Mark Pocan eviscerates GOP lawmakers for trying to strip LGBTQ+ funding from appropriations bill

In a blatant display of anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry yesterday, House Republicans proposed and voted through an amendment to strip funding for LGBTQ+-focused projects from a major appropriations bill tied to Transportation Department funding.

Out Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) excoriated Republican members for the “insane” and “bigoted” culture-war smear.

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“This is spitting on every person who is LGBTQ+,” Pocan said in an emotional rebuke to GOP colleagues on the Appropriations Committee.

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Ranking member Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) called the amendment “a disgrace” and compared it to “negotiating with terrorists.”

Republicans singled out three earmarks, previously approved in committee, from more than 3000 items in the budget introduced by individual lawmakers to benefit their districts.

The three earmarks included $1.8 million in funding for the historic William Way LGBT Community Center in Philadelphia, $970,000 for an LGBTQ center in Reading, PA, and $850,000 for a Massachusetts group that supports housing for older LGBTQ+ Americans.

After a heated debate that forced the committee into recess three times over the course of business, the amendment was adopted in a party-line vote, 32-26.

Pocan was in disbelief at the raw bigotry on display among Republican committee members and warned colleagues that the GOP was sliding head-first down a slippery slope and inciting hate along the way.

“Did I share with you,” Pocan ask Republicans, “when I first ran for office where they wrote ‘dead f***ot’ over [my] face and sent it in the mail? The time that when I wasn’t out yet, I left a gay bar and two people followed me and beat me with a baseball bat till I was bloodied unconscious, and called me a f***ot? This is what you guys do!”

Pocan asked colleagues to compare the GOP’s homophobia with racism.

“If you were to take away earmarks because they went to the NAACP or the Urban League,” Pocan said, his voice rising, “you would rightfully so be called racist bigots! But when you do it to the LGBT community, it’s another frickin’ day in Congress.”

“This is below the dignity of this committee,” the congressman lamented. Democrats applauded his effort.

If the @HouseGOP took away earmarks from the NAACP or the Urban League because they serve the Black community, they'd rightfully be called racist bigots.

Stripping funding from LGBTQI+ groups, however, is just another day in Congress for these extremists.

Enough is enough. pic.twitter.com/YwaRyDX3OY

— Rep. Mark Pocan (@RepMarkPocan) July 18, 2023

Historically, lawmakers have broad discretion over earmarks approved for their districts. Striking them out later in the budget process is exceptionally rare.

Adding insult to injury, the amendment introduced by Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) also bans funds for Pride flag displays and “discriminatory action” against opponents of same-sex marriage.

In the end, despite the hateful display and party-line vote, Republicans can’t count on the LGBTQ+ projects losing funding, or the final passage of the other provisions.

After the vote, Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL), the ranking member on the Transportation committee, offered a proposal to replace money for the LGBTQ+ centers, and the entire budget faces reconciliation with the Democratic-controlled Senate later this summer.