Politics
Republican Pa. state lawmaker comes out
Fleck says he’s still ‘a servant of God and the public’

A Republican state lawmaker in Pennsylvania came out in an interview a local newspaper published on Saturday.
“Coming out is hard enough, but doing it in the public eye is definitely something I never anticipated,” state Rep. Mike Fleck told the Huntingdon (Pa.) Daily News. “I’m still the exact same person and I’m still a Republican and most importantly, I’m still a person of faith trying to live life as a servant of God and the public. The only difference now is that I will also be doing so as honestly as I know how.”
Fleck, who became an Eagle Scout in 1991, has represented portions of Blair, Huntingdon and Mifflin Counties in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives since voters first elected him in Nov. 2006. The 1995 graduate of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., became a district executive for the Boy Scouts of America once he earned his degree in history with a minor in youth ministry and returned to Huntington County in central Pennsylvania.
The organization in July reaffirmed its ban on out members and openly gay scoutmasters and troop leaders. Fleck told the Huntingdon Daily News his “livelihood depended on hiding my true sexual orientation, something I was very good at.”
The newspaper further reported Fleck suppressed his homosexuality throughout his 20s. He married his wife in 2002 after they dated for two years.
“She was everything I could have ever asked for and to this day she is still my best friend,” Fleck told the Huntingdon Daily News. “I sought out treatment from a Christian counselor, but when that didn’t work out, I engaged a secular therapist who told me point blank that I was gay and that I was too caught up in being the perfect Christian rather than actually being authentic and honest.”
The newspaper reported that Fleck and his wife separated last year — he said they “became closer than ever before, but it was bittersweet as we both concluded that the marriage was over.” Fleck told the Huntingdon Daily News he continues to reconcile his homosexuality with his Christian faith.
“Through years of counseling, I’ve met a lot of gay Christians who have tried hard to change their God-given sexual orientation, but at the end of the day, I know of none who’ve been successful,” he told the newspaper. “They’ve only succeeded at repressing their identity, only to have it reappear time and time again and always wreaking havoc not only on themselves, but especially on their family.”
Fleck came out less than seven months after Philadelphia lawyer Brian Sims became the first openly gay person elected to the state legislature when he won a seat in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Tim Brown will be the only other openly gay Republican state lawmaker in the country who’s poised to take a seat. He won election to the Ohio House of Representatives on Nov. 6.
Former Massachusetts lieutenant gubernatorial candidate Richard Tisei last month narrowly lost against incumbent Congressman John Tierney.
Fleck did not immediately return the Washington Blade’s requests for comment, but LGBT advocates in Pennsylvania and across the country welcomed his decision to come out.
“It is definitely quite a big deal,” Ted Martin, executive director of Equality Pennsylvania, told the Blade earlier on Monday. “Along with Brian [Sims] we’ll have now two openly gay legislators, so for a state like Pennsylvania that just voted Brian in in May it’s pretty remarkable.”
Victory Fund CEO Chuck Wolfe agreed.
“Coming out is never easy, but coming out in the public eye is particularly difficult,” he said, noting the Victory Fund worked with Fleck through his coming out process. “Representative Fleck made a difficult decision to be honest and open with his constituents and colleagues, and that has the power to change hearts and minds. We applaud his courage.”
“State Representative Mike Fleck is to be commended for his honesty,” Casey Pick of Log Cabin Republicans added. “The journey is never easy, but by coming out Rep. Fleck puts a human face on these issues, demonstrating that you can be a conservative, a person of faith and a good Republican while also a member of the LGBT community. Having an openly gay member of the Republican caucus in Pennsylvania brings us that much closer to achieving freedom and equality under the law.”
Martin said he hopes to discuss efforts to ban anti-LGBT discrimination in Pennsylvania and to fight bullying in the commonwealth with Fleck when they meet in the near future. He noted state law does not protect the newly out lawmaker and other gay Pennsylvanians from housing discrimination based on their sexual orientation.
“My hope is that this will actually in a larger way cause people to talk about issues in Pennsylvania just like that,” he said, specifically referring to anti-bullying and anti-discrimination efforts. “My hope is that it will give people some ability to start saying, you know what, we’ve ignored these issues for long in the legislature and in many different ways in Pennsylvania that we need to start thinking about them.”
Sims, who told the Blade he has spoken with Fleck several times in recent days, stressed the same point.
“Pennsylvania doesn’t have LGBT non-discrimination,” he said. “We’ve seen in some other states that Republicans can get behind the idea of statewide LGBT non-discrimination and I’m hoping that Rep. Fleck gives us an opportunity to really speak directly to the leadership in the state about why this is so important.”
Congress
Top Congressional Democrats reintroduce Equality Act on Trump’s 100th day in office
Legislation would codify federal LGBTQ-inclusive non-discrimination protections

