Trans Americans Lose a Champion of Equality
On Saturday May 30, Joseph Robinette “Beau” Biden III, the eldest son of Vice President Joe Biden died after battling brain cancer for several years. Beau Biden was a vibrant supporter of marriage equality and transgender civil rights when he was the state Attorney General of Delaware.
Beau Biden was the rising star of a family dynasty, a Major in the Delaware Army National Guard’s Judge Advocate General Corps, was one of his state’s most popular public figures and according to the Washington Post, he had been considered the frontrunner for the 2016 race to become the state’s next governor.
He became a national political star in 2008 after delivering a stirring introduction of his father at the Democratic National Convention in Denver on the night Joe Biden accepted the nomination as vice president, and a little more than a month later Beau Biden deployed to Iraq and served there for one year — except for a trip home in January 2009 to see his father take the oath of office as vice president.
I chatted with Joe Biden several times after we first met during the 2004 presidential campaign. However, it was not until the late spring of 2009 when he was vice president that we talked about the need for transgender equality and an inclusive ENDA at a DNC LGBT event. I was pleasantly surprised that he “got it” right away!
In the fall of 2012, most Americans were surprised that Vice President Joe Biden said that transgender discrimination is the “civil rights issue of our time” during a visit with volunteers at an Obama for America field office in Sarasota, Fla. This was in answer to Linda Carragher Bourne, the mother of a young trans woman, who had told him that she was concerned about her daughter’s safety and lack of civil rights.
I’m taking an educated guess that by that time a young politically connected, savvy and personable transgender woman, a friend of the Biden families, ( Both Joe and Beau) Sarah McBride had already come out to them, since it was reported that she had come out to Delaware Governor Jack Markell.
As an intern Sarah became the first openly transgender person to work in the White House.
In January 2013 I sat on a panel in Dover, Delaware sponsored by the Delaware Stonewall Democrats to talk about transgender discrimination and the need for and viability of transgender civil rights. I joined two young local panelists who really impressed. One was Sarah McBride. What really convinced me that this legislation that was to be introduced later that spring was going to succeed, was meeting Sarah’s mother, Sally McBride. Charming and fully supportive!
It was a few days later, in Washington DC that I finally met Beau Biden. I told him that I had just met Sarah and her mom, talked about a mutual political friend of his Dad, talked about my friends on the Barbara Gittings Delaware Stonewall Democrats who were big supporters of his, and of course talked about the need for transgender rights in Delaware. Beau impressed me as being a “mench” and having a very bright political future.
I followed the LGBT movement and the legislative events of 2013 in Delaware closely. There was anxiety created by a history of disappointment in so many states, but my gut told me that this was going to be a win/win!
Sure enough, right after the passage of marriage equality in May of 2013, Beau Biden took a front row seat in support of SB 97, which would add protections in housing, employment, public accommodations, and health insurance based on gender identity and expression to Delaware’s anti-discrimination laws.
“I support providing protections from violence and discrimination based on gender identity and expression under Delaware law,” Biden says in a new video for Equality Delaware. “I will work with our General Assembly to pass legislation that will provide such protections this year.”
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“[She] has spoken to me about her fear of living without basic legal protections,” Biden, the son of the vice president, says of a conversation he had with a young transgender woman.
Success! It passed in the Assembly and the Senate!
Barely a month after signing legislation enabling marriage equality for gay and lesbians, Delaware Governor Jack Markell signed the transgender equality legislation into law. Unlike many states such as Massachusetts and New York, Delaware had strong political leaders by AG Beau Biden and Gov. Markell, the LGBT community worked together and their actions reflected their words.
We have lost a Champion!
President Obama quoted Ireland’s most beloved poet in his statement paying tribute to both Beau and his father.
“‘I have believed the best of every man,’ wrote the poet William Butler Yeats, ‘And find that to believe it is enough to make a bad man show him at his best or even a good man swing his lantern higher.’
Beau Biden believed the best of us all. For him, and for his family, we swing our lanterns higher. Michelle and I humbly pray for the good Lord to watch over Beau Biden, and to protect and comfort his family here on Earth.”
Beau Biden’s Obituary in The Advocate.
Category: Obituary, Transgender Community News, Transgender Politics