Jill Biden Calls Trump a ‘Bully’ and ‘Dangerous’
First lady warns eroding rights are what’s at stake in the presidential election during Human Rights Campaign event.
First Lady Dr. Jill Biden told a crowd of about 500 to “fight like hell” to give her husband, President Joe Biden, a second term at the Human Rights Campaign’s “Equality in Action” event Friday at the Sheraton Pentagon City in Arlington, Virginia.
The first lady’s remarks follow the Biden campaign’s Out for Biden-Harris LGBTQ+ voter initiative launched earlier last week.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) civil rights organization, and Equality in Action is HRC’s largest volunteer and board gathering of the year. During the three-day event, participants heard from speakers about the fight for LGBTQ+ equality, took part in learning and development opportunities and networked with other volunteer leaders from around the country.
“We've made progress, but there's still so much more to do. And we can't and we won't go back and refight the fights of the past.” Biden told the crowd. “Rights are being stripped away, freedoms are eroding, more and more state laws are being passed targeting this community.”
She then spoke of what the Biden administration had done for the LGBTQ community including the Biden administration fending off more than 50 anti-gay amendments that Republicans tried to include into the government funding bill. She noted the amendments would have limited health care and other protections for same sex couples.
“History teaches us that our rights and our freedoms don’t disappear overnight. They disappear slowly, suddenly, silently: a book ban, a court decision, a don’t say gay law,” Biden said. “One group of people loses their rights and then another and then another. Until one morning you wake up and you no longer live in a democracy.”
The first lady talked about what President Biden has done for the community: marriage equality is now the law of the land, gay men can donate blood, trans Americans can serve in military, and that Biden is against conversion therapy.
She noted that under President Biden the LGBTQ community is “free to walk down the street as your authentic self. Co-workers that use your chosen name and pronouns. Kids with two moms or two dads on the playground. Communities that support you - understand you.”
“Yet there are forces outside these walls that are trying to erase these hard fought gains, trying to unwind all the progress that we've made,” she said. “They want to take our victories away but we won't let them.”
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