LISTEN: Biden Says Marriage Equality Case Could Be Next Brown v. Board of Education

Vice President Joe Biden has high hopes about the outcome of last week’s historic Supreme Court hearing on marriage equality.

At the Gill Foundation’s OutGiving Dinner Saturday, Biden spoke to a crowd of LGBT power players about how important Obergefell v. Hodges is to the landscape of American civil rights, and even about how it is just as important of a case as Brown v. Board of Education, which led to the Supreme Court's landmark 1954 ruling that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.

“If the court does the right thing, this is going to be consequential,” Biden said in his speech. “Mary [Bonauto] is going to be as remembered as Brown versus school board and Thurgood Marshall, it’s that fundamental.” Marshall was the lawyer who argued before the high court against segregation; he later became the first black Supreme Court justice.

Biden also mentioned in his speech at the OutGiving Dinner  — an event that focuses on ending anti-LGBT discrimination — that the LGBT people responsible for the most “dramatic cultural shift of the last decade.” 

“It's because so many of you, men and women in this room of character and consequence, were willing to step forward early, risking your positions, risking in some cases your physical security,” he said. “You stepped up and you spoke out. You've changed the basic politics of this nation, because of all that you've done.”

Listen to Biden’s entire speech below.