{"id":1667,"date":"2020-11-12T15:17:06","date_gmt":"2020-11-12T15:17:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewitnessexet.wpengine.com\/?p=1667"},"modified":"2021-10-10T15:14:54","modified_gmt":"2021-10-10T15:14:54","slug":"bidens-dark-history-and-bright-future-on-lgbtq-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/?p=1667","title":{"rendered":"Biden’s dark history and bright future on LGBTQIA+ rights"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>2 Minute, 59 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n

Behind the RayBans and\ngrandad-like appearance of President-elect Joe Biden, lies a politician with\ndecades of his life spent in the public eye. As a result, we have a wealth of\nhistory from which to judge his views and actions over time, particularly on the\ntopic of LGBTQ+ rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden began his career in 1979 and in his early years fell\nquite short of being supportive of LGBTQ+ rights, claiming that his \u201cgut reaction is that they [homosexuals] are security\nrisks<\/a>\u201d. He then later voted in favour of DOMA<\/a>, a piece of\nlegislation defining marriage as being between a man and a woman which has\nsince been seen as one of the biggest setbacks for LGBTQ+ rights in America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, let\u2019s not pretend Biden is just as bad as his competitor. Based on Biden\u2019s early history alone, an argument could be made for him being the lesser of two evils, but based on Biden\u2019s more recent progressive demeanour it is clear that Biden could even be a very positive force for gay rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where the Trump Administration championed a policy that banned transgender people from serving in the military, and where Pence, in particular, has refused to oppose conversion therapy, Biden was partly responsible for the repeal of Don\u2019t Ask, Don\u2019t Tell and has been credited as one of the main driving forces behind the Obama Administration\u2019s push for marriage equality<\/a>. Biden\u2019s history may be very problematic, but he\u2019s had a very clear and well-documented turnaround.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2012, Biden became the most high-ranking democrat to support gay marriage<\/a>,\ndoing so before Obama who is generally viewed to have been very strong on gay\nrights. In a similar show of support for the LGBTQ+ community, it was when\nBiden was Vice President that Don\u2019t Ask, Don\u2019t Tell was repealed, and has since\nbeen very vocal about how strongly he feels about this repeal<\/a> and\nbelieves that similar legislation against trans people serving in the military\nshould be dropped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite any history of Biden\u2019s current support or previous contempt for LGBTQ+ rights, what really matters the most is what he does while in office. Looking at his current plans for this topic, Biden aims to tackle discrimination against LGBTQ+ people, make it easier for trans people to change gender markers on official paperwork, and reinstate key legislation scrapped by Trump. One of the points that seem to stand out the most is a plan to end violence against trans women of colour- 2019 alone saw 27 gender non-conforming women murdered<\/a>, with this number likely being much higher due to misreporting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main things that are looking at being reinstated<\/a> are trans students\u2019 access to the correct bathrooms or changing rooms at school, protections against discrimination in the workplace, trans people\u2019s right to serve in the military, and protection for homeless trans people seeking shelter. All of these are extremely important pieces of legislation that will make life in America much safer for LGBTQ+ people which have been scrapped by Trump and could be brought back by Biden- undoubtedly this is a win regardless of Biden\u2019s personal history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden may have a questionable\nhistory on LGBTQ+ rights, but there is a proven trend in recent years of him\nhaving reversed his earlier positions on gay rights to become perhaps one of\nthe most vocal allies in the highest level of American politics, and it is this\nproven record that could be the needed remedy to the intolerance of the Trump\nadministration. <\/p>\n

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Behind the RayBans and grandad-like appearance of President-elect Joe Biden, lies a politician with decades of his life spent in the public eye. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":1668,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}