The National Center for Transgender Equality Action Fund has endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden, according to an article posted on the Advocate website.
“Joe Biden is the advocate and president we need at this consequential moment,” NCTE Action Fund Executive Director Mara Keisling said in a press release distributed to the media on Tuesday. “He has the temperament, the experience and wisdom to lead our country. Throughout his career in public service, work as a private citizen through the Biden Foundation, and now his campaign to lead our nation, Biden has demonstrated his commitment to transgender people and the LGBTQ community.”
“Biden has a strong agenda for addressing the issues that face transgender Americans, a record of getting big ideas done during his time as vice president in the Obama-Biden administration, and a history of ensuring that transgender people are protected, including protections for transgender women as part of the reauthorization of the landmark Violence Against Women Act he authored,” Keisling said. “Over the years he has consistently made clear that ‘transgender equality is the civil rights issue of our time.’ With Joe Biden, we know we will be engaged, we will be seen, and we will not be erased.”
In a video posted with the article on the Advocate website, Biden said President Donald Trump has “eviscerated so many basic civil rights.”
“Why is he doing that?” Keisling asked Biden.
“I don’t know that he has a philosophy,” Biden said. “I think he just decides that he’s going to appeal to people from white supremacists to homophobic people who think he can easily rile them up and get their support,” Biden said. “I don’t know. I can’t get in another man or woman’s mind but I know it’s wrong.”
Biden said he supports transgenderism because “we are all God’s children.”
The article included a statement from Reggie Greer, identified as the LGBTQ+ vote director for the Biden campaign:
“On behalf of Vice President Biden, our campaign is deeply honored to have the National Center for Transgender Equality Action Fund’s endorsement and partnership in this election,” Greer said.
“In 2012, the same year he boldly declared his support for marriage equality, Vice President Biden made clear that ‘transgender equality is the civil rights issue of our time.’ He understands what’s at stake, and has built an unmatched record of ensuring our nation’s laws and discourse value, reflect, and see the lives, dignity, and worth of all transgender people.”
“To the contrary, Donald Trump and Mike Pence have done nearly everything in their power to endanger the lives of transgender people or ignore the issues disproportionately impacting them,” Greer said. “That’s why it’s all the more reason we are grateful for today’s announcement.”
According to Williams Institute at U.C.L.A, 0.6 percent of U.S. adults identify as transgender. GLADD has reported that three percent of the U.S population across different age groups consider themselves as transgender.
Follow Penny Starr on Twitter.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.