Biden-era Homeland Security filled June 2023 work hours with Pride forums, LGBTQ videos, and flag ceremonies at FEMA, ICE, and training centers, activities a watchdog calls non-mission distractions.
A 20-page calendar obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request shows the Department of Homeland Security scheduled Pride Month programming across its components during government business hours in June 2023, the Daily Caller News Foundation reported.
The records cover FEMA, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers, the Secret Service, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and DHS headquarters in Washington, D.C. They list forums, video sessions, a flag-raising ceremony, employee newsletters, displays, and parade participation.
The Center to Advance Security in America filed the FOIA request. The documents do not list costs, employee attendance, or confirm whether every planned activity took place.
On June 2, 2023, then-Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Deputy Secretary John Tien attended a Pride flag-raising ceremony at DHS headquarters. Photographs released by the department confirm both men were there.
Mayorkas posted about the event the same day.
In an archived post from his official account, Mayorkas wrote:
"For the past three years, we have raised the Pride Progress flag at the @DHSgov headquarters to recognize the start of #PrideMonth. Today, we continue this tradition, a symbol of our commitment to stand with our LGBTQ+ colleagues and the community with pride."
That ceremony sat at the top of a month packed with identity-focused programming while the same department managed border enforcement, disaster response, and federal law-enforcement training. Readers tracking the wider Biden years will recall other pressure points on that White House, including when Hunter Biden said he begged his father to leave the 2024 race.
FEMA’s portion of the calendar was especially dense. On June 13, 2023, from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m., the agency scheduled a “Bisexual and Pansexual Forum.”
It listed a transgender and gender-nonconforming forum for the afternoon of June 20, an intersex forum on June 22, and an asexual forum on June 27, all in the afternoon.
Those sessions fell during standard work hours at an agency whose core job is disaster preparedness and response, not workplace identity workshops.
The Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers planned a June 27 video watch party and discussion for 11:00 a.m. Eastern. The listed titles were “A Living History of the LGBT Movement Since the 1800s” and “LGBTQ+ 101: An introduction to Queer community.”
FLETC trains officers for multiple federal agencies. Scheduling movement-history videos and introductory queer-community material during the workday put identity curriculum onto the same clock as firearms, tactics, and legal instruction.
Secret Service and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services planned a June 7 program featuring a speaker described as the first intersex and transgender graduate of the Secret Service’s Law Enforcement Officer Academy. The speaker’s name was redacted in the released records.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement listed a June 22 virtual “Lunch and Learn” on transgender employees in the workplace. Other calendar lines covered Pride celebrations, employee newsletters, displays, and public-parade participation across several DHS components. Some entries carried specific business-hour times. Others read “time TBD” or simply “month of June.”
Border security and immigration enforcement sat at the center of public debate throughout the Biden years, the same period when Vance pinned gas-price pain on Biden-era policy choices.
James Fitzpatrick, director of the Center to Advance Security in America, tied the calendar to a broader failure of focus.
Fitzpatrick said:
"The Biden DHS failed the country in many ways, and part of the reason for its failure was its focus on non-mission-oriented activities such as these,"
His group obtained the records. The criticism lands on a simple point: an agency built for homeland security spent official time on forums and trainings far from border control, immigration law, disaster response, or protective operations.
Accountability fights from the same era keep surfacing in other lanes, including cases where ex-FBI leaders faced charges tied to the Hunter Biden laptop investigations.
President Donald Trump directed federal agencies to terminate covered diversity, equity, and inclusion programs on Jan. 20, 2025, according to the White House.
The next day, the Office of Personnel Management instructed agencies to close diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility offices and cancel related training.
Those steps came nearly two years after the June 2023 DHS calendar. The Daily Caller News Foundation asked whether the specific Pride Month activities documented in 2023 were discontinued, and whether comparable events ran in June 2025 or June 2026. It also asked what policy changes the Trump administration put in place at DHS on DEI and employee activities.
The White House referred questions to DHS. DHS did not respond. FEMA, OPM, and the Secret Service also did not respond.
The records leave open whether every 2023 event occurred, what it cost, or how many employees attended. They do show what senior leadership chose to put on the books during work hours. Family and political strain around the former president continued in public view as well, including accounts that Hunter told Joe to leave the 2024 race.
Separate court action has kept Biden-era controversies in the headlines, with ex-FBI task force leaders surrendering on charges of lying to Congress over Hunter Biden matters.
Homeland Security exists to secure the border, enforce immigration law, train federal officers, and protect the country. Workday Pride forums and identity video sessions were a choice, and a telling one, about what that leadership valued on the clock.