Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden drew a sharp, critical response after suggesting in a Saturday speech in Seattle that businessmen mocking gay waiters at high-end restaurants was commonplace as recently as 2014. Several in the crowd took issue with the 76-year-old candidate’s implication and shouted back, “Not in Seattle!” Biden’s speech, delivered at a campaign fundraising event, was to a crowd of about 50 gathered at the home of Roger Nyhus, a wealthy public relations executive who is active in the Seattle gay right community. Biden finished the anecdote by saying that making fun of gay waiters would no longer be acceptable in 2019.
Biden’s speech in Seattle directly echoed a speech the former vice president gave at the Human Rights Campaign’s annual dinner in September of 2018. In that speech, Biden also suggested that gay, lesbian, and transgender waitstaff would have been commonly mocked by professionals at business lunches and dinners just “five to six years ago.”
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He further went on to say that waiters of high-end restaurants in Washington, D.C., who “spoke with a lisp” or “demonstrated they were gay or lesbian” could have easily become fodder for teasing by businessmen and businesswomen in those recent years. He suggested that at that time, no one would have been comfortable correcting someone making those kind of jokes saying, “no one would have said anything. Not a joke.” His speech commended the Human Rights Campaign and activists for their work since that time saying, “Today, if that same thing happened, the other four or five people at that table would say, ‘you horse’s tail, get outta here!’ Really! So guys, believe in yourselves. Believe in how much more you can do.”
