Vice President Joe Biden has canceled a
speech at the Human Rights Campaign's (HRC) 17th annual
National Dinner.
Biden was scheduled to give the keynote
address at Saturday's event which is expected to draw more than 3,400
people to the District of Columbia's Washington Convention Center.
HRC is the nation's largest LGBT rights advocate.
The AP cited the partial shutdown of
the federal government, which has forced hundreds of thousands of
federal workers on furlough, as the reason behind the cancellation.
HRC President Chad Griffin called Biden
“a champion of civil rights for his entire career” in announcing
the vice president's participation.
Biden, considered a possible 2016
presidential candidate, is credited with pushing President Barack
Obama to support marriage equality during the 2012 presidential
campaign.
(Related: Joe
Biden calls gay marriage the “issue of our day.”)