First Lady Jill Biden said that former President Trump is “dangerous” to the LGBTQ+ community, slamming her husband’s main general election rival at Pittsburgh’s annual Pride festival on Saturday.
Biden, apart from going after Trump, talked about the headway the LGBTQ+ community has made but also warned of challenges that are still ahead.
“Donald Trump is a bully,” Biden said while at the Allegheny Commons Park, according to The Advocate. “He’s dangerous to the LGBTQ+ community, to our families, to our country, and we cannot let him win. We have to meet this moment as if our fundamental rights are at stake because they are. We have to meet this moment as if our democracy is on the line because it is.”
Biden, who earlier in the day addressed Erie County Community College graduates, reflected on the importance of gathering every June to celebrate the progress the LGBTQ+ community has made. She also mentioned the areas where more work needs to be done.
“It shouldn’t take courage to go to school and walk down the halls as the person you know you are, to take someone’s hand on the bus, to kiss them goodbye on the sidewalk,” she said on Saturday. “But in too many places, it still does.”
Biden’s presence in Pennsylvania and remarks at the festival are another endeavor to court voters ahead of the November election in a battleground state that her husband won by roughly 80,000 votes in 2020. While President Biden has struggled recently in head-to-head polling against Trump, the first lady said she is optimistic the polls will turn in their favor as the campaign ramps up and voter interest rises closer to the contest.
“We are going to meet people where they are,” she said on Wednesday. “I’ve been traveling every single day, Joe has been traveling as much as possible, and we’re not going to take anything for granted, and those polls are going to turn, I’m confident of it.”