Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday that the mass shooting in June at a gay nightclub in Orlando shows that gays and lesbians “are still targeted” in the U.S.
The slaughter of 49 people at the Pulse club “reminded us that LGBT individuals are still targeted in the United States just like they are in other parts of the world,” he said at a United Nations session on LGBT rights in New York.
Biden didn’t mention, however, that the gunman, Omar Mateen, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and mentioned the Boston Marathon bombers during a call to 911 in the middle of the attack. Mateen was born in New York to parents form Afghanistan.
Still, Biden said there has been widespread progress in the U.S. and around the world when it comes to changing attitudes about LGBT rights and protections for citizens. He said the U.N. meeting on the subject is the “highest level meeting to ever take place” among world leaders and officials.
“It matters — it’s the latest step to elevate the issue around the world,” he said. “And it’s important to note that we’ve seen progress.”
In the U.S., he said, anyone making fun of a gay waiter at a dinner table would have gotten away with it several years ago, but not today. “Today,” he said, the person would likely be “ostracized.”
He praised progress in such diverse countries as Ukraine and Ireland.
“If you had to bet, would you bet that Kiev, Ukraine, would hold their first ever pride parade? Would you have bet, those of Irish descent, that Ireland would amend their constitution?” he asked. “I could go on and list all of your countries that have taken steps that literally, five, 10, seven years ago, you could have never thought possible — at least I didn’t.”
He said in the U.S., “we still have a great deal of work” to do. In 30 states in America, he said, “you can get married today and fired in the afternoon for showing up at work because [employers] are still allowed to discriminate in hiring.”
