Pres.Biden On The Forefront of Gay Marriage Might Get The Marriage Bill Before Christmas
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| Pres. Biden Behind Gay Bar |
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Then-2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden joins bartenders behind the counter during his visit to the Stonewall Inn on June 18, 2019, in New York.
Then-2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden joins bartenders behind the counter during his visit to the Stonewall Inn on June 18, 2019, in New York. | Bebeto Matthews/AP Photo
President JOE BIDEN, on the cusp of his 80th birthday, can sometimes sound like a throwback with his colloquialisms, dad jokes, and wistful reminiscences about the good old days in the Senate when lawmakers actually liked each other.
But on the issue of gay rights, Biden has been ahead of the political curve for a decade now. And he’s about to become a central figure in the historic movement for the second time.
The Senate voted 62-37 earlier this week to move forward on the Respect for Marriage Act, clearing the legislation’s biggest remaining hurdle. That means that the legislation enshrining same-sex marriage as the law of the land could be on the president’s desk well before Christmas. “Love is love,” Biden tweeted after Tuesday’s vote.
When Biden signs the legislation into law, it will be a bookend to a personal evolution on the issue that began a decade ago for the devout Catholic. Responding to a question on NBC’s “Meet the Press” in 2012, the then-vice president said he supported same-sex marriage because it came down to the simple question: "Who do you love?"
The response, which put Biden out ahead of President BARACK OBAMA and the Democratic Party establishment, left the White House scrambling. Obama rushed to catch up, announcing his own support for same-sex marriage just three days later.
“I still remember where I was when that happened,” said RUFUS GIFFORD, the openly gay former ambassador to Denmark under Obama who is now chief of protocol at the State Department. “It’s hard to overstate the emotion associated with it, as someone who grew up never believing that the traditional definition of happiness that my parents had hoped for me to have would ever come to be.”
The NBC interview was a watershed for a politician who, in the Senate, voted for the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act that defined marriage as between a man and a woman. By 2012, however, the politics around gay rights had shifted. And so did the president’s views. According to aides close to the president, Biden, a blue-collar guy with a lifelong affinity for underdogs, saw the matter as one of basic human dignity.
After the interview, “he was immediately celebrated afterward by folks in the LGBTQ community for his bravery and for coming out before Obama,” said SASHA ISENBERG, whose book, “The Engagement,” details the 25-year fight for marriage equality. “He became a hero to liberals in a way he'd never been on any issue in his career. And the response he got emboldened him.”
Suddenly, Biden was ahead of most of his colleagues in also addressing transgender rights, as he did in speeches at the Human Rights Coalition’s annual dinners. And the LGBTQ community took note. In the run-up to the 2020 election, gay activist TIM GILL and his husband SCOTT MILLER (who Biden later appointed ambassador to Switzerland) were among the loudest voices urging Biden to run.
On his first day in office, the president signed an executive order combating discrimination across the federal government; days later, he rescinded a ban on transgender service members in the military. The White House also pointed to Biden’s State of the Union address in March, when he decried an “onslaught” of GOP-sponsored legislation in states targeting transgender youth, whom he addressed directly: “I’ll always have your back as your president, so you can be yourself and reach your God-given potential.”
Fourteen percent of Biden’s appointees identify as LGBTQ, the White House said, including many in front-facing roles. Transportation Secretary PETE BUTTIGIEG is the country’s first openly gay Cabinet secretary. As press secretary, KARINE JEAN-PIERRE represents the administration every day at the briefing room podium. STUART DELIVERY, who became White House counsel in July, is the first openly gay person to serve in that role. And whenever Biden hosts or meets with heads of state, Gifford is the first one greeting them when their limousines pull up to the West Wing portico.
“It wasn’t that long ago that someone in my position couldn’t be openly gay, because you couldn’t get a security clearance,” he said.
"There are a lot of people in our community who have seen his record and are motivated by it and want to come work for him,” said GAUTAM RAGHAVAN, who, as deputy director of the Office of Presidential Personnel, oversees hiring across the administration.
DEMETRE DASKALAKIS, a prominent gay doctor and infectious disease specialist was appointed in August to serve as deputy coordinator of the administration’s monkeypox response. On his first day at the White House, Daskalakis recalled, Biden spoke to him and ROBERT FENTON, the top monkeypox coordinator, in surprisingly personal terms about the virus's impact on the LGBTQ community. He urged them to ensure that gay Americans know their health and well-being was a top priority for the White House.
To Raghavan, Biden’s legacy on equality issues is well cemented. But a bill signing in the weeks ahead once the Respect for Marriage Act reaches his desk would punctuate a sea change in American life.
“To me, and I think to a lot of people like me, to see the president of the United States sign something like this, it is a very important symbolic affirmation of our relationships,” Raghavan said.
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