WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — Outgoing President Joe Biden awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal to 20 people on Thursday, including activists for abortion-on-demand and the LGBT agenda, as well as vehemently anti-Trump Republican Liz Cheney.
The medal is for American citizens “who have performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens,” according to the White House. “President Biden believes these Americans are bonded by their common decency and commitment to serving others. The country is better because of their dedication and sacrifice.”
The crop of recipients includes some nonpartisan choices, including the late war correspondent Joseph Galloway and veteran and medical innovator Dr. Frank Butler. But it also included radical LGBT activist attorneys Mary Bonauto and Evan Wolfson, who agitated for the eventually successful campaign to mandate recognition of homosexual “marriage” nationwide, and Feminist Majority Foundation president Ellie Smeal.
The White House says simply that Smeal fought “for equal pay and helping the Violence Against Women Act become law” and “forced the Nation to not only include women in political discourse but to value them as power brokers and equals.” But Catholic News Agency notes that she was also a former president of the “National Organization for Women” (NOW), through which she led the first national pro-abortion march in the nation’s capital. She is also a vocal critic of Catholic teaching on life, marriage, and sexuality, despite (like Biden) having been raised Catholic.
Other noteworthy recipients include former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who was one of returning President Donald Trump’s most vehement critics in his own party (to the point of actively campaigning for Democrat opponent Kamala Harris), former Democrat Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, and former Republican Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, the “first woman to represent Kansas,” whom Biden expressly credits for “supporting a woman’s right to choose” abortion.
Presidents often use medals and award ceremonies to affirm political allies rather than honor nonpartisan service. Last year, Biden gave the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to prominent far-left Democrats Al Gore, John Kerry, and Nancy Pelosi, as well as pro-LGBT Jesuit priest Greg Boyle. In November, he also gave the Medal of Freedom to former Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards in a private ceremony hidden from the public eye.