The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's largest LGBT advocate, has endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden for president.

The announcement came on the eighth anniversary of Biden's endorsement of same-sex marriage on national television.

“Vice President Joe Biden is the leader our community and our country need at this moment,” HRC President Alphonso David said in a statement. “His dedication to advancing LGBTQ equality, even when it was unpopular to do so, has pushed our country and our movement forward.”

“This November, the stakes could not be higher. Far too many LGBTQ people, and particularly those who are most vulnerable, face discrimination, intimidation, and violence simply because of who they are and who they love. But rather than have our backs, Donald Trump and Mike Pence have spent the last three and a half years rolling back and rescinding protections for LGBTQ people.”

“Joe Biden will be a president who stands up for all of us. HRC and our more than three million members and supporters will work day and night to ensure he is the next President of the United States,” he added.

Biden, who has previously spoken at HRC events, welcomed the endorsement in a statement.

“I’ve seen firsthand the Human Rights Campaign’s incredible capacity to win impossible battles and soften impenetrable hearts,” Biden said. “It’s inspiring and I am grateful to have that force by my side as we take on and win the battle for the soul of this nation.”

During a Sunday, May 6, 2012 appearance on NBC's Meet the Press, Biden told host David Gregory that he is “absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women.”

Within days, then-President Barack Obama joined Biden in backing marriage for gay and lesbian couples.

Speaking with the Washington Blade, HRC President Alphonso David discussed the group's reasons for endorsing Biden on the anniversary.

“We thought it would be most appropriate – both from a symbolic perspective, but also substantively – to make the endorsement and we made the decision that May 6 was the right date,” David said. “It reminds us where we were several years ago, when same-sex couples could not marry in so many states in the country. And Joe Biden stood up, and was very vocal about his support of LGBTQ equality and that really changed the public discourse.”

HRC called Biden's LGBT platform “the most comprehensive LGBTQ equality plan by a presumptive presidential nominee is our nation's history.”

Biden's plan includes a promise to sign an LGBT protections law known as the Equality Act and working to end HIV/AIDS by 2025.