LOS ANGELES — (10-14-19) — Former vice president and current democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden, told the late Matthew Shepard‘s mom that the civil rights act must include LGBTQ people.
The current front runner for the democratic presidential nominee took part in CNN’s Equality Town Hall, where Biden told the murder victim’s mother about his continued support for the Equality Act to solidify LGBTQ civil rights.
Civil Rights Must include LGBTQ People, Says Joe Biden
Matthew-Shepard photo-Matthew-Shepard-Foundation
Former Vice President Joe Biden told LGBTQ rights figure Judy Shepard last Thursday that passing the Equality Act would come “first and foremost” should he win the presidency in 2020.
Matthew Shepard was a 21-year-old student at the University of Wyoming when he was brutally killed for simply being gay. The outrage over his death became one of the country’s most high-profile hate crimes against LGBTQ people in the USA.
Joe Biden said at CNN’s Equality Town Hall in Los Angeles that he would reduce hate crimes against LGBTQ people and other marginalized communities.
Biden made it a point to promote the importance of passing the Equality Act, which passed in the House of Representatives earlier this year.
It would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to ban discrimination “on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition of an individual, as well as because of sex-based stereotypes.”
“The Equality Act….That’s important,” said Biden
The new legislation that is still being held up in the Senate, is designed to provide anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people in areas of employment on a national level. Something that goes contradictory to the current administration’s stance on discrimination of LGBTQ people in the work place.
“The Equality Act….That’s important,” said Biden. “That’s important because it’ll change a whole range of things.”
The former VP who also help lead the fight for same-sex marriage along side former president Barack Obama said that his administration would track down hate groups who target LGBTQ people.
Judy Shepard, the mother of Matthew Shepard, asked Joe Biden what he would do to reduce hate crimes against the LGBTQ community.
Biden stressed the importance of passing the Equality Act, “first and foremost.” #EqualityTownHall https://t.co/uwN6eZAl12 pic.twitter.com/1xXlCvoEIn
— CNN (@CNN) October 11, 2019
Matthew Shepard’s parents, Judy Shepard and her husband, Dennis, founded the Matthew Shepard Foundation, an LGBTQ nonprofit that runs education and advocacy programs.
“This is a civil rights issue. It’s covered by, in my view ― the court may not agree ― this is a civil rights issue protected by the Civil Rights Act,” said Joe Biden. “And we should be focusing on how to enforce that. My Justice Department ― and I guess any one of the Democrats’ Justice Department ― will, in fact, do that.” said Biden.
Article by: Paul Goldberg, Staff Writer
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