First lady highlights attacks on LGBTQ rights at HRC’s Los Angeles dinner
In her remarks Saturday 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 Friday 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.
