Joe Biden has criticized Republicans for turning transgender rights into a “political football” in a speech that the former US president delivered at an LGBTQ+ event.
Speaking at the International LGBTQ+ Leaders Conference in Washington on Friday, Biden urged LGBTQ+ people to “get up and fight back” against Donald Trump’s second presidential administration.
“Folks, Donald Trump and his Republicans are trying to derail and distort our fight for equality,” Biden said, as the Democrat accepted a lifetime achievement award for his contributions to the community. “They’re trying to turn it into something scary, something sinister.
“There is nothing more American than the notion of equality. Nothing, nothing, nothing.”
Biden, who as president signed the Respect for Marriage Act, which requires states to recognize same-sex marriages from other states, said Republicans had “weaponized people’s basic identity and turned it into a political football”.
“They’re trying to turn it into something scary, something sinister,” Biden said. “But folks, it’s not really about anything that’s all that complicated. At its core, it’s about giving every American an opportunity to be treated with the basic decency, dignity and respect they all deserve.”
Biden’s support for same-sex marriage came relatively late in life. In the 1990s, while in the Senate, Biden voted in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act. But in 2012, as vice-president, he famously expressed support for same-sex unions before Barack Obama, then the president, had done so.
“I got myself in a bit of trouble – good trouble,” Biden said on Friday.
In his speech, Biden said: “There are young people sitting alone as I speak, scrolling through social media, wondering whether they will ever truly be accepted for who they are.
“You are heard, and you belong,” he added.
The speech marked a rare public appearance for Biden, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer in May.
Biden’s lone term in the White House interrupted Trump’s two presidencies. Concerns over Biden’s physical health and mental acuity were key to him dropping out of his campaign for a second term in 2024.
Biden, 83, opened himself up to renewed commentary about some of those issues when he mispronounced “America” during his speech on Friday.
“As long as we keep the faith, some hope and get back up and remember who in the hell we are – we are the United States of Amerigotit,” Biden said.
He then added: “That’s who we are. We are the US.”
