President Joe Biden gave out 17 medals of freedom to many people with different roles in society, race and gender. The medals were given out to Denzel Washington, Simone Biles, John McCain, Sandra Lindsay, Simone Campbell, Julieta Garcia, Gabrielle Giffords, Fred Gray, Steve Jobs, Alexander Karloutsos, Khzir Khan, Diane Nash, Megan Rapinoe, Alan Simpson, Richard Trumka, Wilma Vaught, and Raul Yzaguirre.

The medals were given to these people because according to the White House “have overcome significant obstacles to achieve impressive accomplishments in the art and sciences, dedicated their lives to advocating for the most vulnerable among us, and acted with bravery to drive change in their communities, and across the world, while blazing trails for generations to come,” for example Richard Trumka was president of AFL-CIO, another example is Megan Rapinoe an Olympic gold medalist and a two-time World Cup winner. She is also an advocate for gender pay equality, racial justice, and LGBTQIA+. Another person who got the medal was Diane Nash, a founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, had organized some of the most important Civil Rights campaigns of the 20th-century and has worked with Martin Luther King Jr..

Biden has gotten a medal himself and hopefully will give many more medals to come.