President Joe Biden declared on Friday that pride had returned to the White House as he marked the month that celebrates LGBTQ+ rights.
'Pride is back at the White House,' he said. 'Pride Month stands for love, you know, being able to love yourself, love whomever you love.'
Biden marked the occasion by designating the site of the Pulse Nightclub shooting a national memorial and named a special envoy for LGBTQ+ rights around the world.
Biden was joined by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, the first openly gay Senate-confirmed Cabinet secretary. Jill Biden and Chasten Buttigieg also were on hand.
The president was introduced by Ashton Mota, an openly transgender teenager from Massachusetts.
'It takes courage to be true to your authentic self and face the face of the kinds of discrimination,' Biden said of transgender youth.
'We know more than half of transgender youth to seriously consider suicide,' he said, encouraging people to support them.
President Joe Biden and LGBTQ advocate Ashton Mota of the GenderCool Project walk into the rainbow-lit hallway of the White House
Ashton Mota, an openly transgender youth, hugs President Biden
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg shared his story of coming out as a young man
First lady Jill Biden and Chasten Buttigieg sat together in the front row as the president spoke
Buttigieg shared his story of coming out as young man and issued a warning about the treatment of transgender teenagers, a particularly vulnerable group.
'There's an especially dangerous political strategy arising in some states right now, and some politicians try to gain advantage by picking on transgender kids, some of the most vulnerable people in this country,' he said.
'There are consequences when politicians and other leaders, respond to transgender people search for equality and belonging by basically denying that someone can be transgender at all,' he noted. 'Telling America that transgender people do not exist, amounts to telling very real transgender people that they should not exist.'
He warned them to be careful of the weight of their words.
'You need to understand that if you go around signaling to people that transgender youth shouldn't exist, transgender youth will hear you. And some of them will believe you. So this is a matter of life and death,' Buttigieg said.
On Friday, Biden appointed Jessica Stern to be the U.S. Special Envoy to Advance the Human Rights of LGBTQI+ Persons at the Department of State.
Stern will focus on making sure U.S. diplomacy promotes and protects the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons around the world. She is the executive director of OutRight Action International, an organization aimed at ensuring human rights for LGBTQ people both domestically and abroad.
President Biden will appoint Jessica Stern to be the U.S. Special Envoy to
