Biden for President Holds Virtual LGBTQ+ Brunch & Policy Discussion in Virginia with Adam Ebbin and Danica Roem

Biden for President LGBTQ+ Vote Director Reggie Greer also joined the conversation to discuss the campaign’s “Out for Biden” initiative as well as Vice President Biden’s plan to advance LGBTQ+ equality in America and around the world.

“I’m here because I’m excited about Joe Biden and excited about him being President — but I wanted to just step back for a moment though to talk about the possibilities that we have when we have a pro-equality executive and a pro-equality legislature. This year in Virginia, after having an anti-equality legislature for so long, we were able to pass the Virginia Values Act, which is our most comprehensive civil rights law probably ever, dealing with non-discrimination in the areas of employment and housing and public accommodation, including sexual orientation, gender identity, and so many other areas. We were able to do that and we need an executive at the federal level, for the remaining twenty states or so that don’t have laws like that in place. We were able to have the Supreme Court help with employment but that doesn’t help with the array of rights and housing and public accommodation that we need for everyone to have. So, we need Joe Biden to lead us towards a trifecta,” said State Senator Adam Ebbin.

“When I get asked… ‘Well Danica, does Joe Biden really care about trans people, is he really gonna do anything?’ I say yeah, I know he cares about trans people, because he told me he did when we were standing next to his son Beau Biden’s casket in 2015. And I had driven all the way out to Dover to just thank the Vice President for raising a son with the character of Beau… When Beau was fighting for trans people, you know, when he was Attorney General in Delaware, he worked with the Delaware legislature to pass a bill that was the first trans rights piece of legislation that they had done in that state that was comprehensive and I told the then-sitting Vice President when he was fighting for trans people in Delaware he was fighting for people like me, even though I’m in Virginia. And at that point, Vice President Biden, his eyes were quarter-mast, he was obviously tired, he’d been taking visitors all day. And he put his hands on my shoulder, he looked me in the eye and he said, ‘We mean that. We mean that.’ He then raised up my right hand, kissed the back of my hand, and brought me in for a hug. We don’t have that anymore. We don’t have the sitting Vice President of the United States willing to look a trans woman in the eye and tell her that her rights are worth protecting,” said Delegate Danica Roem.

“Vice President Biden’s going to walk into the White House with the most comprehensive plan to advance equality in American history and we’re really proud of that. We’re proud of it because LGBTQ people are being seen for the first time again in three and a half years by someone who wants to represent us in the White House as President,” said Reggie Greer.