Congress
Victory Fund notes increase in out LGBTQ congressional candidates in 2022
Victory Fund notes lack of equitable representation
As the 2022 midterm elections draw near, a record number of LGBTQ candidates have been running for Congress. But while some segments of the community have made gains in political presence, other metrics are falling short when it comes representation that is reflective of the U.S. population.
New data from the LGBTQ Victory Fund notes 104 openly LGBTQ people have run or are currently running for congressional seats this cycle. This figure is up from 87 candidates who ran for such offices in 2020.
There are currently nine LGBTQ members of the U.S. House of Representatives and two out U.S. senators. In order to reach equitable representation with the 7 percent of Americans who identify as LGBTQ, 22 additional LGBTQ representatives and five additional LGBTQ senators would need to be elected.
Victory Fund Press Secretary Albert Fujii told the Washington Blade that, in the face of threats such as recent and impending U.S. Supreme Court decisions that could have wide-ranging implications for LGBTQ rights, achieving such representation is of paramount importance.
“The 11 LGBTQ members of Congress currently serving punch way above their weight and have delivered meaningful results for our community time and time again, despite being woefully outnumbered,” Fujii said. “But with a Supreme Court hell bent on choosing politics over precedent, our congressional champions desperately need backup to ensure our fundamental human rights are not rolled back to a time when bigotry was the law of the land.”
As races now stand, 57 LGBTQ candidates remain on the ballot for congressional seats in November.
The mounting presence of LGBTQ people who are running for office is mirrored by a growing share of community members participating in the national electorate.
In 2018, an election cycle that was dubbed by many as a “rainbow wave” for LGBTQ representation in government offices, a record number of out candidates were elected to positions across the country. LGBTQ voters similarly reached a new height of electoral visibility, making up 6 percent of the overall electorate. Just two years later, the share of LGBTQ voters rose to seven percent of all Americans who voted in 2020.
“In 2018 and 2020, millions of people of all backgrounds and races showed up to cast their votes in record numbers, electing a historic number of women, people of color and LGBTQ+ leaders,” Human Rights Campaign Interim President Joni Madison said in a statement endorsing re-election for the nine current LGBTQ House members. “We must once again mobilize in even larger numbers to re-elect these members of Congress that will champion equality.”
The Victory Fund data also notes racial diversity of LGBTQ congressional candidates is also on the rise.
Nearly 45 percent of LGBTQ congressional candidates still running in the 2022 cycle are people of color, reflecting national movements in recent years to push back against suppression of voters and voices of both people of color as well as intersectional communities. The number also reflects 2019 data from the University of California, Los Angeles, that found 42 percent of people who identify as LGBTQ in the U.S. are people of color.
In other ways, however, the current field of LGBTQ candidates falls short of relative representation for certain segments of the community.
In a Congress that has not seen any member of the transgender community be elected to either chamber, the Victory Fund’s data shows that only about four percent of LGBTQ candidates still running identify as trans. The number falls under the 10 percent of LGBTQ adults in the U.S. that identified as trans in a February Gallup poll and comes amid legislative attacks on trans youth across the country.
But as midterm primaries approach throughout the coming months, groups like the Victory Fund remain persistent in their efforts to reach what they see as adequate levels of congressional representation for LGBTQ Americans.
“Gaining equitable representation in Congress would not only increase our political power and increase the odds our rights are finally codified into federal law, it would send a crystal clear message that anti-LGBTQ vitriol will not prevail,” Fujii said. “Until then, we are proud to keep building a bench of highly qualified LGBTQ leaders.”
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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