Congress
Jim Kolbe dies at 80
Former Ariz. congressman first openly gay Republican House member

Former Republican Congressman James (Jim) Thomas Kolbe, who represented Southern Arizona in Congress for 22 years, died Saturday of a stroke at the age of 80 his husband Hector Alfonso confirmed to Arizona media outlets.
“He belongs to so many people,” his husband said through tears on Saturday. “He gave his life for this city. He loved Tucson, he loved Arizona.”
Republican Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey ordered flags at all state buildings be lowered to half-staff until sunset Sunday in honor of the former congressman. In a series of tweets the Arizona governor lauded Kolbe’s record of public service.
Congressman Kolbe led a life of remarkable public service. A Navy veteran, 11-term congressman, state legislator ā even a congressional page for Sen. Goldwater ā his commitment and dedication were boundless. 2/
ā Doug Ducey (@DougDucey) December 3, 2022
He was a highly-regarded expert on trade, a champion of the free market and a passionate advocate for the line-item veto. From his community in Tucson, to those in need around the world, Congressman Kolbe had a profound and lasting impact. 3/
ā Doug Ducey (@DougDucey) December 3, 2022
Weāve ordered flags at state buildings will be flown at half staff until sunset Sunday in Congressman Kolbeās memory. 5/5
ā Doug Ducey (@DougDucey) December 3, 2022
Kolbe was the first openly serving gay Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives having served from 1985 to 2007. During his 22-year tenure he served as chair of the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related Programs of the House Appropriations Committee.

In 1996, Kolbe held a press conference and outed himself after his vote for the Defense of Marriage Act. This, according to political journalist Jake Tapper, was owed to the fact that Kolbe was under the impression he was about to be outed by a gay publication.
Addressing a gathering of Log Cabin Republicans and other gay Republicans in 1997, he said he didn’t want to be a poster child for the gay movement.
āBeing gay was not ā and is not today ā my defining persona,ā Kolbe said during his first speech as an openly gay GOP lawmaker. He also sat on the national advisory board of the Log Cabin Republicans.
In 2013, however, Kolbe was a signatory to an amicus brief in support of overturning Californiaās Proposition 8.
In a private ceremony in 2013, after being together for eight years, Kolbe and Alfonso were married.
Alfonso, a Panamanian native who came to the U.S. on a Fulbright scholarship to pursue studies in special education, had been a teacher for two decades. The couple’s nuptials were held at a private event at the Cosmos Club on Massachusetts Avenue.
āTwo decades ago, I could not have imagined such an event as this would be possible,ā Kolbe told the Washington Blade in an interview in May 2013. āA decade ago I could not imagine that I would find someone I could be so compatible with that I would want to spend the rest of my life with that person. So, this is a very joyous day for both of us.ā
The couple had to endure a year-long separation when Alfonso returned to Panama while immigration issues were being sorted out, although he was granted U.S. residency, also known as a green card.
Kolbe also battled his friend and fellow Republican, U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who opposed the repeal of the Clinton-era “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which barred military service by gay and lesbian Americans. He repeatedly co-sponsored a bill to scrap the military’s āDon’t Ask, Don’t Tellā policy at odds with others in his party over the issue.
After he left Congress he continued to be active in Republican politics in 2012 endorsing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in his race for the presidency against then incumbent President Barack Obama.
In an interview with the Blade at the time, Kolbe responded to the anti-gay language in the draft version of the Republican Party platform. In addition to endorsing a Federal Marriage Amendment, the platform criticized the Obama administration for dropping defense of DOMA in court and judges for āre-defining marriageā in favor of gay couples.
Kolbe predicted the 2012 Republican platform will be the last one to include such language.
āThatāll be the last time that will be in the Republican Party platform,ā Kolbe said. āIt wonāt be there four years from now. Itās got its last gasp. I donāt believe itāll be there four years from now; I wish it werenāt there now, but I donāt believe it will be four years from now.ā
The issue over the rights of same-sex couples to marry ended with Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. 644, the landmark civil rights case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
Just this week prior to his death, the Respect for Marriage Act passed the Senate by a vote of 61-36.
That legislation requires the federal government to recognize a marriage between two individuals if the marriage was valid in the state where it was performed and guarantee that valid marriages between two individuals are given full faith and credit, regardless of the coupleās sex, race, ethnicity or national origin. It is expected to pass the House again this week after which it heads to President Joe Biden for his signature.
