President Biden gave the first-ever interview by a sitting president to an LGBT newspaper, telling the Washington Blade that he believes LGBTQ people are braver than others because they have overcome homophobic bigotry and other obstacles.
“Most of the openly gay people who have worked with me, who I have worked with, have the one advantage that they have more courage than most people,” Biden told the newspaper in the interview published Monday.
Biden said he was proud to have appointed a record number of LGBTQ people to positions in his administration, including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, the first openly gay cabinet secretary to win congressional confirmation.
“Every LGBTQ+ person who has worked for me or with me has reinforced my view that it’s not your sexual preference that matters, but your intellectual capacity and courage,” Biden said.
The interview was conducted Thursday in the Oval Office by Christopher Kane, the newspaper’s White House correspondent.
Although he was raised in a devout Roman Catholic family, Biden said his parents instilled in him a sense of acceptance toward same-sex couples and other sexual minorities.
He told a story about asking his father about two men they saw kissing on a street in Delaware.
“It’s simple, Joey: They love each other,” Biden remembers his father telling him.
Biden recently strongly endorsed the Democratic candidacy for Delaware’s lone House seat, led by Sarah McBride, who won a Democratic primary and is now the overwhelming favorite to become the first transgender lawmaker in Congress.
“We are on the right track,” Biden said.
The president paid tribute to LGBTQ rights advocates who risked arrest and worse in the early days of the gay rights movement, particularly during the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion in the West Village.
“I think what’s underestimated is the physical and moral courage of the community, of the people who were able to rise up,” Biden said. “They said, ‘Enough, enough,’ and they risked their lives. Some lost their lives along the way.”
