Attorney General Jeff Sessions. (Screenshot: PBS NewsHour.)

When asked by a Justice Department intern if he was concerned that the White House did not re-proclaim June as LGBT Pride month, as occurred under President Obama, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said a pride event would be held at the DOJ next week and that the department will “not allow persons in this country to be discriminated against” because of their “sexual orientation.”

Sessions answered the question at a gathering of DOJ employees on June 22, and his remarks were videotaped through an iPhone or ipad-device and first posted in The Hill. A DOJ spokesman confirmed to CNSNews.com that Sessions made the remarks shown in the video.

At the gathering, the DOJ intern, Courtney Hagle, said, “I am concerned about the message it sends to the LGBTQ community that by June 22 neither the White House or this Department has acknowledged Pride Month -- and I wanted to know if you were concerned that the White House has chosen to proclaim June as Great Outdoors Month before acknowledging a community of individuals that you have sworn an oath to protect, for a month that’s committed to celebrating the progress made and promise to come for these individuals?”

Attorney General Sessions replied, “We are going to have a pride group in this very room, I think, next week [June 28], probably it is. And so that’s perfectly appropriate. And we will protect and defend and celebrate that, and protect the rights of all transgender persons.”

“For example, I received a letter expressing concern about the seven transgender persons who had been killed, and the concern about it,” said Sessions. “So I, first thing, directed the civil rights division to look into those cases to see if there was any uniform attack, or if there was just a uniform hostility that would result in these murders, and to review each one of those cases that were sent to me. And they have done that.”

He continued, “And I think it’s possible that they are going to reopen the one that hadn’t been solved yet and -- as a result of that. So we are not going to allow persons in this country to be discriminated against or attacked in any way from their sexual orientation.”

DOJ Pride is the name of the association at the department for LGBT persons and their allies. According to the DOJ Pride program for June 28, “The Department will hold its annual LGBT Pride Month Observance Program” from 11AM to 12PM “in The Great Hall, Robert F. Kennedy Main Justice Building.”

At this event, according to BuzzFeed, DOJ Pride will present its Gerald B. Roemer Community Service Award to Gavin Grimm, a transgender male high school student.

According to The Washington Post, on June 11, 2015, Grimm filed a lawsuit against the Gloucester County School Board, Gloucester, Va., for not allowing him to use the men’s room at Gloucester High School.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) reported that the ACLU and the ACLU of Virginia represented Grimm in a lawsuit on the grounds of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title IX, said the ACLU.

The case was presented to the Supreme Court, but was not heard because Sessions, along with U. S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, rescinded the pro-transgender additions to Title IX made under the Obama administration, reported the ACLU. The case was sent back to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

According to the New York Times, groups like the Family Research Council applauded Sessions’ and DeVos’ decision. Conservative groups had argued that “former President Barack Obama’s policy would allow potential sexual predators access to bathrooms and create an unsafe environment for children,” stated the New York Times.

When asked again by the intern whether the White House planned to make a statement on LGBT Pride Month, Sessions responded, “I don’t know what the White House is -- I didn’t know. You’ll have to ask the first gentleman.”