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Ramaswamy: ‘cult-like’ LGBTQ community threatens ‘modern order’

GOP presidential candidates to debate in Milwaukee on Wednesday night

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Entrepreneur and Republican 2024 presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. (Screen capture via video on X)

Entrepreneur and Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said the LGBTQ community seeks to “create an us-versus-them destruction of modern order” by bringing together otherwise incompatible ideas about sexual and gender minorities under one group identity.

Beliefs systems which support the housing of different social and political advocacy goals under the banner of LGBTQ rights constitute “cult-like” dogmas “with no obligation to logic,” he told right-wing pundit Tucker Carlson during an interview that was streamed on X, formerly known as Twitter, last week.

Ramaswamy claimed the LGBTQ rights movement’s existence is perpetuated by ideas that are based in faith rather than facts because its core premises are irreconcilably “in tension” with each other. For instance, he said, “most lesbians don’t like gay men and vice versa,” while “trans [identities are] this totally weird separate thing.”

The movement presupposes that sexual orientation is innate from birth despite the absence of a “gay gene” while simultaneously arguing “sex is completely fluid over the course of your life, even though there is a definitive sex chromosome,” Ramaswamy said, arguing these ideas are fundamentally incompatible.

The Pride flag is an example of “symbology” and “idolatry” supporting the “religious” beliefs held by LGBTQ people or represented in the LGBTQ rights movement, Ramaswamy said, adding, “they then they had to make the trans flag, the upgraded version, the golden idol,” referring to the Progress Pride flag.

As with advocacy around climate issues and “radical woke-ism,” Ramaswamy characterized “LGBTQIA+-ism” as part of “a broader vision that defines itself in opposition to the American vision, to the American way of life.”

“What does it mean,” Ramaswamy asked, “to be an individual rather than riding a tectonic plate of group identity? What does it mean to be a member of a family, a nuclear family with a mother and a father, that by definition brought you into this world?”

Carlson’s discussion about LGBTQ topics with Ramaswamy began with a clip that made headlines last week in which the candidate answered a voter’s question about LGBTQ rights by claiming, “I don’t have a negative view of same-sex couples, but I do have a negative view of a tyranny of the minority.”

Ramaswamy continued, “I don’t think that somebody who’s religious should be forced to officiate a wedding that they disagree with. I don’t think somebody who is a woman who’s worked really hard for her achievements should be forced to compete against a biological man in a swim competition. I don’t think that somebody who’s a woman that respects her bodily autonomy and dignity should be forced to change clothes in a locker room with a man.”

Slated to appear on stage Wednesday night for the Republican Party’s first presidential primary debate, Ramaswamy and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are expected to take the most heat from their rivals after an Emerson College poll last week found them tied for second place, each with 10 percent.

Still ahead with 56 percent is former President Donald Trump, who declined to participate and will instead join Carlson for an interview scheduled to air on X just as the eight qualifying GOP hopefuls take the stage in Milwaukee at 9 p.m. ET.

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Congress

Garcia elected top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee

Gay Calif. lawmaker vows to hold Trump-Vance administration accountable

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U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) on Tuesday was elected top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee in a vote that signaled the conference’s overwhelming support for a newer voice on Capitol Hill who will play a key role taking on President Donald Trump.

With a margin of 150-63, the 47-year-old openly gay congressman defeated U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), alongside U.S. Reps. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) and Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.) who exited the race after the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee backed Garcia.

Serving only since 2023, the congressman has had a remarkably quick ascent leading up to his election this week as ranking member of one of the most powerful House committees, awarded a leadership position serving under House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (Mass.) and selected as a co-chair of former Vice President Kamala Harris’s 2024 presidential campaign.

Democratic members began jockeying for the top seat on the oversight committee this spring after the late-U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia stepped away amid news that his esophageal cancer had returned. He died in May.

Connolly last year fended off a challenge from one of the most well known House Democrats, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), though with a narrower margin that signaled intra-party tensions over whether leadership roles should still be awarded based on seniority.

Garcia positioned himself as a bridge between the two camps — a consensus candidate with executive managerial experience as the former mayor of Long Beach, Calif. At the same time, particularly since the start of Trump’s second term, the congressman has emerged as one of the most outspoken critics of the new Republican regime.

In a statement on X Tuesday, Garcia thanked his colleagues and promised to “hold Donald Trump and his administration accountable.”

If Democrats win control of the House next year, the oversight committee will be able to exercise powers that are now available only to Republicans under the chair, U.S. Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), which include the authority to investigate virtually any matter across the federal government, to issue subpoenas, and to compel testimony.

In the meantime, Garcia on Monday promised that Democrats on the committee would “vigorously fight” Republican Speaker Mike Johnson’s (La.) plans “to dismantle the Government Accountability Office.”

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Congress

Shaheen, Collins reintroduce bill prohibiting anti-LGBTQ discrimination in jury service

Senators note the absence of protections in federal courtrooms

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U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

U.S. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) reintroduced a bill on Wednesday that would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity during the federal jury selection process.

