Karine Jean-Pierre reflects on two years in her historic role as White House press secretary

Karine Jean-Pierre will soon celebrate two years in her historic role as both the first out LGBTQ+ White House press secretary and the first Black woman to hold the position – and she’s aware of her how significant this is.

“It’s not lost on me what my presence at the podium behind that lectern means,” she recently told Advocate. “Being a first in many different ways, I’m an immigrant, I’m a queer Black woman, a person of color, and it is incredibly a heavy weight that I understand is important to carry with respect and understanding.”

Related:

How dating apps have tried to become more trans-inclusive over the years

Online dating has improved for non-cisgender users, but it still has a ways to go to feel safe and accessible.

She also acknowledged the folks “who laid down the path for many of us to take and to be able to break glass ceilings and to be able to do what I’m able to do every day.”

Insights for the LGBTQ+ community

Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more.

Daily

Weekly

Good News

“It matters,” she added, referring to the massive responsibility she has speaking on behalf of the president of the United States.

“Representation matters, and it is important to have that representation, but showing up also matters. Showing up for myself, showing up for my colleagues, showing up for little boys and girls, young people who are trying to figure out who they are and looking at me and saying, well, maybe I can do this even if they feel unsafe,” she said.

She also lavished praise on the Biden Administration’s support of LGBTQ+ people — President Joe Biden is widely considered the most pro-LGBTQ+ president in history — and harkened back to the groundbreaking moment in 2012 when, as vice president, Biden voiced his support for marriage equality in an interview with Meet the Press.

“Let’s not forget that he said something that no one at his level, no other leader, was saying,” Jean-Pierre said.

Jean-Pierre has endured a fair share of adversity in the role. The right wing has long spewed vitriol at her, with many commentators and lawmakers claiming she was only hired due to her marginalized identities rather than her years of experience in politics.

“I feel like I have to be who I am unapologetically,” she said. “I cannot think about what people think about me; it is their problem, not mine if they’re uncomfortable with the space that I occupy.”

In addition to hate from conservatives, rumors are swirling that the Biden administration itself is no longer happy with the job she’s doing and may be trying to oust her from the position. Multiple sources confirmed this to The New York Post.

Regardless, Jean-Pierre will always be remembered for the trails she blazed. She not only made history as White House press secretary, but in 2021, she also became the first gay woman to lead a White House press briefing when she was deputy press secretary.

In 2020, she served as Kamala Harris’s campaign chief of staff, making her the first Black person to serve as chief of staff to a vice-presidential candidate and one of the highest-ranking LGBTQ+ people in the Biden-Harris campaign.

During Obama’s first term, she worked in the White House Office of Political Affairs. Outside of her work with political campaigns and the government, she was the national spokesperson for the progressive organization MoveOn in 2016, a commentator for NBC News and MSNBC, and a lecturer at Columbia University.

Don't forget to share: