US: Biden talked a big game on LGBTQ rights. Here's what his agenda may look like.

By Jeff Taylor

Just a week after Election Day, President-elect Joe Biden is doubling down on promises made to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer Americans during his campaign and signaling his intent to reverse course from the Trump administration, which was marked by several rollbacks in LGBTQ rights.

“The president-elect and the vice president-elect put together the most comprehensive plan to advance equality here at home and abroad ever put forth by a presidential ticket, and as a result it lays out a pretty strong blueprint on what the incoming administration can do,” Reggie Greer, the Biden team’s LGBTQ engagement director, told NBC News.

That ambitious platform includes pledges to enact the Equality Act, reinstate Obama-era guidelines preventing anti-LGBTQ discrimination in areas like federal contracts, fight against broad carve-outs in antidiscrimination law on the basis of religious beliefs, end the transgender military ban, and eliminate LGBTQ youth homelessness.

Biden has also set a goal of ending the HIV epidemic — which disproportionately affects gay and bisexual men as well as transgender women — by 2025, five years ahead of the goal set by President Donald Trump during his State of the Union address this year. Read more via NBC


WEEK #1: 10 WAYS PRESIDENT BIDEN CAN SUPPORT LGBTQ PEOPLE

The new Biden administration presents many opportunities for rebuilding and expanding our nation’s commitment to equality, including for LGBTQ people and their families. The work ahead is plentiful and much of it will require collaborative and working in coalitions, legislative action, and a recommitment to values of inclusion, diversity, and nondiscrimination at all levels of the government. LGBTQ people, along with too many others, have been under attack from the federal government for the last four years. For the first week of the Biden administration, here are 10 actions to immediately start the work to ensure LGBTQ people and their families can work hard, care for their families, be safe in the communities in which they live, and be protected from discrimination. Read more