Politics
Does Obama deserve credit for growing marriage equality support?
White House won’t call on remaining Dems to back gay nuptials
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said the country deserves credit for Senate support of marriage equality. (Blade file photo by Michael Key)
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said on Monday the “country deserves credit” for the recent trend of U.S. senators endorsing marriage equality when asked if President Obama was responsible for the sudden wave of support.
In response to a question from the Washington Blade on whether Obama deserves credit for setting a trend with his announcement in favor of marriage equality in May that allowed other public officials to follow suit, Carney redirected responsibility to the American people.
“The country deserves credit,” Carney said. “It’s been a remarkable evolution and represents an embrace of the basic principles of equality that the president feels strongly about, that Americans across the country feel strongly about. And I think I can safely say that the president hopes it continues.”
But Carney declined to criticize the Democratic U.S. senators who haven’t come out for marriage equality — now down to just Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) — when asked if they should make similar announcements.
“Obviously, each individual — whether an elected lawmaker or anyone else makes this evaluation, decision himself or herself,” Carney said. “So the president spoke about his views in that interview that you made reference to, and other lawmakers have been doing so recently as there have been other issues related to this being debated and discussed. But he was not — and is not — in a position to pass judgment on others, [but] simply to say what he believes very strongly.”
Carney made his remarks just moments before Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) issued a statement declaring his support for marriage equality, making him the 54th U.S. senator to come out in support of marriage rights for gay couples.
“After lengthy consideration, my views have evolved sufficiently to support marriage equality legislation,” Johnson said. “This position doesn’t require any religious denomination to alter any of its tenets; it simply forbids government from discrimination regarding who can marry whom.”
Just last week, six senators came out in favor of marriage equality: Sens. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) and Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.). Others who’ve recently made similar announcements are Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Kay Hagan (D-N.C.). Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Mark Begich (D-Alaska) also confirmed they support marriage equality.
Two of the remaining three Democratic senators who haven’t come out for marriage equality — Landrieu and Pryor — have recently made statements on the issue. The Blade is unaware of any recent public statements Manchin has made on the subject.
In a recent interview with CNN, Landrieu suggested that while she personally believes same-sex couples should be able to marry — saying “people should love who they love and marry who they want to marry” — she’s unable to officially take that position because her state has passed a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Landrieu is up for re-election next year in a state that’s consistently “red” in presidential elections.
“My state has a very strong constitutional amendment not only against gay marriage but against gay partnerships,” Landrieu said. “So I’m looking at the people of Louisiana trying to represent their interests,” she said.
A local media outlet in Arkansas, 5News, reported last week that Pryor was undecided on the issue of marriage equality, but the station subsequently reported that Pryor had issued a clarifying statement via email saying he opposes same-sex marriage and the issue on which he was undecided was benefits for gay couples. Like Landrieu, Pryor is up for re-election next year in a “red” state.
“I am opposed to gay marriage,” Pryor was quoted as saying. “In the interview with KFSM done on April 5, I also discussed whether gay couples should receive benefits if they work for the federal government. On the benefits issue, I said to ‘put me down in the undecided category.’ By that I meant that, depending on what the U.S. Supreme Court decides, I will evaluate whether federal benefits should be available to gay couples. Of course, I will consider the impact any extension of benefits would have on the federal budget.”
Another senator who hasn’t come out for marriage equality, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), has been closely watched because of her support for LGBT rights issues and leadership in the Senate on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal. In an interview last week with the Associated Press, Collins refused to state her position, saying “My philosophy has been to stay out of state issues.”
Watch the video of the Blade’s exchange with Carney here:
Congress
House passes reconciliation with gender-affirming care funding ban
‘Big Beautiful Bill’ now heads to the Senate
The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday voted 215-214 for passage of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” reconciliation package, which includes provisions that would prohibit the use of federal funds to support gender-affirming care.
But for an 11th hour revision of the bill late Wednesday night by conservative lawmakers, Medicaid and CHIP would have been restricted only from covering treatments and interventions administered to patients younger than 18.
The legislation would also drop requirements that some health insurers must cover gender-affirming care as an “essential health benefit” and force states that currently mandate such coverage to find it independently. Plans could still offer coverage for transgender care but without the EHB classification patients will likely pay higher out of pocket costs.
