Far-right House Republicans are now using the budget process for anti-LGBTQ+ attacks

House Republicans are on a search-and-destroy mission. They are now seeking out every opportunity to introduce amendments to defund or harm LGBTQ+ rights, no matter how far afield their measures are from the bills being discussed.

Worse still, the attacks aren’t confined to a handful of far-right members. The rest of the party is happy to go along with the assaults.

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The episode that got the most visibility was the battle over funding the military. In an effort to flex their muscles (and show House Speaker Kevin McCarthy who is really the boss), the ultra-right House Freedom Caucus attached a series of amendments to what had normally been a bipartisan bill.

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Under the amendments, the military will no longer pay for gender-affirming medical care for transgender troops, allow the pride flag to fly at military installations, or pay for personnel to travel for abortions if they live in a state that restricts them. None of these social issues have anything to do with Defense spending. The bill passed the House with nearly unanimous Republican support, even among the supposedly moderate members of the GOP.

But that’s just the fight that got the most attention. Last week, the GOP stripped funding for two LGBTQ+ community centers and an LGBTQ+ senior housing group from a House Transportation/Housing and Urban Development bill. These so-called earmarks are efforts by representatives to meet needs in their districts. By budgetary standards, the amounts involved are tiny but they make all the difference to the organizations getting the money.

Out Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) rightly called out the GOP members for their “bigoted” and “insane” behavior. As an additional insult, the amendment stripping the funding also bans spending money on pride flag displays and bans “discriminatory action” against opponents of marriage equality.

There are other examples. While she’s no longer a member of the House Freedom Caucus, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) still shares the same radical beliefs. She’s introduced a bill to strip funding from the Federal Aviation Administration for any LGBTQ+ diversity initiatives.

What’s happening is that the far-right members of Congress have decided to use the budget process to achieve their culture war goals. They know that, with just a five-vote majority in the House, McCarthy can ill afford to alienate the 40-plus members of the Freedom Caucus. Moreover, McCarthy is a spineless wonder who will do anything to keep his job, as his humiliating performance to get it proved. For the sake of party unity, all the other Republicans will go along, since they don’t want to go through the ordeal of finding a replacement for McCarthy.

Thus, the culture warriors are setting the agenda in Congress through the budget process. Their strategy is likely to continue right through to the presidential election.

What is especially frightening about the group calling the shots now is that they don’t care about any damage they cause. It’s not just the damage to the LGBTQ+ community or to women or to people of color. It’s damage to the nation as a whole.

If they don’t get their way, the far right in the House seems perfectly happy to shut the government down. They have already sent McCarthy an ultimatum with their demands for the budget. Those demands are so far-fetched for most members of Congress that they are unlikely to get through either the House or Senate.

The right-wing Republicans are willing to shut down the government and have the U.S. default on its payments if they don’t get their way. But McCarthy could lose his job if he jettisons his own members to strike a deal with Democrats on a budget bill.

The House Freedom Caucus and its allies (looking at you, Marge) don’t care that they are in the minority. And, in a way, why should they? The rest of their party has proven to be every bit as weak as McCarthy – willing to go along to avoid confrontation. If rank bigotry is the cost of smoothing things over, the party seems okay with it.

Maybe the anti-LGBTQ+ amendments will get stripped out of the bills when they are sent to the Senate for passage. But it doesn’t matter. The culture warriors have learned that the rest of the party is already complicit. In that sense, they’ve already won.