Biden: Transgender Discrimination Is the 'Civil Rights Issue of Our Time

During an address to an Obama for America Florida field office on Tuesday, Vice President Joe Biden apparently told volunteers and reporters that transgender discrimination is "the civil rights issue of our time." When a woman (Biden said her beautiful eyes caught his attention) asked a question that was initially inaudible to reporters and the audience, he responded with his statement about "civil rights."

Vice President Joe Biden (Photo Credit: AP)

Later, the individual who asked the question, Linda Carragher Bourne of Sarasota, Florida, clarified the dialogue, telling the pool reporter that her daughter was Miss Trans New England. She explained her question to the vice-president -- whether he would help people like her daughter.

"A lot of my friends are being killed, and they don't have the civil rights yet. These guys are gonna make it happen," Bourne told the pool reporter.

The Washington Blade notes that it wasn't entirely clear whether Biden was referencing discrimination that is more generally waged against gays, lesbians and transgendered Americans -- or if he was specifically targeting the latter group. The Blade continues:

Biden has been among the most outspoken officials in the Obama administration in his support for LGBT rights. His endorsement of same-sex marriage preceded President Obama’s when he said in May during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he’s “absolutely comfortable” with married gay couples having the same rights as straight couples.

Over the course of the presidential campaign, Biden has engaged in LGBT outreach. Before a crowd at the prominent gay resort town of Provincetown, Mass., Biden said in August that LGBT Americans are “freeing the souls of the American people” and gay activists aren’t just fighting for their own civil rights, but the “civil rights of every straight American.”

Biden has made his support for the LGBT community clear and, if valid as reported, this is merely another one of his strongly-worded statements supporting this cohort.

(H/T: Huffington Post)