Biden campaign focuses on Pride Month to lock down LGBT support

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The Biden campaign said Monday it will focus heavily on Pride Month events across the country to lock down support from the LGBT community, especially young people.

The campaign will have a presence at pride parades and events in at least 10 cities, and President Biden and first lady Jill Biden will host an LGBT fundraising event in New York City at the end of June.

Mr. Biden’s team will prioritize interviews with LGBT media and rely on surrogates such as LGBT advocate and Pulse nightclub survivor Brandon Wolf and Freedom to Marry founder Evan Wolfson.

Mrs. Biden kicked off Pride Month over the weekend by attending events in Pittsburgh.

Mr. Biden is trying to burnish LGBTQ support as he stares down polls that show him tied with or trailing former President Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, in major swing states.

Mr. Trump’s criminal conviction may alter the race, but there is no sign of a seismic impact.

Mr. Trump hired gay persons in senior roles during his presidency, but the Biden campaign says the Trump administration rolled back key protections.

Mr. Biden shocked the political world — and his boss, President Barack Obama — in 2012 when he offered his support for same-sex marriage during a network television interview.

“I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women, and heterosexual men and women marrying another are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties,” Mr. Biden said at the time.

The comments were a shift from stances Mr. Biden had taken earlier in his political career and prompted Mr. Obama to issue similar sentiments.

Today, the Biden campaign says the incumbent is the most pro-LGBTQ president in history, pointing to his signature on the Respect for Marriage Act to ensure that all states recognize same-sex marriage and efforts to restore health care protections for gay and transgender Americans.

“All of that progress is on the line this November,” said Sam Alleman, the national LGBTQ+ engagement director for the Biden campaign. “Donald Trump and his MAGA allies attack Americans’ rights and freedoms — and have all but promised to go after the right to love who you love, ban books, and restrict surrogacy.”

The book-banning comment was an allusion to efforts around the country to crack down on certain LGBTQ material in school curricula or public libraries. Conservatives say liberals misconstrue the effort and that they are trying to ensure that pornographic or other inappropriate material doesn’t reach children.

Mrs. Biden, speaking in Pittsburgh, said the threat to rights is real. For instance, some liberals worry the Supreme Court and its conservative majority will revisit the 2015 opinion that made same-sex marriage legal across the U.S.

“This community is under attack,” the first lady said. “Rights are being stripped away. Freedoms are eroding. More and more state laws are being passed targeting this community.”