Who Is Senator Joe Biden? - By Mark R. Kerr

First elected to the U.S. Senate from Delaware in 1972, Joe Biden is currently the chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime.

Biden, 65, brings to the Democratic ticket a strong but not perfect record on LGBT rights accumulated since he was elected to the Senate in 1972. He received a score of 78 percent on the Human Rights Campaign’s 2006 Congressional Scorecard.

On issues of concern to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) and HIV/AIDS communities:

Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) - Biden supports ENDA, co-sponsoring the 2002 bill, and has voted for the measure since its first introduction in 1996.

Biden believes that federal employees in legally recognized, committed relationships should not be discriminated against on the basis of sexual orientation.

HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment - Biden co-sponsored legislation to send $600 million in aid to developing countries over the next two years to fight HIV and AIDS in 2000.

Biden was a co-sponsor of the original Ryan White Care Act and has supported all reauthorization efforts. Biden supports comprehensive and age appropriate sex-education that includes science-based prevention methods.

He led the passage of the bipartisan PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) bill, which ended the immigration and travel ban of people who are HIV+ who want to come to the United States.

Military ban (Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell) - Biden indicated that he believes the privacy protections articulated in the 2003 Lawrence v. Texas ruling, which overturned that state's sodomy law - should be extended to those serving in the military.

As chairman of the influential Foreign Relations Committee, Biden supports ending the "don’t ask, don’t tell" policy that prohibits gays and lesbians from serving openly in the U.S. military. Senator Biden invoked first-hand observations of combat zones to criticize the policy in 2007 when he said, “Let me tell you something, nobody asked anybody else whether they're gay in those foxholes.”

Hate crimes laws - supports sexual orientation and Transgender-inclusive hate crimes laws, Biden voted in support in 2000 and 2002. Biden is a co-sponsor of the Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007.

Civil unions and domestic partnerships - Biden is supportive but did not co-sponsor Uniting Americans Families Act (giving partnership rights to bi-national couples).

Biden supported protecting the District of Columbia’s domestic partnership law allowing unmarried couples, including same-sex couples, to register as domestic partners and encouraging businesses in the District to provide health and other benefits to partners. Biden believes that committed adults who are adopting should not be discriminated against on the basis of sexual orientation.

Same-sex marriage - Biden is opposed but voted against the proposed Federal Marriage and the Marriage Protection amendments to the U.S. Constitution in 2004 and 2006. He stated in 2003 that he believes same-sex marriage is inevitable, he currently supports civil unions that would grant the same legal rights as marriage.

As Biden said in Springfield, Illinois Saturday (August 23) about John McSame and his many houses, “Ladies and gentlemen, your kitchen table is like mine. You sit there at night before you put the kids -- after you put the kids to bed and you talk, you talk about what you need. You talk about how much you are worried about being able to pay the bills. Well, ladies and gentlemen, that's not a worry John McCain has to worry about. It's a pretty hard experience. He'll have to figure out which of the seven kitchen tables to sit at.”

Biden is a good addition to the ticket and will help Barack Obama to be the 44th President of the United States.