Joe Biden’s Long List Of Pro-LGBT Policies Announced As Bernie Drops Out
Former Vice President Joe Biden is now the presumptive Democrat presidential nominee after Bernie Sanders suspends his campaign.
After falling significantly behind Biden in the primaries Sanders announced he was suspending his campaign on Wednesday leaving the door open for Biden to take on Trump in the November presidential election.
In his 2020 bid, Biden has detailed an extensive list of policies aimed at the LGBTIQ community.
Biden has pledged to use his executive power to “immediately reverse the discriminatory actions” of the Trump-Pence administration as he takes office, putting non-discrimination rules protecting LGBTIQ people back into force, closing carved-out “religious freedom” loopholes, and ending the ban on transgender people in the armed forces.
He has also pledged to make the Equality Act, a bill to prohibit discrimination against LGBTIQ people across all 50 states, a “top legislative priority” during his first 100 days in office.
Biden also pledged to boost gender recognition so that “every transgender or non-binary person [can] have the option of changing their gender marker to M, F or X on government identifications, passports and other documentation”.
The presumptive Democratic nominee also vowed to boost the enforcement of hate crime laws, and “direct federal resources to help prevent violence against transgender women, particularly transgender women of colour”.
Biden has pledged to work towards a ban on conversion therapy, and to use US foreign policy to “advance protections for LGBTIQ people, fight for decriminalisation of LGBTIQ identities and relationships, and respond swiftly and meaningfully to threats to LGBTIQ rights or safety globally” around the world.
Biden has spoken about LGBTIQ issues in many of his speeches on the campaign trail – in contrast to Trump, who has never published an LGBTIQ policy plan and appears unaware of even minor changes on LGBTIQ issues during his term in office.
As Vice President from 2008 to 2016, Biden became known for his solid support of the LGBTIQ community.
Biden was credited with forcing Barack Obama’s hand on same-sex marriage in 2012, by backing equality in a TV interview while the president was still officially “evolving” on the issue.
In 2014, Biden also backed an executive order banning anti-LGBT+ workplace discrimination, before the president had responded to calls for action.
The vice president later made history when he carried out the first same-sex wedding at his official residence at the US Naval Observatory – an act that, naturally, has not been repeated under Mike Pence.
