Congress
David Cicilline announces resignation from Congress to lead nonprofit
Openly gay R.I. Democrat championed LGBTQ issues

U.S. Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) will step down from Congress on June 1 to become CEO of the Rhode Island Foundation, the largest nonprofit in the state, the congressman announced on Tuesday.
The move bookends 28 years in public service for Cicilline, who was elected to Rhode Island’s House of Representatives in 1995 before becoming mayor of Providence — making history as the first openly gay mayor of a state capital — in 2003, and then representing Rhode Island’s 1st Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2010.
The 61-year-old’s announcement likely came as a surprise to many in Washington: Cicilline, now serving his seventh term, was favored to continue winning reelection for his seat in Congress, where he has distinguished himself to such an extent that he is often described as one of his party’s rising stars.
A member of House Democratic leadership who was elected to chair the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee from 2019-2021, Cicilline serves as a senior member of the powerful House Foreign Affairs and the House Judiciary Committees and was distinguished as one of the nine Democrats selected in 2021 by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to manage the chamber’s second impeachment of former President Donald Trump.
In Rhode Island, Cicilline’s departure will trigger an off-year special election for his replacement. While it is unclear when the state’s Gov., Dan McKee (D), will schedule the ballot, two lawmakers have announced plans to explore whether to run: State Sen. Meghan Kallman, a progressive Democrat, and Central Falls Mayor Maria Rivera.
“For more than a decade, the people of Rhode Island entrusted me with a sacred duty to represent them in Congress, and it is a responsibility I put my heart and soul into every day to make life better for the residents and families of our state,” Cicilline said in a statement.
“The chance to lead the Rhode Island Foundation was unexpected, but it is an extraordinary opportunity to have an even more direct and meaningful impact on the lives of residents of our state.”
The Rhode Island Foundation is one of the state’s biggest philanthropic organizations. With an endowment exceeding $1.3 billion, the group funds a variety of initiatives addressing issues like housing shortages and opioid addiction, often in coordination with the state government. Last week, the foundation announced plans to distribute nearly $110,000 to support Black community services.
“The same energy and commitment I brought to elected office, I will now bring as CEO of the Rhode Island Foundation,” Cicilline said in his statement, “advancing their mission to ensure all Rhode Islanders can achieve economic security, access quality, affordable healthcare, and attain the education and training that will set them on a path to prosperity.”
Dr. G. Alan Kurose, chair of the foundation’s board of directors, said in a statement: “Congressman Cicilline’s career-long fight for equity and equality at the local, national and international level, and his deep relationships within Rhode Island’s communities of color are two of the many factors that led us to this decision.”
A champion for LGBTQ and other progressive causes
Cicilline, a longtime member of the House Progressive and Congressional Equality Caucuses, became the fourth openly gay member of Congress with his first election and has since been one of the most powerful voices on LGBTQ matters before the legislature.
“Congressman Cicilline is a tireless champion for the LGBTQI+ community,” Equality Caucus Chair Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) said in a statement Tuesday. “Our community has greatly benefited from his leadership, including his work as the lead sponsor of the Equality Act, and the victories he has secured on our behalf,” he said.
Cicilline first introduced the Equality Act in 2011 and would subsequently reintroduce the bill in 2015, 2017 and 2019 — when it was finally passed by the House but languished in the then-Republican controlled U.S. Senate.
The legislation, which remains a major priority for Congressional Democrats and LGBTQ groups, would expand nondiscrimination protections in the 1964 Civil Rights Act to include discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in areas from housing and employment to credit and jury service.
Pocan’s statement on Cicilline’s plans to step down also addressed the congressman’s work on behalf of the Equality Caucus.
“David represents his district honorably,” Pocan said. “He is a mentor to many of our LGBTQI+ co-chairs and has become a close friend and colleague of mine during our time in Congress.”
Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, wrote in a statement issued Tuesday that “Representative Cicilline will end his time in Congress with an unparalleled track record of advancing LGBTQ+ rights in our nation.”
Robinson noted the congressman “has been a driving force in introducing and rallying support for the desperately needed Equality Act” as well as for the Respect for Marriage Act — a landmark bill signed into law at the end of last year that protects same-sex and interracial couples in the event that the U.S. Supreme Court should revoke or weaken their constitutional rights to marry.
LGBTQ Victory Fund & Institute President and former Houston Mayor Annise Parker, who was also among the first openly-LGBTQ mayors of a major American city, said in a statement that Cicilline “has consistently gone to bat for pro-LGBTQ legislation, stood up against homophobic and transphobic policies and passed laws to make our country more equitable for all.”
