Biden: Transgender Discrimination Is ‘Civil Rights Issue of Our Time’

Vice President Joe Biden, in an exchange with a woman in Sarasota, Fla., called transgender discrimination the “civil rights issue of our time,” Politico reported.

Biden notably came out in favor of same sex marriage before President Barack Obama did earlier in the year. Last month, he met with up-and-coming lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender leaders from around the country at his home in Washington.

Biden, who was on his way out of an Obama campaign office, spoke to a woman who he said had beautiful eyes and had a brief exchange with her.

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A reporter covering Biden noted that the woman said something inaudible to the vice president, to which he responded, the "civil rights issue of our time."

The woman was later asked about the exchange. Linda Carragher Bourne of Sarasota said her daughter was Miss Trans New England and asked if Biden would help them.

"A lot of my friends are being killed, and they don't have the civil rights yet. These guys are gonna make it happen," she said.

In August, Biden told gay supporters in Provincetown, Mass., “Many of you have advanced civil rights at great expense,” he said. “If I had to use one adjective to describe this community it’d be courage. You have summoned the courage to speak out, to come out. We owe you.”