Two major LGBTQ rights organizations endorse Joe Biden

Joe BidenPhoto: Shutterstock

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest LGBTQ civil rights organization, and the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) have both endorsed presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden for president.

Their endorsement comes on the eighth anniversary of Biden’s historic 2012 Meet The Press interview in which he voiced support for marriage equality before President Barack Obama had.

Related: HRC announces Alphonso David as first person of color to helm the veteran LGBTQ organization

At the time, Biden said, “I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women… entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties [as heterosexual couples.]” Though his spokesperson later tried to claim that Biden hadn’t actually come out for same-sex marriage, he undeniably had.

HRC’s 26-member Board of Directors “unanimously and enthusiastically” voted to endorse Biden for president.

“Vice President Joe Biden is the leader our community and our country need at this moment,” said HRC President Alphonso David. “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,” David continued. “Donald Trump and Mike Pence have spent the last three and a half years rolling back and rescinding protections for LGBTQ people. Joe Biden will be a president who stands up for all of us.”

Mara Keisling, executive director of the NCTE Action Fund, similarly praised Biden while condemning Trump.

“Joe Biden is the advocate and president we need at this consequential moment,” Keisling wrote. “The Trump administration is really the discrimination administration. President Trump has attacked transgender health care, put transgender students unnecessarily at risk and led a consistent and unrelenting effort to roll back protections for LGBTQ Americans.”

Keisling continued, “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.”

“With Joe Biden, we know we will be engaged, we will be seen, and we will not be erased,” Keisling concluded.

In 2012, Biden called trans rights the “civil rights issue of our time,” saying something few Democratic politicians or Obama administration members dared to. He also helped staff various administration positions with trans people, and assisted with the repeal of the military ban on LGBTQ service members.

During his 36 years as a Delaware’s senator, Biden helped establish the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, which provides federal funding for HIV-related healthcare, and helped reauthorize the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief
(PEPFAR), an international plan for reducing HIV infections worldwide. He also helped repeal the travel ban on HIV-positive people.