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“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,” he said in a recent interview.
President Joe Biden expressed concern about violence from the far right in an interview with the Washington Blade.
“What I do worry about is I do worry about violence,” Biden said. “I do worry about intimidation. I do worry about what the MAGA right will continue to try to do, but I’m going to stay involved.”
The Republican Party has changed because of Donald Trump, he noted. “Trump is a different breed of cat,” the president said. “I mean, I don’t want to make this political, but everything he’s done has been anti, anti-LGBTQ, I mean, across the board.”
“I think there are a lot of really good Republicans that I’ve served with, especially in the Senate, who don’t have a prejudiced bone in their body about [LGBTQ+ people] but are intimidated,” he said.
He highlighted the need to pass the Equality Act, which would outlaw anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination nationwide, and the dangers posed by Project 2025, the blueprint for the next conservative presidency.
Project 2025 “is just full of nothing but disdain for the LGBTQ community,” he said. “And you have [Supreme Court Justice] Clarence Thomas talking about, when the decision was made [to overturn] Roe v. Wade, that maybe we should consider changing the right of gays to marry — I mean, things that are just off the wall — just pure, simple, prejudice.”
Biden has signed the Respect for Marriage Act into law; the legislation will protect marriage equality for same-sex and interracial couples against future Supreme Court action.
The president praised the bravery of the LGBTQ+ community. “I was really impressed when I went to Stonewall,” he said. “And I was really impressed talking to the guys who stood up at the time. I think the thing that gets underestimated is the physical and moral courage of the community, the people who broke through, who said ‘enough, enough,’ and they risked their lives. Some lost their lives along the way.”
“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,” he added.
He also said the nomination of transgender woman Sarah McBride to represent his home state, Delaware, in the U.S. House of Representatives indicates that “we’re on the right track.” She would be the first out trans member of Congress. Biden has known her for years, as she worked with his late son, Beau, who was attorney general of Delaware, and he congratulated her on her recent win in the Democratic primary.
Other LGBTQ+ publications that have interviewed sitting presidents include The Advocate and our sister publication Out. The Advocateinterviewed President Barack Obama in 2010, the first one-on-one, in-person interview with a sitting president by an LGBTQ+ publication, and Out interviewed him in connection with his designation as Ally of the Year in 2015. The Advocate also interviewed President Bill Clinton by facsimile in 1996 and interviewed Biden by phone when he was the Democratic presidential nominee in 2020.
