CNN on Saturday called the presidential
race for former Vice President Joe Biden.
CNN projected that Biden will win
Pennsylvania's 20 electoral votes. Other outlets, including the AP,
have yet to make a call in Pennsylvania. President Donald Trump has
promised to contest the election results, claiming, without evidence,
election fraud.
Equality California, the state's
largest LGBT rights advocate and the first LGBT group to back Biden
for president, cheered the news, calling Biden and Senator Kamala
Harris “the most pro-equality president and vice president in our
nation's history.”
"Harvey Milk said, 'Hope is being
able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.' The
last four years have been unquestionably dark,” Equality California
Executive Director Rick Chavez Zbur said in a statement. “But
today, we see a ray of hope in the historic election of Joe Biden and
Kamala Harris to serve as the next president and vice president of
the United States of America.”
"More Americans than ever before
have voted for the most pro-equality president and vice president in
our nation's history. We have elected leaders who see our fight for
LGBTQ+ civil rights and social justice not as a policy issue, but as
an essential struggle to fully realize the promise of America.”
"This election is not the end of
our battle, but the beginning. We are in the middle of a devastating
pandemic that has hit our LGBTQ+ community particularly hard.
Hundreds of children ripped from their parents' arms at the border
have not yet been reunited. Transgender women of color face an
epidemic of violence, and we have yet to fully reckon with centuries
of racial injustice in America. And this election has laid bare deep
divisions in our nation and cracks in the fundamental institutions of
our democracy in desperate need of repair. We have our charge, and I
believe with all my heart that our community is up to the task.
Together, we will meet this moment as we have others throughout
history, and soon with two incredible partners in the White House,”
he added.
National Center for Lesbian Rights
(NCLR) Executive Director Imani Rupert-Gordon said the group is
celebrating Biden's historic victory.
“President-Elect Joe Biden has long
been a champion of our community and he has promised the most
LGBTQ-inclusive administration that has ever been in the White
House,” Rupert-Gordon said in a statement. “[T]oday we are
celebrating. Celebrating that an administration that made a
commitment to honor our community will have the opportunity to do so.
And NCLR will be there every step of the way to make sure they do.”