Joe Biden pretends to come out as gay during LGBTQ event, says Obama kissed him for supporting same-sex marriage in 2012
Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden had the crowd in stitches at a town hall on LGBTQ rights in Los Angeles on Thursday, October 10, after he joked about coming out as gay.
The former vice president had joined other Democratic candidates in fielding questions on LGBTQ issues during the event which was sponsored by CNN and the Human Rights Campaign, and made a cheeky double entendre about how he made his first statement supporting same-sex marriage in 2012.
"For example, when I came out and... I came out... When I publicly stated..." he said of his comments during an interview on the 'Meet the Press' in May 2012, much to the crowd's amusement.
CNN anchor Anderson Cooper interrupted and said, "That would be news if you..." However, Biden cut him off before he could complete the thought and joked, "I've got something to tell you."
"I kind of figured it out a while ago," Cooper responded.
Biden then went on to describe how gay rights and the acceptance of the LGBTQ community as a whole has changed since he was first elected to the Senate in the 1970s, when it was still very much frowned upon by the masses.
"Think about Los Angeles here," he told the crowd. "If you had a business lunch 8, 10 years ago, and there were six or seven people at the lunch, and a gay waiter came up and said something that identified himself being gay, in fact, if one of the people made fun of that waiter, the vast majority of people wouldn't have said anything at the table. Today, if you're straight as can be and look at him and say, what the hell is the matter with you? And he'd never be invited back."
The 76-yer-old then brought up the bathhouse culture in San Francisco which had caught the nation's attention in the 1980s amidst the AIDS crisis and how it was "all about around-the-clock sex."
"Back 15, 20 years ago, we talked about this... San Francisco was all about, well, you know, gay bathhouses," he said. "And everybody... It's all about around-the-clock sex. Come on, man. Gay couples are more likely to stay together longer than heterosexual couples."
He also claimed that, after publicly supporting gay marriage in 2012 during the 'Meet the Press' before the Obama administration had officially addressed it, President Obama kissed him to show his approval.
"I went in on Monday, and all the national press is saying Biden is really going to get nailed when he walks in and sees the president every morning," he said. "He got up, and he walked over to me and he said, well, you told me. He gave me a kiss. I swear to god."