Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made history as the nation’s highest-ranking gay official after the Senate confirmed him to the cabinet post on Monday. But the confirmation has gone unmentioned by the country’s top LGBT groups, which effusively praised former president Joe Biden’s gay and transgender nominees.
GLAAD, the Human Rights Campaign, the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute, and the National LGBTQ Task Force have yet to weigh in on Bessent, who was confirmed 68-29. The 62-year-old financier became the highest-ranking openly gay official to be confirmed by the Senate. As head of the Treasury, Bessent is now fifth in the line of presidential succession, surpassing liberal darling Pete Buttigieg, who was 14th in the line of succession as Biden’s transportation secretary.
Compared with Bessent, Buttigieg was swiftly lauded by LGBT groups after his Senate confirmation on Feb. 2, 2021. Within minutes of his Senate vote, GLAAD stated that Buttigieg was "making history and moving our country forward." The Human Rights Campaign said Buttigieg’s "historic" confirmation "broke through barriers." The LGBTQ+ Victory Institute called it a "groundbreaking confirmation."
None of the groups have released statements about Bessent’s confirmation or posted about it on social media feeds. They did not respond to requests for comment.
It is a stark example of LGBT groups’ double standard toward gay Republicans. During President Trump’s first term, GLAAD placed former acting director of national security Richard Grenell, the first openly gay official to serve in a cabinet-level position, on its GLAAD Accountability Project, which tracks "anti-LGBTQ rhetoric." The Human Rights Campaign has attacked Grenell as "Gaslight Grenell" and accused him of advancing an anti-gay agenda on behalf of Trump.
In addition to Buttigieg, the groups celebrated the Biden administration’s nomination of many other gay and transgender officials, all of whom held positions far lower than the cabinet level.
The National LGBTQ Task Force was "thrilled" by Biden’s nomination of Rachel Levine to serve as assistant secretary for health and human services. Levine was the first transgender official to be confirmed by the Senate. The LGBTQ+ Victory Institute praised the "groundbreaking" appointments of Levine and Sam Brinton, the former Department of Energy official who was repeatedly arrested for stealing women's clothing at airports.
Of all the groups, only the Human Rights Campaign has mentioned Bessent in any capacity. The group acknowledged Bessent’s nomination in November in a post on Threads, an obscure social media site popular with liberals. But far from praising the history-making pick, the Human Rights Campaign admonished Bessent to "step up for the community" if confirmed to office.
Bessent, who founded the hedge fund Key Square Group, sailed through his confirmation hearing earlier this month. Testifying before the Senate finance committee, with his husband John Freeman looking on, Bessent said his priority at the Treasury would be to lower federal spending. He also warned that the country is "barrelling towards an economic crisis at year's end" if Congress fails to extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts.
Bessent took a hawkish stance towards China for dumping cheap exports on global markets to stave off an economic collapse. He said he would be "100 percent on board" with sanctions against Russian energy firms over the war in Ukraine.