That few seconds of meeting first lady Jill Biden on Saturday, and taking a quick photograph, was the thrill and privilege of a lifetime for Carol Mullen of Regent Square.

But what Biden had to say after about 20 minutes of meeting revelers at Pittsburgh Pride in Alle­gheny Commons Park West hit home for her.

“She said at the end of her speech that she loves us and the president does — it’s golden, there’s nothing like it,” Mullen said. “And I feel that.”

Thousands of others did, too, on a sunny Saturday afternoon. During Biden’s hourlong appearance, she spent about 20 minutes standing under the shade of a tree in the Pittsburgh park while dozens of supporters approached her with a smile for a handshake and picture.

Afterward, she hit the stage to promise that her husband, President Joe Biden, will continue to fight for the rights of the LGBTQ+ community.

“Your president and I will not let you lose the rights that we have gained,” she said during the campaign event in advance of the November election. President Biden, the Democratic Party’s apparent choice for reelection, is running against the presumptive Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump.

The appearance was a testament to how much gay pride events in Pittsburgh have evolved.

Reed Williams, Mullen’s wife, said she remembered protesters at the first pride event she attended in the mid-1980s. Despite that, they’ve always been fun, she said.

Ken Haywood of Bloomfield said the first one he attended in 1969 was much smaller and more reserved. The current pride events show that people are free to live as they choose, he said.

“I was elated that she was coming,” said Haywood, who got to meet Biden. “It’s tremendous that our Pittsburgh community would draw her attention.”

There were plenty of rainbow flags flying at Saturday’s festival, which was packed with revelers visiting booths set up by vendors and community groups and taking in musical performances while socializing.

Mullen pointed out that people of all ages were in attendance, and religious organizations had tables set up.

“That never would’ve happened (in the past),” she said. “It’s just really extraordinary.”

Biden said the election is an opportunity to keep fundamental rights and democracy intact. The LGBTQ+ community is under attack, she said.

“History teaches us that our rights and freedoms don’t disappear overnight,” she said. “They disappear slowly … silently — a book ban, a court decision, a Don’t Say Gay law. One group of people loses its rights, and then another, and then another until one morning you wake up and you no longer live in a democracy.”

But voters will have a say in how the chapter ends, Biden said.

”We have to fight like hell and win,” she said. “And when we do, we will secure a future where your courage is no longer needed. Where all people in all places can feel the freedom and the pride that we feel here today.”

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