Attorney General Eric Holder on
Wednesday touted his agency's record on gay rights at the Justice
Department's LGBT Pride Month celebration.
At the event, Holder thanked
“advocates, activists and attorneys” for making “meaningful,
once-unimaginable progress in recent years.”
“And we come together at an exciting
moment,” he told the crowd.
“Here at the Justice Department, we
can all be proud of the robust efforts that are underway to combat
discrimination – in all its forms – in every community, every
workplace, and every school. Particularly, in recent years, the
Civil Rights Division has strengthened its critical efforts to
protect our nation's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender
individuals from the most brutal forms of bias-motivated violence.”
“This past April, the department
issued its first-ever indictment under the Matthew Shepard and James
Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act – the landmark legislation that
President Obama signed into law in 2009 – for an alleged anti-gay
crime in Kentucky.”
Holder also touted the recent addition
of gender identity to the department's workplace non-discrimination
policy.
“Just this month,” Holder added, “I
am pleased to report that the Bureau of Prisons announced that every
federal prison will soon appoint an LGBT representative to the
Affirmative Employment Program, to help start a dialogue about
critical gender-identity issues for staff serving in more than 120
facilities nationwide.”