Joe Biden says MAGA Republicans want to make LGBTQ+ people 'into something scary'

"Biden's appearance at the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute's 2025 International LGBTQ+ Leaders Conference, the largest LGBTQ+ political gathering in the nation, was history-making. Speaking to a crowd of more than 550 people, the first sitting or former president to address the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute, accepted the organization's Chris Abele Impact Award, the group's highest honor, becoming only the third recipient in the Institute's history."

""This is no time to give up," Biden told the crowd. "It's time to get up - get up and fight back." He framed the moment as one of profound democratic consequence: "We believe in the power of our democracy to pull the nation together," he said, warning that "everything we're seeing coming out of this reactionary White House" makes it essential for LGBTQ+ Americans and allies to stand firm."

"Since President Donald Trump retook office in January, federal agencies have targeted LGBTQ+ people, particularly transgender Americans, through sweeping policy reversals across the government. Biden cast those actions as an assault on the American idea itself: a rejection of dignity, equality, and the constitutional promise of opportunity. "America is the only country founded on an idea," he said. "We hold these truths to be self-evident... all are created equal, all deserve to be treated with dignity throughout their lives.""

More than 550 elected LGBTQ+ leaders and candidates gathered at the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute's 2025 International LGBTQ+ Leaders Conference in Washington, D.C. Joe Biden became the first sitting or former president to address the Institute and accepted its Chris Abele Impact Award, the group's highest honor. Biden urged renewed activism, warning that recent federal policy reversals since Donald Trump retook office have targeted LGBTQ+ people, particularly transgender Americans. He framed those reversals as attacks on American ideals of dignity and equality and called on LGBTQ+ Americans and allies to stand firm and fight back.

Read at Advocate.com