Early in his career, Kolbe in 1976 ran for a seat in the Arizona Senate in the Tucson-Pima County district and defeated a one-term Democrat. In mid-1982, he resigned from the state Senate to run in the newly created Arizona’s 5th U.S. congressional district, but lost to Democrat Jim McNulty.
He ran again in 1984 winning the seat that he went to hold for over two decades.
According to his biography Kolbe was born in Evanston, Ill., a suburb of Chicago, but when he was five, his family moved to a ranch in rural Santa Cruz County, Arizona. It was there he attended Patagonia Elementary School and Patagonia Union High School, but graduated from the U.S. Capitol Page School in 1960 after serving for three years as a Senate Page for Arizona Republican U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater.
He matriculated first at Northwestern University and then at Stanford University earning a master’s degree in economics. During the Vietnam era from 1965 to 1969, he served in the U.S. Navy, including a tour in Vietnam as a member of the Navy’s “Swift Boat” force.
After military service Kolbe served as a special assistant to Republican Illinois Gov. Richard B. Ogilvie. He then moved back to Arizona settling in Tucson where he worked in business.
Accolades for the former congressman included many from Arizona political and business fields of endeavor.
āPima County and southern Arizona could always count on Jim Kolbe,ā Pima County Board of Supervisors Chair Sharon Bronson said in a statement.
Matt Gress, who was recently elected to the Arizona Legislature, called Kolbe a political pioneer.
āToday, because of Jim Kolbe, being a member of the LGBT community and serving in elected office has become irrelevant,ā he said in a statement.
Congress
House Dems urge OPM not to implement anti-trans executive order
Authors were Dem. U.S. Reps. Mark Takano (Calif.), Jamie Raskin (Md.), and Gerald Connolly (Va.)

Three House Democrats including Congressional Equality Caucus Chair Mark Takano (Calif.) issued a letter on Wednesday urging the Office of Personnel Management to not implement President Donald Trump’s anti-trans executive order, “Defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government.”
Also signing the letter were U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.), ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, and U.S. Rep. Gerald Connolly (Va.), ranking member of the House Oversight Committee.
The lawmakers wrote the order “unlawfully attacks the civil rights of transgender Americans” while the White House’s corresponding memo and guidance “implements unlawful discrimination by the federal government against transgender people in the civil service and the provision of federal services.”
Specifically, they call unconstitutional the directive for agencies to “end all programs, contracts, grants, positions, documents, directives, orders, regulations, materials, forms,
communications, statements, plans, and training that ‘inculcate’ or ‘promote’ ‘gender
ideology’āwhich the Executive Order defines broadly to encompass acknowledging the simple
existence of transgender people and gender identity.”
āWe are deeply alarmed by these and other actions the Trump Administration has taken in its first few weeks to eliminate all government support for the transgender community, including efforts designed to enforcing the rights and support the health of transgender individuals,” the congressmen wrote.
They added, “We are also appalled by the Administrationās attempts to weaponize federal agencies to target the transgender community for discrimination and exclusion. These actions contradict federal law, Supreme Court precedent, and most importantly the Constitutionās guarantee of equal protection under the law.ā
Congress
Sarah McBride named House Democratic deputy whip for policy
House Republicans escalate transphobic attacks against her

House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), the second highest-ranking Democrat in the lower chamber, has selected newly seated freshman U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.) to serve as her deputy whip for policy.
The high profile role will involve “strategic, long-term planning, and coordination on policy,” according to a press release from McBride’s office announcing the appointment.
āMy number one priority in Congress is helping to lower costs facing Delawareans and American families,ā the congresswoman said. āWe can do this by guaranteeing paid family and medical leave, lowering the cost of childcare and restoring the child tax credit.”
McBride added, “I look forward to working alongside my Democratic colleagues to prioritize common sense solutions to making it more affordable to raise a family. Iām grateful to Democratic Whip Katherine Clark for this opportunity and for her steadfast leadership and mentorship.ā
In a statement on X, she said, “I’m thrilled to be named a deputy whip for Policy in the 119th Congress, advising House Democratic Leadership on policy priorities and plans for our caucus. Just as I was in the state Senate, I remain focused on lowering the cost of housing, health care, child care, and helping families make it through the inevitable challenges of life.”
