Biden says Florida transgender moves 'close to sinful'

WASHINGTON - President Joe Biden took aim at a potential rival in the 2024 election Monday when he described rules meant to restrict young transgender people in Florida as "close to sinful."

In an interview with the late night Daily Show, Biden said he'd been comfortable around sexual minorities since he was in his last year of high school and first saw two men kissing.

His father, he said in a clip released early by the Daily Show, told him: "Joey, it's simple - they love each other." Biden said his attitude to LGBT issues was "simple."

"It doesn't matter whether it's same-sex or a heterosexual couple. You should be able to be married. What is the problem?"

But turning to the highly politicized treatment of the issue in Florida, where Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is expected to launch a White House challenge, Biden said "it is just terrible what they are doing."

Biden did not specify what exactly he was referring to, but DeSantis has raised his political profile by pushing back against support for transgender people in particular.

State lawmakers have banned discussion of sexuality and gender identity in most schools. And the state's medical authority has prohibited hormone therapy and other gender-affirming treatments for transgender minors.

"What's going on in Florida is, as my mother would say, close to sinful," Biden said.

"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 or I want to change.'"

Biden said he thought the pushback was "cruel."

"What are they thinking about here? They are human beings. They love. They have feelings." - AFP