order to educate LGBTQ people and our allies as they head to the polls.”

On Monday, Biden criticized elected Republican officials for the increasingly widespread practice of banning books from America’s schools and libraries in prepared remarks delivered from the White House.

Addressing an audience gathered in the Rose Garden for the Council of Chief State School Officers’ Teachers of the Year event, the president said, “Empty shelves don’t help kids learn very much,” adding, “I’ve never met a parent who wants a politician dictating what their kid can learn, and what they can think, or who they can be.”

By framing these policies as government overreach, Biden co-opted and repurposed the “parental rights” language commonly used by conservatives advocating for book bans.

For example, right-wing activists often argue that requiring schools and libraries to allow interested parties to review the materials made available to minors and lodge complaints with anything they may find objectionable rightfully restores the rights of parents to exercise more control over how their children are educated.

According to PEN America, however, the first half of the 2022-2023 school year has seen at least 1,477 attempts to ban 874 individual book titles, disproportionately targeting materials that include LGBTQ characters or themes or those that ad- dress issues of racial justice.

Explicitly targeting these materials for censorship are elected officials like Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and his conservative allies in the state legislature, who last week expanded the controversial “Don’t Say Gay” law (officially known as the Parental Rights in Education Act), which Biden has called “hateful.”

Critics have long argued the law, which will now cover all grade levels in Florida’s public schools, uses overly broad language with the specter of many different enforcement mechanisms to create a chilling effect designed to discourage teachers and staff from offering affirming messages to LGBTQ students or from serving openly if they themselves are LGBTQ.

“By opening the door to arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement against speech that favors or promotes the inclusion and acceptance of LGBTQ+ individuals,” the American Bar Association wrote, “the law arguably runs afoul of the First Amendment’s stringent prohibition on viewpoint discrimination and imposes an unconstitutional chilling effect on disfavored speech.”

CHRISTOPHER KANE

White House welcomes ‘L Word’ cast

Flanked by four guests from Showtime’s “The L Word,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre began Tuesday’s briefing with comments commemorating Lesbian Visibility Week and addressing issues related to LGBTQ representation.

The first out LGBTQ press secretary expressed how important it is for “so many people in the community” to “see diverse narratives that reflect their lives,” recalling how she had “felt alone and often invisible” when growing up as “a young queer woman of color” in New York.

Jean-Pierre underlined the importance of this work in the current moment “as the LGBTQIA+ community continues to face relentless attacks.”

From “book bans to ‘Don’t Say Gay’ laws, MAGA extremists want to roll back the visibility and progress we fought so hard to achieve,” she said.

Hours earlier, in his long awaited video announcing plans to run for re-election in 2024, President Joe Biden used similar language — warning voters that “MAGA extremists” are “dictating what health care decisions women can make, banning books and telling people who they can love.”

After addressing LGBTQ Americans to repeat the promise that the Biden-Harris administration “has their back,” JeanPierre thanked the guests for their work on “The L Word” and turned the podium over for remarks by the show’s co-creator, writer and executive producer, Ilene Chaiken.

“We learned by the beautiful response to our show how profoundly important it is for people, particularly young people, to see themselves reflected in our entertainment culture and to know that they’re embraced, valued and not alone,” Chaiken said.

“We’re galvanized by President Biden’s leadership, from strengthening non-discrimination protections for our communities to signing the Respect for Marriage Act into law to supporting LGBTQI kids and their parents,” she said.

Calling Biden “the most pro-LGBTQI president in our history,” Chaiken concluded her comments by thanking him “for giving us the first out lesbian press secretary, who represents hope and possibility for so many people.”

CHRISTOPHER KANE