Rose Montoya arrives on the red carpet for Los Angeles Fashion Week Powered by Art Hearts Fashion at The Majestic Downtown on March 18, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. © Mark Gunter/Getty Rose

Montoya arrives on the red carpet for Los Angeles Fashion Week Powered by Art Hearts Fashion at The Majestic Downtown on March 18, 2023, in Los Angeles, California.

The nation’s leading nonprofit for LGBTQ+ families criticized the actions of a transgender activist, calling her behavior at a White House event “a distraction from the lifesaving work” that needs to be done for members of the LGBTQ+ community.

“The short clip circulating on social media of a person covering their bare breasts while at the White House’s Pride celebration is incredibly inappropriate,” Stacey Stevenson, CEO of Family Equality, told Newsweek on Tuesday.

This past Saturday, President Joe Biden hosted hundreds of guests at the White House for a picnic celebrating Pride month. Among the attendees was transgender influencer and activist Rose Montoya, who posted an Instagram video of herself topless at the event, which brought outrage from both conservatives and pro-LGBTQ+ groups.

“The White House Pride celebration was focused on families and children,” Stevenson said. “It was an afternoon filled with joy and hope, and this clip is a distraction from the lifesaving work the LGBTQ+ community needs to secure and the very real issues our community is experiencing right now.”

Stevenson is the first Black CEO of Family Equality, a nonprofit whose mission is to advance equality for LGBTQ+ Americans and ensure that those individuals have “the freedom to find, form, and sustain a family,” according to the group’s website.

On Tuesday, the White House said Montoya would not be invited back for any future events. It called her behavior “inappropriate and disrespectful for any event at the White House” and “not reflective of the event we hosted.”

In a second video, Montoya defended going topless at the Pride picnic. But her remarks drew comments from numerous users who were concerned that her actions “gave the conservatives more ammo to go after the rest of [the LGBTQ+ community],” as one wrote.

“No, rose. It’s giving obtuse,” another wrote. “Poor judgment, extreme lack of awareness or concern for how this action would affect the LGBTQ+ community at-large. You sound like insurrectionists who also didn’t understand where they were on jan6.”

Another commenter said: “It would be inappropriate for any person to take their shirt off at an official White House event. No matter who they are and what they identify as. There is a thing called decorum. You’re not being persecuted.”

Saturday’s event was held as part of the Biden administration’s continuing efforts to support the LGBTQ+ community as Republican-led states introduce hundreds of anti-LGBTQ+ bills. More than 40 percent of the 525 pieces of introduced legislation explicitly targets transgender people, according to the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group.