Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden appeared at a Thursday night town hall event where he spoke to the parent of a transgender daughter about rights in the U.S.
During his discussion, Biden seemed to suggest that a child should be able to change their gender if they decided it was something they wanted to do.
What are the details?
During the town hall event, the mother of a transgender child asked Biden how he would protect the LGBTQ community if he were elected president.
According to CBS News, Mieke Haeck, parent of a transgender child, asked Biden, “The Trump administration has attacked the rights of transgender people, banning them from military service, weakening nondiscriminatory protections, and even removing the word ‘transgender’ from some government websites.”
“How will you, as president, reverse this dangerous and discriminatory agenda and ensure that the lives and rights of LGBTQ people are protected?” Haeck concluded.
Biden, in response, said he would “flat-out change the law.”
“I would just flat-out change the law,” he said. “I would eliminate [Trump’s] executive orders, number one.”
The Democratic nominee also highlighted a story from his childhood, where he said he witnessed a gay couple kissing and embracing. Biden said he recalled his father very simply explaining the show of affection between the two men.
“You may recall I’m the guy who said, uh, I was raised by a man who — I remember I was being dropped off, my dad was a high school-educated, well-read man who was a really decent guy, and I was being dropped off to get an application in the center of our city, Bloomington, Delaware, the corporate capital of the world at the time,” Biden said during the event. “And these two men — I’m getting out to get an application to be a lifeguard in the African-American community because there was a big swimming pool complex — and, uh, these two men, well dressed, leaned up and hugged one another and kissed one another, and I’m getting out of the car at the light and I turned to my dad, and my dad looked at me and said, ‘Joey, it’s simple, they love each other.'”
Biden also said that Haeck’s daughter should not suffer any discrimination for who she is.
“The idea that an 8-year-old child or a 10-year-old child decides, ‘You know, I decided I want to be transgender, that’s what I think I’d like to be. It’d make my life a lot easier.’ There should be zero discrimination,” Biden said. “And what’s happening is too many transgender women of color are being murdered. They’re being murdered.”