To mark Pride Month, President Joe Biden's re-election campaign will partner with LGBTQ organizations on a major paid media campaign.
Team Biden-Harris announced investments in LGBTQ digital and print media nationally and in battleground states. That includes the Human Rights Campaign spending upward of $15 million in paid media.
That will be accompanied by high-profile participation in Pride parades and events. Vice President Kamala Harris participated in a Pride Month kickoff in Los Angeles, in her home state of California, while First Lady Jill Biden participated in a Pittsburgh Pride parade in Pennsylvania.
The campaign touted Biden's record as the "most pro-equality president in American history," in contrast to former President Donald Trump's history of abridging LGBTQ rights.
"Thanks to the tireless work of LGBTQ+ organizers, our community has made enormous strides to equality," said Sam Alleman, the Biden campaign's National LGBTQ+ Engagement Director, "and thanks to President Biden, we haven't just done undone the harm imposed by Trump, we've taken more action than ever to expand rights and freedoms for every single American."
In a release to media, the Biden-Harris campaign stressed that it will treat LGBTQ voters as a potentially critical voting block in the November election. The campaign said 8% of the U.S. population now identifies as LGBTQ, including more than 20% of those ages 18 to 25.
While polling varies on proportions, that's in line with data released this year by Pew Research Center and the Public Religion Research Institute.
Perhaps more to the point for the campaign, more than 39% of voters listed LGBTQ equality as a "make-or-break" issue, according to HRC PAC polling released in October.
The Biden campaign intends to make the administration's support of LGBTQ rights central to its campaign, just as a number of Republican-controlled states, including Florida, have targeted LGBTQ rights, particularly for youth.
To the consternation of many Republican Governors, the Biden administration has expanded transgender protections for students and reversed policies like a ban on transgender troops.
"All of that progress is on the line this November. Donald Trump and his MAGA allies attack Americans' rights and freedoms — and have all but promised to go after the right to love who you love, ban books and restrict surrogacy," Alleman said.
"This Pride Month, our community will organize, mobilize, and activate around the stakes of this election — and real leaders like President Biden and Vice President Harris that know the United States of America is stronger because of our diversity."
He said campaign surrogates and officials will prioritize media interviews in battleground states about Biden's record expanding LGBTQ rights and plans by Republicans to attack those rights if Trump is elected President this Fall.
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