Participants in PFLAG’s Lobby Day who on Oct. 19 met with congressional offices of members representing their states and districts, said they were mistreated by aides for U.S. Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), neither of whom were present at the time.

By contrast, staff for other members, including other Republicans who include U.S. Reps. Aaron Bean (R-Fla.) and Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas) and U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) were positive, affirming and respectful, they told the Washington Blade on Oct. 20 after the opening plenary of PFLAG’s National Convention.

Cindy Hill-Nobles, president of PFLAG of Jacksonville (Fla.) said “I have never been so incensed” as when an aide in Scott’s office openly smirked while she recounted how her son once contemplated suicide because he was bullied so extensively after coming out as gay in fourth grade.

She said the staffer accused her of “trying to put porn in the hands of children” after she told him about the “banned books club” she had formed with a local church in hopes that greater access to stories with LGBTQ characters and narratives might deter bullying and potentially spare other children and families from the pain hers had survived.

These were not the only “instances where some very nasty things were said” by Scott’s aide, who was “combative” and “degrading, in a lot of ways, to the group of us that were there,” Hill-Nobles recalled. She added it seemed that the staffer, as he tapped his pen on a blank notepad, “wasn’t looking to get anything out of the meeting except for us out of his office.”

Scott’s Communications Director McKinley Lewis, who was not in attendance, addressed Hill-Nobles’s account of the meeting in an emailed statement to the Blade, writing:

“Our office prides itself on meeting and speaking with all Floridians and hearing about the issues that matter most to them. This is just one of the reasons why Senator Rick Scott’s team was recognized by the Congressional Management Foundation with a Democracy Award for the best constituent services in Congress. The allegations made here are not true. We have full confidence that our staff conducted this nearly hour-long meeting with the utmost professionalism and respect.”

Ginger Chun, a board member of PFLAG of San Antonio and mother of a transgender young adult, recalled “really awkward and uncomfortable” conversations with Cruz’s staff — one of whom, she said, insisted on debating with her in a combative manner about the availability of healthcare interventions for trans youth.

Rather than a parley over public policy, the mutually agreed upon focus of and purpose for their meeting was for representatives from PFLAG “to go in and tell your story and let them hear what’s important to you,” Chun said. “And that’s really not the reception that we got.”

A spokesperson for Cruz said, “PFLAG came to our office lobbying against restrictions on taxpayer funding for puberty blockers and so-called sex-change surgery, including for children. PFLAG also wants biological men competing in women’s sports.”

The emailed statement continues, “Like most Texans, Senator Cruz vigorously opposes these radical positions and will always stand against adults being allowed to permanently destroy the natural bodily functions of children and undermining the integrity of girls’ sports.”

PFLAG Advocacy, Policy and Partnerships Director Diego Miguel Sanchez said, “we know that when everyone goes home, there will be incidents at a grocery store or school parking lot or somewhere where people are combative.”

However, he said, “in the confines of an office where the promise is to serve” one’s constituents, this behavior constitutes “an absolute betrayal of the obligation of serving in Congress” and that of anyone who serves as “an emissary for those elected officials.”

Once serving as Capitol Hill’s first openly trans senior legislative staffer as senior policy adviser to former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), Sanchez on Oct. 20 said he will speak with the chiefs of staff in each office where PFLAG Lobby Day participants were mistreated.

The lawmakers “deserve to know that either they were misrepresented, underrepresented, or need to do a little education for the people they’re choosing to meet with their constituents,” he said.

Laura McGinnis, senior manager of press and public relations for PFLAG, told the Blade this year’s Lobby Day brought 146 attendees from 30 states and D.C. who participated in 108 meetings with members of Congress from both chambers. PFLAG has not yet gathered information and feedback about all of them, she said.

Because the organization’s conventions are held biennially and in different locations, the most recent Lobby Day came during PFLAG’s last National Convention in D.C. in 2013, McGinnis said.

