President Joe Biden discussed his record on gay marriage, but forgot that he was opposed to it at one point.
Kal Penn asked Biden during a recent interview, “I’m curious what your evolution was like on marriage equality and what the federal government might be able to do to protect LGBTQ Americans, especially trans kids who are dealing with all of these regressive state laws that are popping up right now?”
Biden brought up a memory from when he was a child.
“I can remember exactly where my epiphany was. Hadn’t thought much about it to tell you the truth and I was a senior in high school and my dad was dropping me off, and I remember about to get out of the car and I look to my right and two well-dressed men in suits kissed each other,” Biden explained.
He continued, “I mean like gave each other a kiss. And then one went, looked like he was heading into the Dupont building, one looked like he was headed to the Hercules corporation building. And I’ll never forget it, I turned and looked at my dad and he said ‘Joey, it’s simple. They love each other.’ It’s simple.”
The president reassured Penn he was not joking.
“It’s simple, they love each other. And it’s never been, it’s never been, it’s just that simple, it doesn’t matter whether it’s same-sex or a heterosexual couple, you should be able to be married. So what is the problem?” Biden added.
Watch Biden’s comments below:
Biden: “I can remember exactly when my epiphany [on supporting gay marriage] was … I was a senior in high school. And my dad was dropping me off and I remember I was about to get out of the car and I looked to my right and two well-dressed men in suits kissed each other." pic.twitter.com/0aHlUQ7ghJ
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) March 14, 2023
In 2021, The New York Times noted Biden voted for the Defense of Marriage Act that was signed by former President Bill Clinton in 1996.
The Times described the act as “legislation that came to be known as one of the biggest legislative setbacks for the gay rights movement in its history.”
Additionally, the newspaper mentioned Biden’s “musing about gay men and lesbians as security risks in 1973, and his support for a measure restricting how homosexuality was presented to schoolchildren.”
In 2006, Biden also declared marriage is “between a man and a woman.”
Biden changed his tone on the issue in 2012.
“I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women and heterosexual men and women marrying one another are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties,” Biden said at the time.