Last week, McBride became the first freshman Democrat to introduce a bill, together with U.S. Rep. Young Kim (R-Calif.), which targets scams by companies that take large fees from consumers in exchange for “empty promises” to improve their credit scores.
When serving in the Delaware state senate, McBride sponsored the Healthy Delaware Families Act, which was signed into law in 2022 and allows Delawareans to take a 12-week paid family or medical leave, receiving up to 80 percent of their current wages.
“Care infrastructure” will remain a major focus for the congresswoman’s work moving forward, along with policies in areas like investment in green technologies, Medicare reforms, expanding access to quality health care including reproductive care, empowering labor unions, gun violence prevention, and more.
The congresswoman worked on Beau Biden’s campaign for Delaware attorney general in 2010, and in the years since has maintained a close personal relationship with President Joe Biden and the Biden family. (Beau, the president’s eldest son, died of glioblastoma in 2015.)
House Republicans escalate their transphobic attacks against McBride
McBride is transgender, becoming the first trans speaker to address a major party convention in 2016, the trans state senator with her first election to public office in 2020, and the first trans member of Congress with her election to represent Delaware’s at-large congressional district in 2024.
While she has not shied away from acknowledging the significance of her position as the first and the only voice in Congress representing her community, McBride has repeatedly emphasized that she did not run for office to be ā as a recent profile in the Washington Post put it ā “a symbol, or a spokesperson, or the first anything.”
Her focus, rather, is on delivering results for her constituents in Delaware.
āIām here to be a serious person,ā she told the Post. āAnd if there are people here who donāt want to be serious, then they can answer to their constituents.ā
McBride’s arrival in Washington comes as national Republicans have made anti-trans policy and legislation a greater priority than ever before, while transphobia and the use of transphobic hate speech by conservative elected leaders escalates into dangerous territory.
Responding to the news of McBride’s appointment to lead policy development for her party under the Democratic whip, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said, in a post on X, “Democrats just put a mentally ill congressman, who parades himself as a congresswoman to thrill his disturbing sexual fetishes, in charge of democrat policies.”
The bigoted attacks by House Republicans began before the first transgender member of Congress was even seated, from deliberate misgendering and the use of her birth name to the proposal barring trans women from women’s restrooms in the Capitol building, which was drafted by U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) in direct response to McBride’s election and subsequently enacted by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).
Before she was elected, McBride sought to mitigate the risk that her use of public women’s bathrooms on the Hill might draw unwanted attention or interest, privately making arrangements with Democratic leadership to instead use facilities in the Capitol suites reserved for Clark and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (R-N.Y.).Ā
Mace introduced the bathroom ban on Nov. 19 and, in the days and weeks since, availed herself of every chance to discuss the matter with Capitol Hill reporters, on cable news programs, and on her X account ā where, according to Newsweek, the congresswoman had published 326 posts or replies about the resolution within just the first 72 hours.
Last month, Mace filmed herself reading the Miranda warning with a megaphone to activists who were arrested for staging a demonstration against her bathroom rule outside Johnson’s office, later sharing the video on X mocking the protestors with an anti-trans slur.
McBride declined to comment or engage beyond saying that she would comply with the policy. In response to criticism that she ought to have pushed back more forcefully, she told NBC News, āThe point of this bathroom ban was to bait me into a fight, was to diminish my capacity to be an effective member of Congress by turning me into a caricature.ā
āI refuse to give them that opportunity or that response that they seek,” McBride said, adding that allowing herself to be baited would “not do the trans community any good” either. “That is what they want. There is power in not giving people what they want.ā
This week, a video from 2019 in which McBride is seen reading to students in a classroom and leading a discussion about the importance of respecting their gender diverse peers was circulated on X by the anti-LGBTQ account Libs of TikTok.
Mace responded in a post that began by proclaiming “she is a he” and asserted without evidence that McBride “appears to be grooming young children” for sexual abuse, while Greene falsely accused her Democratic colleague of being a “groomer” and “child predator.”
As an anti-trans/anti-LGBTQ moral panic has taken hold in the U.S. and escalated over the past few years, conservatives including several U.S. lawmakers have revived the dangerous and baseless lie that trans people and gay people are inclined toward pedophilia or child sexual abuse or “grooming,” which refers to the practice of priming a victim, usually a minor, for sexual abuse or exploitation.
