POLITICS
HRC Endorses Joe Biden at a Critical Moment
Former veep shores up LGBTQ support against backdrop of #MeToo allegations
BY MATT TRACY
After staying neutral during
the Democratic primary
for president, the
Human Rights Campaign
(HRC) on May 6 threw its
support behind former Vice President
Joe Biden with six months to
go until the general election.
“Vice President Joe Biden is the
leader our community and our
country need at this moment,” HRC
president Alphonso David said in a
written announcement. “His dedication
to advancing LGBTQ equality,
even when it was unpopular
to do so, has pushed our country
and our movement forward. This
November, the stakes could not be
higher.”
The endorsement of a major gay
rights organization is a boost for
Biden at a time when his candidacy
has been confronted with allegations
of sexual assault dating back
to his days in the Senate in 1993
when a former aide, Tara Reade,
said he put her against a wall,
kissed her on the neck, reached
under her skirt, and penetrated
her with his fi ngers — and she has
also charged she faced retaliation
for blowing the whistle.
That allegation has dogged recent
discussion about his candidacy
and led some to call out the
hypocrisy of Democrats who have
remained silent on the issue after
sounding the alarms in the #MeToo
era about allegations surrounding
conservatives like Supreme Court
Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
The HRC endorsement, then, offers
a respite from that unfl attering
spotlight. The allegation by Reade,
which Biden has denied, was not
addressed in a livestreamed chat
between Biden and David the evening
of the HRC endorsement.
In welcoming the group’s nod,
Biden used the discussion with
David to outline his LGBTQ agenda,
vowing to prioritize the passage
of the Equality Act, restore
the Obama-era protections for LGBTQ
students, protect transgender
women of color in response to an
explosion of deadly violence nationwide,
Former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at the Human Rights Campaign’s dinner in Washington in 2018.
expand access to mental
health services, and direct the Justice
Department to prosecute hate
crimes, among other initiatives.
Biden went on to blast the Trump
administration for banning transgender
people from the military, rejecting
the right of trans people to
enter homeless shelters appropriate
to their gender identity, attempting
to gut LGBTQ nondiscrimination
protections, and other actions detrimental
to the community.
“The White House shouldn’t be
a source of oppression and fear,’
Biden said. “It should be a source
of moral courage.”
As the Supreme Court prepares
to announce a pair of decisions regarding
whether sexual orientation
and gender identity are protected
classes under the Title VII employment
nondiscrimination protections
of the 1964 Civil Rights Act,
Biden stressed that Americans
must be informed that in many
states queer Americans could get
married on a weekend and fi red on
the following Monday.
“It’s critical that the president
make it clear that discrimination
exists,” Biden said. “I’m going to
make passing the Equality Act a
priority in my fi rst 100 days.”
That bill’s fate hinges on whether
Democrats are able to regain control
of the Senate, which Biden described
as “the single most consequential
REUTERS/ YURI GRIPAS
thing we can do, besides
getting Trump out of offi ce.”
David asked Biden how he would
address access to healthcare — a
major issue for LGBTQ people and
other marginalized communities
who were already disproportionately
affected by pricey health insurance
plans before the coronavirus
crisis erupted and now face
even greater hardship. Because
plans are often tied to employment,
many folks who lost their jobs due
to the pandemic also lost health
insurance coverage. Others have
had to pay hundreds of dollars per
month in Obamacare premiums.
Still, Biden defended the landmark
law that was passed during
his time as vice president.
“Obamacare was a big deal,”
said Biden, who pointed to its sexual
orientation and gender identity
protections. “Now the Trump administration
is literally in court
trying to gut the whole law.”
Biden pressed his perspective
that building on Obamacare and
offering a “Medicare-like” public
option is the fastest way to achieve
universal healthcare.
The discussion also touched
on Biden’s pivotal endorsement of
same-sex marriage in 2012, just
before President Barack Obama
voiced his own support for marriage
equality in the six months
leading up to the administration’s
re-election victory over Republican
Mitt Romney.
“What I did eight years ago took
no courage,” Biden said. “What took
courage was 20, 30, 40, 50 years
ago, when people had the courage
to stand up and speak out.”
Among other priorities, Biden
called for making it easier for
transgender and non-binary folks
to update the gender marker on
government-issued documents. He
also vowed to appoint pro-equality
judges to federal courts, saying he
would seek out justices “that will
support civil rights protections
and defend people’s rights to be
themselves.”
The discussion largely steered
clear of issues regarding the coronavirus
pandemic, but Biden in
emphasizing the importance of
ensuring access to voting, noted
that health risks may still exist in
November in visiting public polling
places and called for expanded options
for early voting by mail.
HRC’s presidential endorsement
came much later this cycle than
in 2016, when the organization
backed former Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton’s candidacy for
president in January of that year
— well before her contest against
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders
was decided. In a press release announcing
the endorsement, HRC
praised Biden’s work in Congress
— namely his support of the Employment
Non-Discrimination Act
and early support for HIV/ AIDS
programs — and his efforts as vice
president to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t
Tell and help pass the Matthew
Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate
Crimes Prevention Act.
HRC is ramping up its get-outthe
vote efforts, deploying at least
45 full-time staff across seven target
states — Arizona, Michigan,
Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas,
and Wisconsin — and 20 more
staff members in a second tier of
states.
“HRC and our more than three
million members and supporters
will work day and night to ensure
he is the next president of the United
States,” David said.
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