Biden gives first-ever presidential interview to LGBT newspaper
President Joe Biden has given the first-ever interview by a sitting president to an LGBT newspaper, telling the Washington Blade that he believes LGBTQ people are more courageous than others because they have overcome homophobic bigotry and other obstacles.
“Most of the openly gay people that have worked with me, that I’ve worked with, the one advantage they have is they tend to have more courage than most people have,” Biden told the paper in the interview that was published Monday.
Biden said he was proud to have appointed a record-setting number of LGBTQ people to posts in his administration, including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as the first openly gay cabinet secretary to win congressional confirmation.
“All the LGBTQ+ people (who) have worked for me or with me have reinforced my view that it’s not what your sexual preference is, it’s what your intellectual capacity is and what your courage is,” Biden said.
The interview was conducted Thursday in the Oval Office by Christopher Kane, the paper’s White House correspondent.
Even though he was raised in a devout Roman Catholic household, Biden said his parents imbued him with a sense of acceptance towards same-sex couples and other sexual minorities.
He related a story about him asking his father about two men they spotted kissing on a Delaware street.
“It’s simple, Joey: They love each other,” Biden recalled his dad saying.
Biden recently strongly supported the Democratic bid for Delaware’s lone seat in the House of Representatives mounted by Sarah McBride, who won a Democratic primary and is now the overwhelming favorite to become the first transgender congressional lawmaker.
“We’re on the right track,” Biden said.
The president paid tribute to LGBTQ advocates who risked arrest and worse during the early days of the gay rights movement, especially the 1969 Stonewall rebellion in the West Village.
“I think the thing that gets underestimated is the physical and moral courage of the community, the people who broke through,” Biden said. “(They) said, ‘Enough, enough,’ and they risked their lives. Some lost their lives along the way.”
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