Out Rep. Mark Pocan explains why he has framed rubber gloves in his office

Out Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) posted a story to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that showed just how different things were for LGBTQ+ people not even three decades ago.

Pocan explained that he has a framed pair of rubber gloves in his office due to an incident that occurred in 1995, when he and 49 other out gay elected officials were invited to the White House.

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The Washington Post reported on the incident in 1995, reporting that Secret Service Director Eljay B. Bowron regretted the “unfortunate actions” of the Secret Service agents.

“It is not the policy of the Secret Service to wear gloves merely based on known sexual preference,” he said at the time. He promised a “special training session directed specifically at these matters.”

Gore said that he was “appalled” that the Secret Service used gloves and that he made it a point to shake hands with every elected official who was invited.

Refusing to touch people in normal and socially accepted ways has long been one of the many microaggressions faced by LGBTQ+ people, whose bodies have often been labeled disgusting or toxic. More than half of the LGBTQ+ respondents to a 2009 Lambda Legal survey on medical discrimination said that they had experienced microaggressions in a medical setting that included, among others, “health care professionals refusing to touch them or using excessive precautions.”