Joe Biden, Ally, Makes Brave Campaign Stop at Stonewall Inn

Taking a page out of Taylor Swift's Public Displays of Allyship playbook, Joe Biden paid a surprise visit to the Stonewall Inn this week.

The presidential candidate, whom many have declared the frontrunner among the two-dozen Democratic nominees, popped into the storied New York City gay bar on Tuesday night, NBC News reports -- the same establishment where, 50 years ago this month, a routine (and typically humiliating or sometimes violent) police raid gave way to the rebellion that many historians consider to be the beginning of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement in the United States. Well, it's not the same establishment. After the 1969 riots, Stonewall opened and closed a few times, and everything inside is totally different. But you know what I mean! Same place! Basically.

Biden, who authored the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 -- which contributed to increased incarceration rates, especially for Black and Brown folks -- reportedly posed for selfies and "mingled with patrons," but not in the way you're thinking. In the straight way, i.e., telling gay people how inspiring they are.

"When people had the courage to come out and stand up and speak, say who they were, all of a sudden people realized, 'Whoa, these folks are just like me,'" he told the Stonewall patrons, per a local NBC affiliate. "And I'm really proud of the folks in here and the courage it took for what they did."

Do famous people know that other gay bars exist? I want a president who's been to Oops!, personally...

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