The bipartisan Jury Access for Capable Citizens and Equality in Service Selection (ACCESS) Act would enshrine protections for LGBTQ Americans who are serving or who might be selected to serve on juries, alongside rules proscribing discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, and economic status that are already enforced in federal courtrooms.

Co-sponsoring the bill with Shaheen and Collins are U.S. Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.)

“Serving on a jury is a civic duty that no one should be prevented from fulfilling because of who they are or who they love,” Shaheen said in a press release. “It’s preposterous that under current law there are no protections prohibiting discrimination against LGBTQ+ jurors in federal courts and Congress must take action to rectify this injustice.” 

“Serving on a jury is a fundamental right and obligation that no individual should be prohibited from fulfilling based on their sexual orientation or gender identity,” said Collins. “I have long worked to fight discrimination, and I am proud to join this effort to help eliminate bias from our judicial system.” 

Amid the absence of nationwide protections, the release notes that only 17 states “prohibit exclusion from jury service in state court based on sexual orientation” while “just 12 protect against discrimination based on gender identity.”

This spring, Democratic lawmakers from the House and the Senate, including leadership from both chambers, reintroduced the Equality Act, which would codify LGBTQ inclusive federal nondiscrimination rules in a range of contexts from employment and housing to public accommodations and education.

Shaheen and Collins were integral to the bill’s inclusion of protections applying to jury service.

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Congress

Torres: gay Venezuelan asylum seeker is ‘poster child’ for Trump’s ‘abuses against due process’

Congressman spoke with the Blade Thursday

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Democratic U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York told the Washington Blade during an interview Thursday that his party erred in focusing so much attention on demands for the Trump-Vance administration to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the U.S. when the wrongful deportation of Andry Hernández Romero “was much more egregious.”

Hernández is a gay Venezuelan national who was deported to El Salvador in March and imprisoned in the country’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center, a maximum-security prison known by the Spanish acronym CECOT.

“In the case of Andry, the government admits that it has no evidence of gang membership, but he was deported without due process, without a notification to his attorney, without a court hearing to contest the allegations against him, without a court order authorizing his deportation,” the congressman said.

“He had not even the slightest semblance of due process,” Torres said. “And even though he had a court hearing scheduled for March 17, the Trump administration proceeded to deport him on March 15, in violation of a court order.”

“I think we as a party should have held up Andry as the poster child for the abuses against due process, because his case is much more sympathetic,” Torres said. “There’s no one who thinks that Andry is a gang member.”

“Also,” the congressman added, “he’s not a quote-unquote illegal immigrant. He was a lawful asylum seeker. He sought asylum lawfully under the statutes of the United States, but he was deported unlawfully at the hands of the Trump administration.”

Torres was among the 49 members of Congress who joined with Democratic U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff of California in writing to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday demanding information about Romero, including proof of life.

The lawmakers urged the State Department to facilitate his access to legal counsel and take steps to return him, expressing fear for his safety — concerns that Torres reiterated on Thursday.

“Jails and prisons can be dangerous places for gay men, and that is especially true of a place like CECOT,” the congressman said. “He fled Latin America to escape violent homophobia. There are a few places on earth that have as much institutionalized homophobia as jails and prisons, and so I do fear for his safety.”

“I released a video telling the story of Andry,” Torres noted, adding, “I feel like we have to do more to raise awareness and the video is only the beginning … And you know, the fact that Abrego Garcia is returning to the United States shows that the administration has the ability to bring back the migrants who were unlawfully deported.”

Torres spoke with the Blade just after Padilla was forcibly removed from a federal building in Los Angeles after attempting to question U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during a press conference on immigration Thursday.

Footage of the senator being pushed out of the room, onto the floor, and handcuffed by officers wearing FBI identifying vests drew outrage from top Democrats in California and beyond.

“It’s the latest reminder that Donald Trump and his administration have no respect for anything or anyone but himself,” Torres told the Blade. “And every bit as outrageous as Donald Trump himself has been the enabling on the part of the congressional Republicans who are aiding and abetting his authoritarian abuses.”

“We have to be vigilant in resisting Donald Trump,” the congressman said. “We have to resist him on the streets through grassroots mobilization. We have to resist him in the courtrooms through litigation. We have to resist him in the halls of Congress through legislation.”

Torres added that “we have to win back the majority in 2026” and “if Republicans have no interest in holding Donald Trump accountable, then those Republicans should be fired from public office” because “we need a Congress that is able and willing to hold Donald Trump accountable, to stand up to his authoritarian assault on our democracy.”

Resisting is “a matter of free speech,” he said, noting that the president’s aim is to “create a reign of terror that intimidates people into silence,” but “we cannot remain silent. We have to unapologetically and courageously exercise our right to free speech, our right to assemble peacefully, and our right to resist an authoritarian president like Donald Trump.”

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