In a unified display of support for LGBTQ rights on President Donald Trump’s 100th day in office, congressional Democrats, including leadership from the U.S. House and U.S. Senate, reintroduced the Equality Act on Tuesday.
The legislation, which would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, codifying these protections into federal law in areas from jury service to housing and employment, faces an unlikely path to passage amid Republican control of both chambers of Congress along with the White House.
Speaking at a press conference on the grass across the drive from the Senate steps were Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (Mass.), U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (Wis.), who is the first out LGBTQ U.S. Senator, U.S. Rep. Mark Takano (Calif.), who is gay and chairs the Congressional Equality Caucus, U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas (N.H.), who is gay and is running for the U.S. Senate, U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (N.J.), and U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (Ore.).
Also in attendance were U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride (Del.), who is the first transgender member of Congress, U.S. Rep. Dina Titus (Nev.), U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley (Ill.), and representatives from LGBTQ advocacy groups including the Human Rights Campaign and Advocates 4 Trans Equality.
Responding to a question from the Washington Blade on the decision to reintroduce the bill as Trump marks the hundredth day of his second term, Takano said, “I don’t know that there was a conscious decision,” but “it’s a beautiful day to stand up for equality. And, you know, I think the president is clearly hitting a wall that Americans are saying, many Americans are saying, ‘we didn’t vote for this.'”
A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll released Sunday showed Trump’s approval rating in decline amid signs of major opposition to his agenda.
“Many Americans never voted for this, but many Americans, I mean, it’s a great day to remind them what is in the core of what is the right side of history, a more perfect union. This is the march for a more perfect union. That’s what most Americans believe in. And it’s a great day on this 100th day to remind our administration what the right side of history is.”
Merkley, when asked about the prospect of getting enough Republicans on board with the Equality Act to pass the measure, noted that, “If you can be against discrimination in employment, you can be against discrimination in financial contracts, you can be against discrimination in mortgages, in jury duty, you can be against discrimination in public accommodations and housing, and so we’re going to continue to remind our colleagues that discrimination is wrong.”
The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which was sponsored by Merkley, was passed by the Senate in 2013 but languished in the House. The bill was ultimately broadened to become the Equality Act.
“As Speaker Nancy Pelosi has always taught me,” Takano added, “public sentiment is everything. Now is the moment to bring greater understanding and greater momentum, because, really, the Congress is a reflection of the people.”
“While we’re in a different place right this minute” compared to 2019 and 2021 when the Equality Act was passed by the House, Pelosi said she believes “there is an opportunity for corporate America to weigh in” and lobby the Senate to convince members of the need to enshrine federal anti-discrimination protections into law “so that people can fully participate.”
Politics
George Santos sentenced to 87 months in prison for fraud case
Judge: ‘You got elected with your words, most of which were lies.’

