A Non-Partisan Open Letter To President Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, and the White House Gender Policy Council
Coalition calls for more attention male gender issues, particularly health issues via the creation of an Office of Men's Health.
I am one of the signers of this non-partisan open letter to President Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, and the White House Gender Policy Council calling for more attention to male issues, particularly an office on Men’s Health and a White House Council on Boys & Men.
One of the most challenging mental hurdles to overcome, I am learning, is the acceptance of the notion that we can support multiple groups at the same time. Increasing support for one group, in this case, men and boys, does not mean decreasing support for another that is currently deservedly receiving lots of help, women and girls.
Along these lines, the letter contains a poignant quote from Dr. Warren Farrell:
When only one sex wins, both sexes lose.
The poor outcomes of men — 5.9-year shorter life expectancy, high rates of male suicide, opioid deaths, incarceration, and homelessness — hurt all of us.
Another challenge is that, as a registered Democrat for 35 years, I notice frequently my fellow Democrats have a knee-jerk reaction against supporting men. This attitude is reflected in Democrat poor showing with male voters nationally — Republicans consistently win the male vote in presidential elections. While I’m happy to have friends and colleagues across the political spectrum, I am dismayed by how hard it is for many on the left to accept the fact that men and boys, too, face systemic challenges. The evidence is overwhelming.
Below is the press release and non-partisan letter. And here is a direct link to the Coalition’s site with the letter.
For Immediate Release:
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Letter to the Biden Administration on the Loss of Human Life
SAN FRANCISCO / January 16, 2024 – The male disparities in education, physical and mental health, and a host of other serious social issues have driven several groups of concerned men and women to write an open letter to President Joe Biden, Jill Biden, and Members of the White House Gender Policy Council. The signatories of the letter include therapists, psychologists, researchers, writers, educators, and active groups who have spent decades addressing the outcomes of men and women.
Those who supported the letter were encouraged to do so after several years of policy action at the White House that has ignored some of the most pressing issues of our time. The letter expresses compassion for the rights of women and girls, and the need to look at improving their outcomes while not ignoring the outcomes of boys and men.
In November, the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research was launched on the same day that Harvard Magazine reported a widening life expectancy gap between men and women. Part of this gap is attributed to the troubling disparity from the deaths of despair. From 2018 to 2022, over 640,000 boys and men in the U.S. have died from suicide, overdose, and alcohol related deaths alone, according to data the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Males are 70% to 80% of deaths in those areas.)
This is not the first time the White House has overlooked male disparities. During COVID, when the CDC and other agencies around the world were reporting that 60% to 70% of COVID deaths were male, the Biden White House established the White House Gender Policy Council (GPC) with “particular attention to the barriers faced by women and girls.”
The signatories of the letter are calling on the White House to execute four goals to address these concerns:
Create a permanent Office of Men’s Health
Create a White House Men’s Mental Health Initiative
Create supportive programs specifically for men to prevent and recover from drug and alcohol abuse
Examine the evidence for, causes and solutions to the boy crisis.
The letter:
