The DC Center will be closed on Wednesday January 20,2021 in observance of Inauguration Day , and will reopen for continued remote services on Thursday January 21,2021. If you are intending on attending, please be safe and practice social distancing.
The team wishes the new administration well. We hope the Biden administration will take up some of the recommendations made by our fellow LGBTQ and allied organizations, for example:
- Create a federal plan intended to address nationwide violence against transgender individuals, especially Black trans women; protect LGBTQ individuals from discrimination; remove the ban on transgender service members; release individuals held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in detention centers, including people living with HIV and trans asylum seekers; and create goals to end the HIV epidemic and HIV-related health disparities in the United States by 2025.
- Require the Federal Bureau of Prisons to house individuals in accordance with their gender identity; restore the nation’s role in promoting human rights internationally; order the Department of Justice to evaluate and make changes to its litigation efforts regarding the Affordable Care Act, the Title IX provisions on sex discrimination in publicly funded schools, and other areas; establish an LGBTQ equity policy council; and direct federal agencies to protect LGBTQ youth, queer seniors, and transgender people across housing, healthcare, and education.
- Try to pass the Equality Act, a measure establishing comprehensive LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections; the Do No Harm Act, which would refocus the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to prevent it from being used to discriminate against others; and the Every Child Deserves a Family Act, which would address discrimination against LGBTQ families and youth in foster care.
- Passage of the GLOBE Act, a bill that would embed LGBTQ issues into American foreign policy and diplomacy; the Ruthie and Connie LGBT Elder Americans Act (named for former New Yorkers Ruthie Berman and the late Connie Kurtz, who retired to Florida years ago), designating queer seniors as a population in need of greater resources under the Older Americans Act; and the Safe Schools Improvement Act, which would require schools to implement anti-bullying and anti-harassment policies on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, and religion.
- Remove the ban on sexually active gay and bisexual from donating blood (the FDA offers a vague explanation regarding how that policy impacts transgender and non-binary individuals).
- Ban conversion therapy, bolster federal data collection surrounding sexual orientation and gender identity, unravel the slew of anti-LGBTQ actions taken by the Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services, and expand outreach to homeless LGBTQ veterans, among other recommendations.