Comments on: HRC scorecard shows drop in support for LGBT rights in Congress

By: Rebecca Juro

Rebecca Juro — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 20:08:07 +0000

Perhaps not mathematically, but this is politics and that means that when you start asking politicians about issues they're not comfortable supporting, especially something as controversial as same-sex marriage, they run for the exits, even when they may be willing to support more popular issues like workplace rights.

By: Danelle Wilbraham

Danelle Wilbraham — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 04:23:33 +0000

They asked them about marriage equality, but it was not factored into the score. As it says above, "HRC spokesperson Paul Guequierre told the Washington Blade that the answers lawmakers gave to the question on whether they support legalizing same-sex civil marriage was not included in the calculation of the scores assigned to House and Senate members."

By: Rebecca Juro

Rebecca Juro — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 04:01:36 +0000

Interesting. HRC adds support for marriage rights as part of their overall scoring for the first time, support for LGBT rights in general drops dramatically. What a coincidence, huh? While certainly the addition of anti-gay members in the 112th Congress was a factor, what I'd like to know is how big of a drop in support for LGBT would there have been if support for same-marriage wasn't a factor in the scoring? Call it a hunch, but I strongly suspect the drop wouldn't have been anywhere near as steep.