First Lady Dr. Jill Biden. (HRC YouTube screenshot)
In her remarks March 23 to the people attending the Human Rights Campaign’s 2024 Los Angeles Dinner at the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel, First Lady Jill Biden took direct aim at what she labeled as MAGA extremists attempting to instill fear in the LGBTQ community by legislative attacks on the marginalized community’s rights.
Biden, in reference to the federal budget package passed by Congress on March 22 to avert a government shutdown, told the audience:
“Today, this community is under attack. Rights are being stripped away. Freedoms are eroding. More and more state laws are being passed targeting this community. Just last night, we had to fend off more than 50 anti-gay amendments that Republicans tried to force into the government funding bill.”
She added: “These were extreme measures aimed directly at this community — measures that would have limited healthcare, eroded protections for same-sex couples and more. And they served only one purpose: To spread hate and fear.”
Cautioning that history showed that “democracies don’t disappear overnight,” Biden warned, “They disappear slowly. Subtly. Silently. A book ban. A court decision. A ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law. One group of people loses their rights. And then another, and another. Until one morning you wake up — and you no longer live in a democracy.”
The first lady also made mention of Nex Benedict, the 16-year-old transgender Oklahoma high school student whose death last month was ruled a suicide and had garnered national attention:
“Laws and attitudes can lead to devastating consequences — harm that can’t be undone, that leaves parents torn by grief. Parents and grandparents like Sue Benedict — may Nex rest in peace — and the countless others who have lost LGBTQ children to suicide, bullying and hate. Parents who have stood by their kids, loved them, learned from them, but who will never have another tomorrow with them. This is our chapter of history — and it’s up to us how it ends,” she said.
“Yes, the MAGA extremists are seeking to erase these hard-fought gains, trying to unwind all the progress we’ve made. They want us to be afraid,” she stressed.
Biden then assured the audience: “They want to take our victories away, but we won’t let them. Your president won’t let them. I won’t let them. We’re going to fight. And we will win.”
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