Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in Cleveland, Ohio, the day after the first presidential debate between him and Donald Trump. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Joe Biden condemned Donald Trump for turning a “blind eye” towards the violence inflicted on trans women of colour in a speech at an LGBT+ event.
In his pre-recorded comments, which were broadcast on Sunday at a drive-in event called Revry’s QueerX Live! in Los Angeles, Biden added that Trump had spent four years “trying to roll back protections for the LGBT+ community”.
“Denying access to health care. Denying transgender Americans a chance to serve our country. Letting adoption agencies and homeless shelters and other public services discriminate. Turning a blind eye to the epidemic of violence against transgender women of colour,” Biden said, according to the Advocate.
“Folks, the White House should never be a source of opposition or fear or oppression,” he continued. “It should be a source of hope and moral courage and unification.”
As well as ignoring the epidemic of violence faced by trans women of colour, Trump and his administration have backed moves to exclude transgender people from the military, from schools sports teams, and from homeless shelters.
Joe Biden said that if he wins on 3 November, he will pass the Equality Act and pledged to “win full rights” for trans people and the LGBT+ community.
“As president, I promise you I’m going to draw on all the best of us, not the worst,” Biden said. “I’ll be an ally to the light, not the darkness. This is a time of real peril, but it’s also a time of extraordinary possibilities.”
In October, Felycya Harris became the 31st known transgender person to be violently killed in the United States so far this year. The number of trans people violently killed in 2020 has already surpassed the number who died in similar circumstances in 2019.
According to LGBT+ rights groups, the true number of trans people violently killed is likely even higher, as many are deadnamed or their deaths are misreported by media.