Hello friend,

We are less than a week into a Biden presidency, and I am delighted to share that we have even more news to celebrate. Today, the Biden-Harris administration announced its plans to reverse the discriminatory ban on transgender military service.

For years, brave transgender patriots were blocked from service simply because of who they are. With thousands of transgender members of the U.S. military, the Department of Defense (DOD) is also the largest employer of transgender people in America. This ban has inexcusably harmed the transgender community, while significantly impacting our military readiness and our transgender service members risking their lives around the world – sometimes in combat zones.

But today, thanks to President Joe Biden, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and pro-equality voters across America, the process begins to eliminate an arbitrary and discriminatory executive action that has not only harmed transgender service members but our entire military. Soon enough, our military will again value readiness over bias, and qualifications over discrimination.

We want to thank President Biden and his administration for reversing this discriminatory ban and thank the over fifteen thousand transgender service members who continued to serve under this discriminatory ban. Add your name now!

We have been fighting this ban since President Trump first tweeted it in 2017. Thousands of members and supporters like you took action as we put the previous administration on notice about their blatant discrimination in full-page newspaper ads, digital campaigns, our calls to Congress and so much more. The Human Rights Campaign even joined transgender service members in suing the previous administration with representation by attorneys at Lambda Legal and Modern Military Association of America.

Days like today are why we fought so hard this past election, friend. And, as we saw last week with President Biden’s substantive LGBTQ executive order implementing the Supreme Court’s Bostock v. Clayton County ruling, this administration is right there with us in a deep commitment to LGBTQ equality.

Because of your hard work and steadfast commitment to equality, the Human Rights Campaign is working alongside this administration to right years of injustices from the previous occupants of the White House. We are also working tirelessly with Congress and on the state and local levels to deliver real change in the lives of LGBTQ people nationwide.

Victories like today’s are only possible with you by our side. Thank you for all you do.

I promise you that we will continue this work, as outlined in our Blueprint for Positive Change 2020 — an important brief that includes more than 85 individual policy recommendations, reaching across the federal government. In the weeks and months ahead, we are expecting even more incredible progress, and I do not want you to miss a minute of it. Text 100DAYS to 472472 today and we will keep you updated on the administration’s LGBTQ work.*

In Unity,