On May 6, the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ advocacy group and political lobbying organization in the United States, officially endorsed presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, who responded that he would work to get the controversial pro-LGBTQ Equality Act passed in his first 100 days of office if elected.

HRC’s announcement came on the eighth anniversary of then-Vice President Biden’s endorsement of gay marriage in an interview on Meet the Press.

“Joe Biden has been a staunch supporter of equality, and a supporter of LGBTQ issues for most of his political career,” HRC president Alphonso David told CNN in an interview. “He’s actually been quite instrumental in changing the public discourse on many issues, including marriage equality.”

In a livestreamed webcast, Biden accepted the HRC’s endorsement and made public his vow of getting the Equality Act passed.

The Equality Act, passed in the U.S. House last spring by a 236-173 margin, would overhaul the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act by adding “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” as protected classes to existing nondiscrimination laws.

Kristen Waggoner, senior vice president of the U.S. legal division of Alliance Defending Freedom, argues that the Equality act would “turn back the clock for women.”

“It undermines women’s equality by denying female athletes fair competition in sports, depriving women of business opportunities designed for them, and forcing them to share private, intimate spaces with men who identify as female,” she says.

Biden further promised to appoint “pro-equality” judges and reverse “the damage Donald Trump has done to the federal bench.”

“We need justices who will support civil rights protections and defend people’s rights to be themselves,” he said. “I’m going to appoint pro-equality judges who defend the rights and the rights that are in the Constitution—judges who commit to the rule of law, to civil rights and civil liberties, [and] who come from a diverse set of backgrounds and actually look like America.”

Yet what’s perhaps most dangerous is Biden’s penchant for adopting his party’s far-left ideology with just the slightest pressure.

For example, when Biden began in the Senate in 1973, he believed Roe v. Wade was “wrongly decided,” and in 1974, he told Washingtonian magazine that Roe “went too far.” He also repeatedly voted for the Hyde Amendment, which bans federal dollars for abortion services in most cases.

But after falling out of line with his fellow Democratic candidates early in his presidential bid, Biden quickly denounced the Hyde Amendment, and now says that he would codify Roe v. Wade into federal law and restore federal funding to Planned Parenthood if elected.

In a Washington Post article titled, “Take Heart, Progressives: When the Party Moves Left, Biden Has Always Followed,” former HRC press secretary Charlotte Clymer outlined Biden’s leftward shift on issues like same-sex marriage, abortion and tuition-free college. “Biden’s career is defined by this trajectory: starting from a more moderate or conservative position on an issue and evolving over time with the party toward a progressive stance, often leading on it.”

 

Above: Former vice president and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden speaks during a Human Rights Campaign dinner at Ohio State University in June 2019.

Photo: AP Photo/Paul Vernon