House GOP has attacked LGBTQ+ people hundreds of times in just the past year

A new report from the Congressional Equality Caucus (CEC) released today outlines the hundreds of attacks on LGBTQ+ equality that have taken place in the House since Republicans established a majority in the chamber last year.

“When Republicans took control of the House last year, they launched an avalanche of attacks against the LGBTQI+ community,” said Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI), the chair of the CEC, which was formed in 2008 to advance LGBTQ+ equality. “The House GOP is obsessed with targeting LGBTQI+ people—especially trans kids—because it gives them a little more clout with the most extreme parts of their base.”

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“We don’t need to promote people’s sexual identity with our tax dollars. We know that people are equal, and we recognize that.”

The report, entitled “Obsessed: House Republicans’ relentless attacks against the LGBTQI+ community in 2023,” outlines how Republicans have tried to use the levers of power afforded to them in the chamber to take away rights from LGBTQ+ people. The report identified 50 anti-LGBTQ+ votes held on the House floor last year, 95 anti-LGBTQ+ amendments added to bills that the House will vote on, 40 hearings where people made anti-LGBTQ+ comments (often as the main focus of the hearing), and 55 anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced. House Republicans voted to pass several anti-LGBTQ+ bills.

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“House Republicans turned traditionally bipartisan bills into tools to attack the LGBTQI+ community in 2023,” the report reads, discussing many of the amendments to large appropriations bills that, among other things, restrict government agencies from supporting LGBTQ+ people even on social media, ban the Pride flag, defund LGBTQ+ projects or ban support for gender-affirming health care.

The report addressed provisions that required the Biden administration to support private companies that discriminate against LGBTQ+ people, calling them “license to discriminate” riders. The provisions, often attached to larger spending bills, would ban government agencies from terminating contracts or grants to organizations that refuse to hire or serve LGBTQ+ people.

The report also discusses other attacks, including how Republicans voted for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), one of the more extreme members of the GOP who has spent a large part of his career attacking LGBTQ+ people.

“Rep. Johnson has introduced several anti-LGBTQI+ bills at both the state and federal levels, including a state license to discriminate bill in Louisiana and a federal ‘Don’t Say LGBTQ+’ bill,” the report states. “He has consistently voted against pro-LGBTQI+ bills, such as the Equality Act and Respect for Marriage Act, and for anti-equality bills, such as the federal trans and intersex sports ban. He is also a cosponsor of several anti-equality bills introduced this Congress, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s federal gender-affirming care ban.”

“Before being elected as speaker, he served as Chair of the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government, where he held a hearing focused on attacking and spreading misinformation about gender-affirming care.”

“You expect bullies in school, but there are bullies walking the halls of Congress too,” Pocan said. “House Republicans need to quit their obsessive attacks against our community and do what the American public wants Congress to do—tackle the actual challenges facing everyday Americans.”