(AP) — As vice president in 2012, Joe Biden endeared himself to many LGBTQ Americans by endorsing same-sex marriage even before his boss, President Barack Obama.
Now, as president-elect, Biden is making sweeping promises to LGBTQ activists, proposing to carry out virtually every major proposal on their wish lists.
One is to lift the Trump administration’s near-total ban on military service for transgender people. Biden also is backing a bill passed by the House last year that would extend federal anti-discrimination protections to LGBTQ people nationwide.
But most Senate Republicans are wary, due in part to opposition from religious conservatives who say the measure threatens religious liberty.