Karoline Leavitt's Short Response To A Pride Month Question Is Really Something

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt recently responded to a question about the current administration’s plans to issue proclamations during Pride Month, which is observed in June, and her response was rather unsurprising.

During a press briefing on Tuesday, right-wing podcaster Alec Lace asked Leavitt whether President Donald Trump plans to issue a proclamation this month. Lace mentioned Pride month, and inquired about potential proclamations for other ideas, such as a “Veterans Month” or a “Family Month.”

“Congresswoman Mary Miller suggested that changing Pride Month to Family Month — I’d personally like to see maybe a Nuclear Family Month. Some people are saying, ‘Let’s get a Veterans Month,’” Lace asked. “Does the president have any plans on making a proclamation? Or is it just going to be June this year?”

“There are no plans for a proclamation for the month of June, but I can tell you this president is very proud to be a president for all Americans, regardless of race, religion or creed,” Leavitt said.

The president did not recognize June as Pride Month — which celebrates the LGBTQ+ community and recognizes the ongoing efforts toward equality and justice — with a proclamation during his first term as president. He publicly acknowledged the month for the first time in a post on X, formerly Twitter, in 2019, according to NBC News.

Former President Bill Clinton was the first U.S. president to officially recognize the month when he proclaimed June as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month in 1999. Former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden also commemorated the month.

Obama issued his first Pride Month proclamation in 2009 recognizing June as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month, and Biden issued his first Pride Month proclamation as president in 2021, recognizing June as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+) Pride Month. Former President George W. Bush, who succeeded Clinton, did not issue a Pride Month proclamation during his two terms as president.

Leavitt didn’t bother to mention the word “Pride” in her response at the briefing on Tuesday — and her comment that Trump is proud to serve “all Americans” rings hollow, as LGBTQ+ rights have been under attack under Trump’s administration.

In the first days of his current term, Trump signed an executive order declaring it official U.S. policy that there are only two sexes, male and female, rejecting that sex is viewed on a spectrum — and that gender is different than sex. He’s also directed a transgender military ban, among other attacks on the LGBTQ+ community.

T Smith, a postdoctoral fellow in racial politics at Johns Hopkins University’s Krieger School of Arts & Sciences, said that it’s “entirely unsurprising” that Trump has not issued Pride proclamations — or that Leavitt didn’t say the word “Pride” at the briefing.

“The Trump administration has a long and well-documented history of signaling exactly whose lives it values, and whose it does not,” they told HuffPost. “The ongoing marginalization of queer and trans people — particularly Black, Brown, and Indigenous queer and trans communities — is not an unfortunate oversight. It is a deliberate feature of this administration.”

Kari J. Winter, a professor of American studies at the University at Buffalo, said that the way the discussion about Pride Month at Tuesday’s briefing came about was concerning in itself.

Winter, whose expertise includes gender, feminism, race and class, said, “the exchange between Alec Lace and Karoline Leavitt encapsulates the Orwellian dystopia of this American presidency.”

“A sycophant asks a leading question that invites the presidential spokesperson to deliver her bit of propaganda,” she said, before adding, “Alec Lace is not a journalist; he’s a podcaster hand-picked by the Trump administration to ask disingenuous rather than tough-minded questions.” (The White House announced a new policy in January encouraging podcasters, bloggers and social media influencers to apply for credentials to attend briefings.)

Trump declining to commemorate Pride Month is not surprising — and neither was Leavitt’s response. 

T Smith said Leavitt’s claim that Trump is proud to serve “all Americans” was “hollow” and “purely symbolic.”

“It does not align with Trump or his administration’s attitudes or policies in practice,” they said. “The current deportation crisis, the violent targeting of immigrants, and the withholding of Palestinian, Congolese and Sudanese freedom all illustrate the same underlying truth: Only some people are viewed as ‘American’ and, therefore, categorically ‘deserving’ while others are treated as disposable.”

Trump’s refusal to issue a Pride proclamation is “unacceptable, yes, but it is not novel,” T Smith said.

“It falls squarely in line with a broader history of apathy and hostility toward LGBTQ+ communities, particularly Black trans people,” they added.

“Everyone who is paying attention to the actions of the Trump administration knows that it is on an anti-LGBTQ crusade,” Winter said. “We also know that Donald Trump and Karoline Leavitt are habitual liars who are allergic to evidence-based speech.”

She continued: “Looking at the evidence, we might say that Trump supports all Americans except LGBTQ people, women, African Americans, American Indians, Harvard faculty, Medicaid recipients, scientists, judges, lawyers, Muslims, Jews, Venezuelans, legal immigrants... the list of exclusions is ever-growing.”

Companies have pulled corporate sponsorships for LGBTQ+ Pride festivals amid Trump’s anti-DEI initiatives.

Several LGBTQ+ Pride festivals across the country, and in Canada, have lost corporate sponsorships this year amid Trump’s hostility toward the trans community, and his crusade against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

Alison Gash, professor and head of the department of political science at the University of Oregon, told HuffPost that she doesn’t think it’s “surprising” that businesses have scaled back since “we have seen backlash among louder factions of anti-LGBTQ communities for a few years.”

“They are following the demands of their louder more aggressive customers as well as answering the call of and responding to threats from conservative politicians,” she told HuffPost. “At the same time other notable businesses are doubling down on their commitments to queer and trans communities. Those are the businesses who deserve our attention. ”

Winter said corporations that have pulled back from their Pride sponsorships are either “cowards” or “showing their true colors.”

“People who desert their principles when the political wind changes either lack the courage of their convictions or were never truly principled,” she said.

T Smith emphasized that a lot corporations are guilty of “pinkwashing” and “rainbow capitalism” — meaning that they are disingenuous and use tactics to capitalize off the LGBTQ+ community under the guise of actually advocating for the community.

“Changing a company logo to rainbow colors for 30 days and temporarily funneling money into a few LGBTQ+ organizations does not constitute meaningful support,” they said, adding, “They are business tactics. They are performative. And they are exploitative.”

Even still, corporations pulling back support is a “troubling signal,” T Smith said.

“It suggests that in the current political climate, it is more advantageous to align with rising anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment than to stand for equity and justice,” they said, before adding, “if corporations were serious about supporting our communities, their commitments would last longer than June — and center those most at risk, not abandon them when it’s no longer convenient.”

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