The Biden Presidency Has Already BEEN Transcendent

It was widely reported at the time, during the transition that, having spent his entire life striving to reach this pinnacle, incoming President Joe Biden was not about to waste it. He hosted several eminent Presidential historians, and probed them deeply on what kinds of things he would need to accomplish for his presidency to be considered transcendent in history.

It was as recently as 1995 when then President Bill Clinton signed the order overturning previous practice banning LGBTQ citizens from serving in the government as a possible national security risk. A wonderful and long overdue gesture, but in reality progress was slow and painful.

As anybody who has actually done it can tell you, going first is a bitch. Just ask Rosa Parks. Or Jackie Robinson. Muhammad Ali. or Neil Armstrong. When you take that leap of faith, you are all alone on a high wire, and if it all comes crashing down around your ears, it’s highly unlikely you’ll be able to hang on. And from where I’m sitting, President Joe Biden has already taken that leap of faith. And won.

Last night MSNBC ran a wonderful hour long special hosted by Washington Post writer Jonathan Capehart called Pride of the White House. It was MSNBC’s capstone to Pride Month, and they couldn’t have handled it better.

Joe Biden ran specifically on a platform of diversity and inclusion, and promised that if he were elected, he would appoint a cabinet and administration which models the diversity in the country. An he followed through. We have the first African American Secretary of Defense, and the first Native American woman cabinet secretary. Diversity is spread throughout the administration.

But nowhere is it more obvious than with the LGBTQ community. Biden didn’t just dip his toes in the water, he jumped in head first. The Biden administration has the first openly gay cabinet secretary ever confirmed by the Senate. He has the first openly gay, black woman assistant Press Secretary to hold a White House briefing, as well as the first openly gay woman assistant communications director. He has the first openly gay State Department press spokesman. Administration wide, more than 15% of his cabinet is represented by LGBTQ members.

And it goes far beyond simple nominations. Biden’s public statements are always positive about the gay community, demanding that congress pass legislation to protect their rights, and making them feel included. And to my memory, no other American President has ever specifically called out the LGBTQ community in a speech to the joint session of congress, sympathizing with young gays struggling with coming out, and telling them We have your back! We, as in the government of the United States.

But it still comes down to more than just the publicity of nominations and appointments. With every confirmation, it was either a historic event if you were gay or a liberal, or the sky was about to fall down if you were a Republican or conservative. But when all of the dust settles, they still have to do the job! Incompetence for the sake of image could do more damage than not doing it at all. And Biden has set them up for success. He only picked candidates so qualified that even Republicans couldn’t block them, and he is giving them the resources and help they need to succeed. And most important of all, every day that they do their job, and with every success, they normalize having gays in public service.

This is why I honestly believe that the Biden presidency has already become transcendent. Biden made good on a promise, and he did it in the best way possible. He chose candidates so qualified and non controversial that it was impossible to single them out for ridicule, and their presence simply became normal. Whatever else happens in the Biden presidency, fifteen or twenty years from now, when historians begin to paint the first broad strokes of the Biden history, one of the things that will stand out immediately was his ability to basically remove the stigma of gays serving in government. And it don’t get much more transcendent than that.

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