“PFLAG does participate in lobby day events organized by movement partners,” she added, “for example, PFLAG parents, families, and allies attended a lobby day for the Equality Act organized by Freedom for All Americans during the last Congress, with SAGE right before the pandemic lockdown, and HRC’s earlier this year.”

Sanchez noted PFLAG has a unique approach to advocacy, arranging meetings on Capitol Hill in which constituents are told to discuss “their lives and their families and experiences; their fears, their hopes and their dreams.”

They leave hard copies of bills that they — and PFLAG — consider “really pertinent right now,” but this is secondary to the purpose of relaying personal stories about their lived experiences, he said.

Good experiences in other GOP offices

Scott’s office aside, Hill-Nobles said her interactions with staff for other Republican members of the Florida delegation were professional and respectful.

For example, when an aide in Bean’s office asked questions about her son, she said it was clear that they “seemed to honestly care how he was, how his mental health was and how he managed to get through school.”

Differences of opinion were handled respectfully by Bean’s staff, Hill-Nobles said, noting cases where they relayed their opposition to the Equality Act and support for policies in schools and athletics organizations that prohibit trans students from using restrooms or competing on teams that align with their gender identity.

These arguments were consistent with “what we were expecting [and] what I was expecting,” she said, “again, it was a respectful conversation; it was not demeaning.”

Hill-Nobles added that during a “drop-in” to U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)’s office, where “we quickly went in and gave our information,” the Florida senator’s “front desk aides were perfectly polite and kind.”

Trans college student Levi Fiedler, who has served as an intern for PFLAG, the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute, the ACLU, and in the office of U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids (D-Kan.), agreed only to speak on the record with the Blade about positive experiences he had on the Hill during PFLAG’s Lobby Day.

Among them was the meeting with Cornyn’s staff, where Fiedler recalled having a “better conversation” than some he has had “with people who are on our side,” adding the experience was a testament to how “respect and kindness and love are not party-specific.”

Chun, who was also in attendance, agreed. “Cornyn’s office was amazing,” she said.

Even though they expressed opposition to policies that would require the collection of data on anti-LGBTQ bullying, the senator’s staff listened closely to their remarks about “how important it is to protect kids, regardless of who and what they are and what they’re perceived to be,’ Fiedler said.

His highest praise, though, was reserved for “one of the most kind and compassionate people,” an aide in Van Duyne’s office who asked “very open follow-up questions about the bills that we referenced,” and then “follow up questions about our experiences.”

The congresswoman’s staffer “genuinely wanted to hear our stories” to learn about “what our backgrounds were, what our families were like,” Fiedler said. It was “one of the sweetest and kindest conversations I’ve ever had about my experiences” as a trans person, he said.

Lobbying comes at a pivotal moment on Capitol Hill

With an article in June, the American Psychological Association noted the “overwhelming” consensus of research showing that anti-LGBTQ bills and laws, “which target access to health care, sports participation and school policies, have resulted in heightened levels of anxiety, depression and suicide risk among the transgender community.”

LGBTQ advocates, particularly those who work with members of the community in crisis, say these bills cause dramatic spikes in self-harm behaviors and suicides regardless of whether they are signed into law or come from local, state, or federal legislators.

Recent months have seen a flurry of anti-LGBTQ policies proposed by Republicans serving in Congress.

House Republicans nearly caused funding for the federal government to lapse at the end of last month by insisting on extreme, partisan — and, in all 12 cases, anti-LGBTQ — amendments to the chamber’s must-pass appropriations bills which, with the GOP members’ “poison pills,” were doomed to languish in the U.S. Senate.

Then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) narrowly averted a shutdown by brokering a last-minute deal with the Democrats for a short-term continuing resolution that extended funding for the government through mid-November.

As a result, a group of Republican members led by U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) recalled him. Twenty-one days later, the conference has failed to unite behind a new member to lead their party, which means the chamber is now procedurally unable to clear the government spending bills.

Even if the House GOP majority elects a speaker before the Nov. 17 deadline, it remains unclear members will agree to remove partisan amendments from the appropriations packages which, historically, were passed with broad bipartisan margins.