WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden’s White House Pride Month celebration, expected to be the largest in history, will be postponed from Thursday evening until Saturday, officials said, as Washington is enveloped in a cloud of smoke from Canadian wildfires.

“Today’s Pride event on the White House South Lawn will be postponed until Saturday based on the projected air quality in the region,” the White House said in a statement.

The party, which is expected to include thousands of guests on the White House’s South Lawn, is a deliberate contrast to a cascade of Republican legislation and other attacks targeting people of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and other sexualities (LGBTQ+), President Biden’s officials have said.

Forest fires continued to burn across Canada on Thursday as the country endured its worst-ever start to wildfire season, sending a smoky haze billowing across United States cities and grounding flights.

Mr Biden, a Democrat, had planned an evening celebration of LGBTQ+ families, featuring singer Betty Who and Baltimore DJ Queen HD.

He was also expected to announce new measures on Thursday to help schools and LGBTQ+ children navigate book bans, community centres fight threats, and transgender youth access better care, domestic policy adviser Neera Tanden said.

It was not immediately clear whether those announcements would be postponed as well.

“This year, we’re seeing a disturbing surge in violent threats against LGBTQ community organisations,” Ms Tanden told reporters on a conference call on Wednesday evening.

“In too many parts of our country, LGBTQ Americans are being targeted for who they are, and that, simply put, is discrimination.”

Republican bans

Republican-led states have signed a flurry of Bills targeting transgender young people. Some states have banned teachers of younger children from discussing gender or sexuality, and conservative lawmakers have proposed or passed laws restricting drag performances.

In April, the White House warned that Bills targeting LGBTQ+ children and gender-affirming care for young people set a dangerous precedent.

The White House will announce a new coordinator in the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights to train schools on how to navigate book bans, the impact they have on LGBTQ+ children and how they violate civil rights laws, Ms Tanden said.

In addition, the Department of Homeland Security will announce new training for community groups against active shooters and bomb threats; the Department of Justice will expand work with state and local law enforcement to protect the community; and the Department of Health and Human Services will put out a new advisory for mental health care providers supporting transgender children.

Florida has been at the forefront of restrictions aimed at the LGBTQ+ community under Governor Ron DeSantis, who says he is protecting children, and recently entered the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination to challenge Mr Biden.

LGBTQ+ evolution

Mr Biden’s own views on gay rights have evolved over his decades in public life. A watershed moment was his endorsement of same-sex marriage in 2012 as Vice-President, which pushed then President Barack Obama to express his support for gay marriage a few days later.

As President, Mr Biden has overturned a ban on transgender individuals serving in the military, issued a new order to stop conversion therapy and signed the Respect for Marriage Act, which federally recognises same-sex marriages, into law.

American support for same-sex marriage has doubled since the late 1990s to more than 70 per cent, Gallup polls show, and the percentage of people who identify as LGBTQ+ has doubled in the past decade to over 7 per cent.

On Tuesday, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the largest LGBTQ+ advocacy organisation in the US, declared its first national state of emergency, citing the proliferation of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in state houses across the country.

More than 70 Bills HRC considers anti-LGBTQ+ were passed in state houses this legislative session, double 2022’s previous record, and over 500 were introduced. REUTERS