Politics
Was gay member lone ‘no’ vote against RNC marriage resolution?
Kabel says he received praise for speaking out against measure


Gay D.C. activist Bob Kabel says he voted against the anti-gay RNC marriage resolution. (Washington Blade photo by Henry Linser)
A gay member of the Republican National Committee may have been the lone person to oppose a resolution on Friday that included opposition to same-sex marriage.
Bob Kabel, a gay D.C. Republican activist, said he shouted “no” when the time came to vote on the group of resolutions that included the anti-gay measure — despite media reports saying they were passed unanimously. Kabel said he was unaware of any others among the 168 RNC members shouting “no” when the time came to approve the resolutions.
Kabel said the vote on the resolutions came up during the RNC meeting in Hollywood, Calif., after a motion was made to break them up so they could be voted on individually.
“That was done on a voice vote,” Kabel said. “I voted in favor of that, so that I could have voted specifically against this resolution. And then, as soon as his motion to do separate votes on each of the resolutions failed, we went immediately to voice vote. I voice voted ‘no.’ Apparently no one heard me.”
Kabel, a former special assistant on legislative affairs for President Reagan, has been active in the Republican Party for decades. Until recently, he served as chair of the D.C. Republican Party. Kabel is now a board member of Log Cabin Republicans and was among the 131 Republicans who signed an amicus brief against the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8.
On the first day of the RNC meeting, Kabel said he spoke out against the proposed resolution — which he knew in advance was going to be submitted — during a members-only breakfast and let RNC members know he opposed it because he’s a gay man.
“As I told them during the members-only meeting, this is a mistake,” Kabel said. “At a minimum, the messaging has to change, and eventually the policy has to change.”
Kabel said he also opposed the resolution because opposition to same-sex marriage is already in the 2012 Republican Party platform and because it detracts from the RNC “autopsy” report that called for outreach into the gay community.
“The platform can’t be changed until 2016 when there’s a new platform committee constituted,” Kabel said. “But I also said in following up on what I thought was an excellent part of the ‘Growth & Opportunity Project’ report on messaging that it said that this hard and fast stand against gay marriage has done a lot of damage to the party with young people. And so, I said I didn’t see the point at all in simply restating what’s already in the platform, which we only adopted six months ago.”
Following his remarks, Kabel said a number of RNC members — which he said about 30 percent of them are new — came up to him and said they appreciated his remarks and that he had the courage to come out the entire Republican National Committee. Kabel said no one objected to his remarks.
“I had a number of members come up to me and say, ‘Not everybody knew you were gay, Bob,'” Kabel said. “It’s good for people to know that there’s any openly gay person as a member of RNC. And two, you made a very good point. We should just tamper down on all this stuff.”
Kabel said no one joined him in voting “no” against the resolutions — even though his remarks were well-received — likely because there were some good resolutions in the package, including one honoring a deceased RNC member.
The gay RNC member said the media attention that the resolution has received is “unfortunate” and he wouldn’t focus “too much on just one vote” in comparison to the Growth & Opportunity Project, which took the RNC months to put together.
“That report is the first time that I’ve ever seen an RNC document with term ‘gay’ used,” Kabel said. “It was used repeatedly in that messaging piece. I know it’s part of the process. The five members of the group that actually put it together traveled around the country and spoke to thousands and thousands of people. Log Cabin is always invited at the table of the RNC, but I know that they specifically talked to some of the Lob Cabin people about what to do.”
Congress
Congress passes ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ with massive cuts to health insurance coverage
Roughly 1.8 million LGBTQ Americans rely on Medicaid

The “Big, Beautiful Bill” heads to President Donald Trump’s desk following the vote by the Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives Thursday, which saw two nays from GOP members and unified opposition from the entire Democratic caucus.
To partially offset the cost of tax breaks that disproportionately favor the wealthy, the bill contains massive cuts to Medicaid and social safety net programs like food assistance for the poor while adding a projected $3.3 billion to the deficit.
Policy wise, the signature legislation of Trump’s second term rolls back clean energy tax credits passed under the Biden-Harris administration while beefing up funding for defense and border security.
Roughly 13 percent of LGBTQ adults in the U.S., about 1.8 million people, rely on Medicaid as their primary health insurer, compared to seven percent of non-LGBTQ adults, according to the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute think tank on sexual orientation and gender identities.
In total, the Congressional Budget Office estimates the cuts will cause more than 10 million Americans to lose their coverage under Medicaid and anywhere from three to five million to lose their care under Affordable Care Act marketplace plans.
A number of Republicans in the House and Senate opposed the bill reasoning that they might face political consequences for taking away access to healthcare for, particularly, low-income Americans who rely on Medicaid. Poorer voters flocked to Trump in last year’s presidential election, exit polls show.
A provision that would have blocked the use of federal funds to reimburse medical care for transgender youth was blocked by the Senate Parliamentarian and ultimately struck from the legislation — reportedly after the first trans member of Congress, U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.) and the first lesbian U.S. senator, Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), shored up unified opposition to the proposal among Congressional Democrats.
Congress
Ritchie Torres says he is unlikely to run for NY governor
One poll showed gay Democratic congressman nearly tied with Kathy Hochul

