Inside Biden’s DOJ: How LGBTQ Activist Groups Helped Set the Agenda for the Civil Rights Division

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Newly released documents reveal the extent to which LGBTQ activist groups helped set the agenda for the Justice Department under President Joe Biden.

The DOJ Civil Rights Division’s LGBTQI+ Working Group convened quarterly stakeholder meetings with organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Human Rights Campaign, Lambda Legal, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the National Women’s Law Center, and others while the department challenged state laws regarding transgender medicine, bathrooms, and women’s sports.

The newly revealed documents show advocacy groups asking federal officials to discuss “what the federal government can do to limit or stop anti-trans legislation,” “strategic involvement by DOJ,” litigation involving gender medicine, and other policy priorities.

“Under the Biden administration, far-left activist groups were given a seat at the table in shaping the Civil Rights Division’s priorities,” Justice Department spokeswoman Kiersten Pels told the Daily Signal. “Under this administration, the division enforces federal civil rights laws as written, for every American equally, and its litigation and enforcement decisions are not shaped by outside activists.”

The documents do not portray the meetings as one-way briefings by federal officials.

In remarks at an Oct. 5, 2023, stakeholder meeting, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, who headed the division under Biden, responded to the activist groups’ concerns by noting that they represented plaintiffs in lawsuits that were supported by the Justice Department.

“Anti-trans and anti-gay sentiments are fueled, at least in part, by the very state actions we challenge here at the Division, including bans on gender affirming care, bathroom use, and transgender girls’ right to participate in sports,” she stated.

“At the last meeting, some of you raised the increase in state bills banning access to bathrooms” as an issue, Clarke noted. “I want to briefly mention our newest filing challenging such bans.” She noted that the Educational Opportunities Section filed a statement of interest opposing an Idaho law designating access to bathrooms and changing rooms according to biological sex.

In her remarks, Clarke said she would “discuss the agenda items you shared with us, including limiting or stopping anti-trans legislation, providing training and outreach to the LGBTQI+ community, enforcing federal statutes, and confronting continued hate crimes threats.”

Civil Rights Division attorney David Knight, who sent the LGBTQI+ Working Group the agenda after the meeting, noted that it included “which issues the stakeholders asked us to address.” The agenda identified stakeholder-submitted issues as topics for discussion among staff from multiple federal agencies.

The meeting agenda mentioned representatives from various federal agencies, including the Justice Department, the Defense Department, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Labor, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and others.

The agenda included items submitted “by community groups.” The list included: “What the federal government can do to limit or stop anti-trans legislation,” citing the National Women’s Law Center; “Healthcare, generally, and gender-affirming care litigation, specifically,” mentioning Lambda Legal and others; “Strategic involvement by DOJ,” mentioning the ACLU; “Continuing threats of violence,” citing the Human Rights Campaign; and “Protections for LGBTQI+ students and teachers in schools,” citing the Southern Poverty Law Center, Lambda Legal, and the National Women’s Law Center.

The documents show LGBTQ activist groups raising concerns and requesting federal action on specific issues, but the Daily Signal could not independently confirm that any particular DOJ filing, investigation, or enforcement action resulted directly from a recommendation made through this stakeholder process.

The records also show the LGBTQI+ Working Group preparing a background memorandum for Clarke, in which DOJ staff summarized the the Transgender Law Center’s concerns about federal hate-crime enforcement.

“The LGBTQI+ working group prepared this memo to provide AAG Clarke with background information about … the Transgender Law Center’s position on the federal government’s hate crimes enforcement, before AAG Clarke’s opening remarks at the third quarterly LGBTQIA+ stakeholder meeting,” the memo states.

The memo summarized the center’s argument that hate-crime laws lead to greater policing, incarceration, and criminalization, while failing to address broader societal issues affecting people who identify as LGBTQ.

The Daily Signal reached out for comment to the ACLU, the Human Rights Campaign, Lambda Legal, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Transgender Law Center, and Clarke’s current employer, the NAACP. None responded to questions about the documents.

The Justice Department closed the LGBTQI+ Working Group shortly after President Donald Trump took office last year.

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