Experts, including organizations like the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, say this rhetoric can put children at greater risk by stealing the focus away from efforts to identify actual cases of abuse while also diminishing the experiences of survivors.
This specific form of transphobic and homophobic hate speech was more common in the 1970s and 80s but until recently was considered out of bounds for mainstream political discourse.
McBride so far has not addressed the posts from Mace and Greene. Her office did not respond to a request for comment on the matter last week.
Congress
House bans trans students from competing on girls’ and women’s sports teams
Texas Democrats Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez voted for bill

The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday voted 218-206 to pass a bill that would ban transgender students from competing in girls’ and women’s sports in elementary school through college.
Fiery exchanges erupted on the House floor, with conservatives in many cases using anti-trans language and Democrats, including several openly LGBTQ members, arguing that the bill is harmful to children, discriminatory, and unnecessary.
The decision by House Republican leadership to bring the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act to the floor on just the second week in which the 119th Congress is in session signals the majority’s appetite for legislation targeting trans rights and the extent to which the issue will remain a major focus and priority for conservative leadership in the Capitol and, beginning next week, in the White House.
All Republicans who were present voted in favor of the bill, while all Democrats voted no ā with the exception of two members representing swing districts in Texas, U.S. Reps. Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez.
Cuellar opposed the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act when it was introduced in 2023, explaining in a statement that he changed his position ābased on the concerns and feedback he received from constituents.ā
Gonzalez did not vote on the measure in 2023, but this year issued a statement explaining his support for the bill: āI believe that there should be rules to keep our sports fair and that boys should not play in girls sports,ā the congressman said, using talking points that are popular among Republicans who often refer to trans women and girls as men and boys, whether for purposes of insulting them or because they refuse to acknowledge or choose to deny the existence of gender diverse people.
“Members of Congress must have the freedom to vote in a manner representative of their district,” Gonzalez said in his statement. “As Democrats, we should not be afraid to vote our districtās values because weāre afraid of Washington.”
During the 2024 campaign, Gonzalez’s Republican opponent ran negative ads about his support for gender affirming health care for trans minors. The congressman told Spectrum News in 2023 that āI have never supported tax dollars paying for gender transition surgeries and never will.ā
Despite the newly seated 53-vote GOP majority in the U.S. Senate, the bill could languish in the upper chamber as the 2023 iteration did under Democratic control.
Still, President-elect Donald Trump promised to effectuate a ban, which experts believe would likely involve directing the U.S. Department of Education to find any school in violation of federal Title IX rules, which prohibit sex-based discrimination, in cases where they allow trans women or girls to participate in competitive sports.
Trump and other conservatives argue that cisgender women and girls are biologically disadvantaged compared to trans women and girls, which yields unfair outcomes for athletes whose birth sex is female, though research on the question of physical performance is mixed.
Proponents of the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, who believe trans women and girls to be unfairly advantaged by their biology, argue that excluding them from sports is necessary to ensure fair outcomes in high-stakes competitions at the elite level, such as college athletic scholarships.
At the other end of the spectrum, the legislation contains a carveout that would theoretically allow for trans women and girls to participate in sports in limited circumstances: “Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to prohibit a recipient from permitting males to train or practice with an athletic program or activity that is designated for women or girls so long as no female is deprived of a roster spot on a team or sport, opportunity to participate in a practice or competition, scholarship, admission to an educational institution, or any other benefit that accompanies participating in the athletic program or activity.”
As the measure was debated on Tuesday, opponents accused their GOP colleagues of exploiting a culture war issue to “divert attention from the fact they have no real solutions to help everyday Americans,ā as U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) put it.
Several Democrats ā who argued that in the absence of an enforcement mechanism, adults might inspect students’ genitals to determine their gender, which could facilitate child sexual abuse ā began calling the legislation āthe GOP Child Predator Empowerment Act.ā
The House Education Committee chair, U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.), responded that birth certificates should be used to settle questions about students’ gender.
Opponents of the bill like U.S. Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.), a lesbian and co-chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, contended that boundary-violating scrutiny of girls’ bodies is the “logical conclusion” of the measure.
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