Gay Democratic Congressman Ritchie Torres of New York is unlikely to challenge New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) in the state’s next gubernatorial race, he said during an appearance Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
“I’m unlikely to run for governor,” he said. ““I feel like the assault that we’ve seen on the social safety net in the Bronx is so unprecedented. It’s so overwhelming that I’m going to keep my focus on Washington, D.C.”
Torres and Hochul were nearly tied in a poll this spring of likely Democratic voters in New York City, fueling speculation that the congressman might run. A Siena College poll, however, found Hochul leading with a wider margin.
Back in D.C., the congressman and his colleagues are unified in their opposition to President Donald Trump’s signature legislation, the “Big Beautiful Bill,” which heads back to the House after passing the Senate by one vote this week.
To pay for tax cuts that disproportionately advantage the ultra-wealthy and large corporations, the president and Congressional Republicans have proposed massive cuts to Medicaid and other social programs.
A provision in the Senate version of the bill that would have blocked the use of federal funds to reimburse medical care for transgender youth was blocked by the Senate Parliamentarian and ultimately struck from the legislation, reportedly after pressure from transgender U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.) and lesbian U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.).
Torres on “Morning Joe” said, “The so-called Big Beautiful Bill represents a betrayal of the working people of America and nowhere more so than in the Bronx,” adding, “It’s going to destabilize every health care provider, every hospital.”
Congress
House Democrats oppose Bessent’s removal of SOGI from discrimination complaint forms
Congressional Equality Caucus sharply criticized move

A letter issued last week by a group of House Democrats objects to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s removal of sexual orientation and gender identity as bases for sex discrimination complaints in several Equal Employment Opportunity forms.
Bessent, who is gay, is the highest ranking openly LGBTQ official in American history and the second out Cabinet member next to Pete Buttigieg, who served as transportation secretary during the Biden-Harris administration.
The signatories to the letter include a few out members of Congress, Congressional Equality Caucus chair and co-chairs Mark Takano (Calif.), Ritchie Torres (N.Y.), and Becca Balint (Vt.), along with U.S. Reps. Nikema Williams (Ga.), Hank Johnson (Ga.), Raja Krishnamoorthi (Ill.), Delia Ramirez (Ill.), Joyce Beatty (Ohio), Lloyd Doggett (Texas), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D.C.), Josh Gottheimer (N.J.), and Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas).
The letter explains the “critical role” played by the EEO given the strictures and limits on how federal employees can find recourse for unlawful workplace discrimination — namely, without the ability to file complaints directly with the Employment Opportunity Commission or otherwise engage with the agency unless the complainant “appeal[s] an agency’s decision following the agency’s investigation or request[s] a hearing before an administrative judge.”
“Your attempt to remove ‘gender identity’ and ‘sexual orientation’ as bases for sex discrimination complaints in numerous Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) forms will create unnecessary hurdles to employees filing EEO complaints and undermine enforcement of federal employee’s nondiscrimination protections,” the members wrote in their letter.
They further explain the legal basis behind LGBTQ inclusive nondiscrimination protections for federal employees in the EEOC’s decisions in Macy v. Holder (2012) and Baldwin v. Foxx (2015) and the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County (2020).
“It appears that these changes may be an attempt by the department to dissuade employees from reporting gender identity and sexual orientation discrimination,” the lawmakers wrote. “Without forms clearly enumerating gender identity and sexual orientation as forms of sex discrimination, the average employee who experiences these forms of discrimination may see these forms and not realize that the discrimination they experienced was unlawful and something that they can report and seek recourse for.”
“A more alarming view would be that the department no longer plans to fulfill its legal obligations to investigate complaints of gender identity and sexual orientation and ensure its
employees are working in an environment free from these forms of discrimination,” they added.
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