Disgraced former Republican congressman George Santos was sentenced to 87 months in prison on Friday, after pleading guilty last year to federal charges of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
“Mr. Santos, words have consequences,” said Judge Joanna Seybert of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. “You got elected with your words, most of which were lies.”
The first openly gay GOP member of Congress, Santos became a laughing stock after revelations came to light about his extensive history of fabricating and exaggerating details about his life and career.
His colleagues voted in December 2023 to expel him from Congress. An investigation by the U.S. House Ethics Committee found that Santos had used pilfered campaign funds for cosmetic procedures, designer fashion, and OnlyFans.
Federal prosecutors, however, found evidence that “Mr. Santos stole from donors, used his campaign account for personal purchases, inflated his fund-raising numbers, lied about his wealth on congressional documents and committed unemployment fraud,” per the New York Times.
The former congressman told the paper this week that he would not ask for a pardon. Despite Santos’s loyalty to President Donald Trump, the president has made no indication that he would intervene in his legal troubles.
Congress
Democratic lawmakers travel to El Salvador, demand information about gay Venezuelan asylum seeker
Congressman Robert Garcia led delegation

California Congressman Robert Garcia on Tuesday said the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador has agreed to ask the Salvadoran government about the well-being of a gay asylum seeker from Venezuela who remains incarcerated in the Central American country.
The Trump-Vance administration last month “forcibly removed” Andry Hernández Romero, a stylist who asked for asylum because of persecution he suffered because of his sexual orientation and political beliefs, and other Venezuelans from the U.S. and sent them to El Salvador.
The White House on Feb. 20 designated Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang, as an “international terrorist organization.” President Donald Trump on March 15 invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which the Associated Press notes allows the U.S. to deport “noncitizens without any legal recourse.”
Garcia told the Washington Blade that he and three other lawmakers — U.S. Reps. Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-Fla.), Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.), and Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) — met with U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador William Duncan and embassy staffers in San Salvador, the Salvadoran capital.
“His lawyers haven’t heard from him since he was abducted during his asylum process,” said Garcia.
The gay California Democrat noted the embassy agreed to ask the Salvadoran government to “see how he (Hernández) is doing and to make sure he’s alive.”
“That’s important,” said Garcia. “They’ve agreed to that … we’re hopeful that we get some word, and that will be very comforting to his family and of course to his legal team.”

Garcia, Frost, Dexter, and Ansari traveled to El Salvador days after House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) and House Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.) denied their request to use committee funds for their trip.
“We went anyways,” said Garcia. “We’re not going to be intimidated by that.”
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on April 14 met with Trump at the White House. U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) three days later sat down with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who the Trump-Vance administration wrongfully deported to El Salvador on March 15.
Abrego was sent to the country’s Terrorism Confinement Center, a maximum-security prison known by the Spanish acronym CECOT. The Trump-Vance administration continues to defy a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that ordered it to “facilitate” Abrego’s return to the U.S.
Garcia, Frost, Dexter, and Ansari in a letter they sent a letter to Duncan and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday demanded “access to” Hernández, who they note “may be imprisoned at” CECOT. A State Department spokesperson referred the Blade to the Salvadoran government in response to questions about “detainees” in the country.
Garcia said the majority of those in CECOT who the White House deported to El Salvador do not have criminal records.
“They can say what they want, but if they’re not presenting evidence, if a judge isn’t sending people, and these people have their due process, I just don’t understand how we have a country without due process,” he told the Blade. “It’s just the bedrock of our democracy.”

Garcia said he and Frost, Dexter, and Ansari spoke with embassy staff, Salvadoran journalists and human rights activists and “anyone else who would listen” about Hernández. The California Democrat noted he and his colleagues also highlighted Abrego’s case.
“He (Hernández) was accepted for his asylum claim,” said Garcia. “He (Hernández) signed up for the asylum process on an app that we created for this very purpose, and then you get snatched up and taken to a foreign prison. It is unacceptable and inhumane and cruel and so it’s important that we elevate his story and his case.”
The Blade asked Garcia why the Trump-Vance administration is deporting people to El Salvador without due process.
“I honestly believe that he (Trump) is a master of dehumanizing people, and he wants to continue his horrendous campaign to dehumanize migrants and scare the American public and lie to the American public,” said Garcia.
The State Department spokesperson in response to the Blade’s request for comment referenced spokesperson Tammy Bruce’s comments about Van Hollen’s trip to El Salvador.
“These Congressional representatives would be better off focused on their own districts,” said the spokesperson. “Instead, they are concerned about non-U.S. citizens.”
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