A transgender influencer posed topless over the weekend at the White House Pride celebration, where President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden delivered speeches celebrating LGBT Americans.
Rose Montoya, at transgender-identifying male who became famous for TikTok content and is also a model from Idaho, was captured on video pulling down a dress to reveal and shake prosthetic breasts in front of the White House. Montoya cupped them and cheered as the Pride flag and the American flag were draped off the balcony in the background. A transgender-identifying female, also topless, but whose breasts were surgically removed, stood next to Montoya in the frame.
“Are we topless at the White House?,” the person filming the group said in the video found on Montoya’s Instagram.
Before putting on the half-naked display, Montoya shook hands and talked with Biden. LGBT individuals are among “the bravest, most inspiring people I’ve ever known,” Biden said in his address. Montoya grabbed a selfie video with the president as well.
“I had the honor of attending White House Pride, the largest one in history where the pride flag flew for the first time,” Montoya, who started transitioning in 2015, wrote in the caption on the Instagram video. “This is trans joy. We’re here at the white house unapologetically trans, queer, and brown.”
In response to backlash, Montoya clarified in a followup video that “going topless in DC is legal.”
“I fully support the movement to free the nipples,” Montoya said. “Why is my chest now deemed inappropriate or illegal when I show it off? However, before coming out as trans, it was not. All you’re doing is affirming I’m a woman. For some reason, people like to sexualize women’s bodies and say that they are inappropriate.”
The president invited thousands of guests to the festivities, including singer Betty Who, an LGBT activist who identities as queer and gave a special performance on Saturday.
“I see more courage on this lawn than any time I’ve seen in the recent past,” Biden said on stage.
After the event, some pundits online accused Biden of violating U.S. Flag Code over his Pride Month showcase. U.S. Flag Code §7. (e) requires that the “the flag of the United States of America should be at the center and at the highest point of the group when a number of flags of States or localities or pennants of societies are grouped and displayed from staffs.” The American flag was to the right of the Pride flag during the celebration, according to videos.
Since Pride month began, the White House has escalated its LGTB advocacy campaigns. Biden has cited the wave of legislation in Republican states prohibiting or restricting gender-transition hormone therapy and reconstructive surgery for minors as a major reason for action.