“From speeches on the House floor to conversations with colleagues behind closed doors, David changed the hearts and minds of folks on both sides of the aisle – and our entire community is better because of it,” Parker said, adding that the congressman “will go down as one of the most groundbreaking LGBTQ leaders in American history.”
Other legislation impacting LGBTQ Americans that was supported by Cicilline includes a bill that he co-sponsored in 2011 to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, the Clinton-era law banning same-sex marriage, and another that he co-sponsored in 2018, the Gay and Trans Panic Defense Prohibition Act, which would prohibit courts that are adjudicating the assaults or murders of LGBTQ people from accepting, as mitigating or exculpatory factors, a defendant’s claim that he was driven to violence by unwanted sexual advances from the victim.
Cicilline also used his platform to draw attention to non-legislative matters impacting the LGBTQ community, particularly during the Trump administration, during which time the congressman became vocal advocate for LGBTQ migrants in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and a vocal critic of the State Department’s decision to deny or revoke diplomatic visas that were issued to unmarried same-sex partners of foreign diplomats.
Cicilline has also advocated for other causes and legislation championed by progressive Democrats including: strengthening gun control laws, an issue for which in 2016 he organized a 26-hour sit-in with House members including the late-U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), in support of reproductive freedom, including the right to safe and legal abortions.
A major voice in consumer rights, economic policy and foreign affairs
Last year, Roll Call proclaimed that Cicilline “got Congress to care about antitrust again,” having motivated U.S. lawmakers, including through his role as chair of the Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on antitrust, to meet the moment amid the one-in-a-generation sea change in competition policy that began to take shape a few years ago.
No other U.S. lawmaker, with the possible exception of U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on antitrust and authored a book on the subject in 2021, has exerted more influence over Congress’ efforts to strengthen enforcement of the antitrust laws.
Cicilline and other advocates for antitrust reform argue that with more vigorous enforcement, the government can better moderate the outsize power and influence exerted by the dominant tech platform companies while providing relief for American consumers who suffer higher prices for goods and poorer quality for services as a result of the government’s failure to challenge anticompetitive mergers — a gun-shy approach that has persisted since the 1980s.
Last week, Cicilline challenged the exercise of economic power that harms the integrity of America’s democratic elections, introducing legislation with U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) that would impose additional disclosure requirements for corporations, labor organizations, and super PACs to fight the flow of dark money into politics.
“Great economic power should not translate into outsized political power,” he said.
On the Foreign Affairs Committee, Cicilline was an influential voice on matters that tend to attract comparably more controversy, such as America’s military footprint overseas. The congressman pushed back against the Obama administration’s proposal for intervention in Syria in 2013, and against Trump’s meeting with Kim Jong-Un in 2018, warning that it would elevate the standing of North Korea’s supreme leader in the international community.
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.”
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.”
Congress
Goodlander endorses Pappas’s Senate bid
Announcement puts gay congressman on the path to securing his party’s nomination

U.S. Rep. Maggie Goodlander (D-N.H.) on Thursday announced she will not run to represent her state in the U.S. Senate, endorsing gay U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas’s (D-N.H.) bid for the seat of retiring U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, putting him on the path to secure the Democratic nomination.
“We are in the fight of our lifetimes right now, of a moment of real crisis and challenge,” she said. “I feel humbled and grateful to so many people across our state who have encouraged me to take a look at the U.S. Senate, and after a lot of thought and conversations with people I love and people I respect and people who I had never met before, who I work for in this role right now, I’ve decided that I’m running for re election in the House of Representatives.”
When asked by a reporter from the ABC affiliate station in New Hampshire whether she would endorse Pappas, Goodlander said, “Yes. Chris Pappas has been amazing partner to me in this work and for many years. And I really admire him. I have a lot of confidence in him.”
She continued, “He and I come to this work, I think with a similar set of values, we also have really similar family stories. Our families both came to New Hampshire over 100 years ago from the very same part of northern Greece. And the values that he brings to this work are ones that that I really, really admire. So I’m proud to support him, and I’m really excited to be working with him right now because we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Today in Salem @MaggieG603 tells @WMUR9 she is not running for U.S. Senate & endorses @ChrisPappasNH #NHPolitics #NHSen #NH02 #WMUR pic.twitter.com/W2CMrhRuIC
— Adam Sexton (@AdamSextonWMUR) April 17, 2025
“Maggie Goodlander has dedicated her career to service, and we can always count on her to stand up to powerful interests and put people first,” Pappas said in a post on X. “I’m so grateful to call her my friend and teammate, and I’m proud to support her re-election and stand with her in the fights ahead.”
Earlier this month, former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, a Republican, announced he would not enter the Senate race, strengthening the odds that Democrats will retain control of Shaheen’s seat.
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