“We can change the culture,” Joe Biden said. Biden Foundation established to push for equal rights

Former Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, announced Wednesday that they will launch a foundation to champion equal rights for all people.

The Biden Foundation will advance issues important to the former vice president, such as supporting the Cancer Moonshot Initiative , the Violence Against Women Act, military families, equal rights and affordable education, focusing on community colleges.


“The Biden Foundation is an educational foundation dedicated to exploring the ways that everyone — no matter their income level, race, gender, age, or sexuality — can expect to be treated with dignity and to receive a fair shot at achieving the American Dream,” the announcement read.

In a video announcing the foundation, Biden said he was “more optimistic” than he had even been, praising the millennial generation as “the most open, most tolerant, most generous generation in American history.” He discussed the societal evolution on gay marriage as an example of how societal shifts are possible.

“We can change the culture,” Biden said. “We are at an inflection point in the fight against cancer that didn’t exist four or five years ago. We can change people’s lives.”

The foundation’s board will include longtime Biden adviser and former Sen. Ted Kaufman; Valerie Biden Owens, the former vice president’s sister; and other supporters and former aides.