To offset the cost of extending tax cuts from 2017 that disproportionately benefited the wealthiest Americans, the reconciliation bill contains significant cuts to spending for federal programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
The Human Rights Campaign criticized House Republicans in a press release and statement by the group’s president, Kelley Robinson:
“People in this country want policies and solutions that make life better and expand access to the American Dream. Instead, anti-equality lawmakers voted to give handouts to billionaires built on the backs of hardworking people — with devastating consequences for the LGBTQ+ community.
“If the cuts to programs like Medicaid and SNAP or resources like Planned Parenthood clinics weren’t devastating enough, House Republicans added a last minute provision that expands its attacks on access to best practice health care to transgender adults.
“This cruel addition shows their priorities have never been about lowering costs or expanding health care access–but in targeting people simply for who they are. These lawmakers have abandoned their constituents, and as they head back to their districts, know this: they will hear from us.”
Senate Republicans are expected to pass the bill with the budget reconciliation process, which would allow them to bypass the filibuster and clear the spending package with a simple majority vote.
Changes are expected as the bill will be reviewed and amended by committees, particularly the Finance Committee, and then brought to the floor for debate — though modifications are expected to focus on Medicaid reductions and debate over state and local tax deductions.
Congress
Gerry Connolly dies at 75 after battle with esophageal cancer
Va. congressman fought for LGBTQ rights
Democratic U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia died on Wednesday, according to a statement from his family.
The 75-year-old lawmaker, who served in Congress since 2009, announced last month that he will not seek reelection and would step down from his role as the top Democrat on the powerful U.S. House Oversight Committee because his esophageal cancer had returned.
“We were fortunate to share Gerry with Northern Virginia for nearly 40 years because that was his joy, his purpose, and his passion,” his family said in their statement. “His absence will leave a hole in our hearts, but we are proud that his life’s work will endure for future generations.”
“He looked out for the disadvantaged and voiceless. He always stood up for what is right and just,” they said.
Connolly was memorialized in statements from colleagues and friends including House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson (La.), former President Joe Biden, and U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.).
Several highlighted Connolly’s fierce advocacy on behalf of federal workers, who are well represented in his northern Virginia congressional district.
The congressman also supported LGBTQ rights throughout his life and career.
When running for the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in 1994, he fought the removal of Washington Blade newspapers from libraries. When running in 2008 for the U.S. house seat vacated by Tom Davis, a Republican, Connolly campaigned against the amendment to Virginia’s constitution banning same-sex marriage and civil unions in the state.
In Congress, he supported the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on marriage equality, the Biden-Harris administration’s rescission of the anti-trans military ban, and the designation within the State Department of a special LGBTQ rights envoy. The congressman also was an original cosponsor of the Equality Act and co-sponsored legislation to repeal parts of the Defense of Marriage Act.
Congress
Marjorie Taylor Greene’s bill to criminalize gender affirming care advances
Judiciary Committee markup slated for Wednesday morning
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.)’s “Protect Children’s Innocence Act,” which would criminalize guideline-directed gender affirming health care for minors, will advance to markup in the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday morning.
Doctors and providers who administer medical treatments for gender dysphoria to patients younger than 18, including hormones and puberty blockers, would be subject to Class 3 felony charges punishable by up to 10 years in prison if the legislation is enacted.
LGBTQ advocates warn conservative lawmakers want to go after families who travel out of state to obtain medical care for their transgender kids that is banned or restricted in the places where they reside, using legislation like Greene’s to expand federal jurisdiction over these decisions. They also point to the medically inaccurate way in which the bill characterizes evidence-based interventions delineated in standards of care for trans and gender diverse youth as “mutilation” or “chemical castration.”
Days into his second term, President Donald Trump signed “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” an executive order declaring that the U.S. would not “fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit” medical treatments and interventions intended for this purpose.
Greene, who has introduced the bill in years past, noted the president’s endorsement of her bill during his address to the joint session of Congress in March when he said “I want Congress to pass a bill permanently banning and criminalizing sex changes on children and forever ending the lie that any child is trapped in the wrong body.”
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