Biden Tells Frightened Trans Teen ‘I Will Call!’ — Torches ‘Hysterical and Prejudiced’ Anti-Trans Republicans At Presser
President Joe Biden took unequivocal aim at anti-trans policies and offered personal support to a trans teen that NPR’s Laura Barrón-López asked him about during an international press conference.
Biden held a joint press conference with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of the United Kingdom in the East Room of the White House Thursday, during which Barrón-López asked about recent violence over Pride month policies and anti-Trans laws targeting teens and children in Republican-led states and localities.
She also asked Biden what his message would be to a frightened transgender Texas teen whose parents she recently spoke to and said they were considering leaving the country. Biden offered to call them, then lit into “hysterical and prejudiced” Republicans enacting and supporting anti-LGBTQ laws and policies:
LAURA BARRÓN-LÓPEZ: All over the country. Mr. President, Republican-led states are passing laws, passing anti-lgbtq+ anti-transgender laws that restrict rights and medical care. Intimidation is on the rise. This week anti-LGBTQ protesters turned violent in California.
And also recently I spoke to the parents of a transgender girl in Texas who told me that they’re afraid and that they are considering leaving not just their state but the country. Sir, why do you think this is happening? And what do you say to parents like the ones that I spoke to? To those families who are contemplating leaving the country because they don’t feel safe anymore?
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Let me answer your first question. First of all, maybe quietly, when we finish this, you can give me the number of that family and I will call them and let them know that the president and this administration has their back. And I mean that.
Look, as president, I was proud to end the ban on transgender troops in our military. Signed the Respect for Marriage Act, strengthen the civil rights protections for LBGT Americans and advance LGBT human rights around the globe.
But our fight is far, far from over because we have some hysterical and I would argue, prejudiced people who are engaged in all what you see going on around the country. It’s a, it’s an appeal to fear and its appeal that is totally, thoroughly unjustified, ugly. It’s wrong for, that a person can be married in the morning in the United States and fired in the afternoon by their employer because they are, they’re gay.
It’s wrong that the violence and hate crimes targeting LGBTQ people is rising. It’s wrong that extreme officials are pushing hateful bills targeting transgender children, terrifying families, and criminalizing doctors. These are our kids. These are our neighbors. This cruel and it’s callous. Not somebody else’s kids. They’re all our kids. They’re the kids that, and our children are the coach trees that hold our national ambitions aloft. It matters a great deal how we treat everyone in this country. And the fact is that I’m announcing today a series of new initiatives that we’re taking to protect the LGBT community
Watch above via MSNBC.
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