March 14, 2023
Watch: President Biden Opposes Florida's Anti-Gay Legislation – 'Close to Sinful'
READ TIME: 1 MIN.
President Joe Biden took a strong stand on LGBTQ+ rights in Florida on the Daily Show Monday night with host and former Obama administration staffer Kal Penn.
"Biden denounced Florida legislation restricting LGBTQ rights as 'cruel' and 'close to sinful' in a Monday night appearance on 'The Daily Show,'" NBC News said.
"Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a likely 2024 GOP presidential candidate, and the state's Republican-dominated legislature have enacted laws that ban classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in primary schools. They are also considering bills to block medical care, including puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery, for transgender youth, and to grant courts emergency jurisdiction over children who might receive gender-affirming care. The state is at the start of its 2023 legislative session, and is considering several other bills to further chip away at LGBTQ rights," NBC News reported.
"What's going on in Florida is, as my mother would say, 'close to sinful,'" Biden said. "It's just terrible what they're doing."
"It's not like a kid wakes up one morning and says, 'You know, I decided I want to become a man or I want to become a woman," he added. "I mean, what are they thinking about here? They're human beings, they love, they have feelings, they have inclinations. It's cruel."
DeSantis responded on Tuesday in a tweet, saying "It is not 'sinful' to prohibit the mutilation of minors. It is not acceptable for the federal government to mandate that procedures like sex change operations be allowed for kids."
Watch Biden on "The Daily Show" below:
