(Watermark file photo)
A letter to President Joe Biden and Democratic congressional leadership sent on Nov. 1 by 163 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, including Congressional Equality Caucus Chair Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and the eight other openly LGBTQ co-chairs, objects to Republican members’ efforts to “hijack the appropriations process to restrict the rights and fundamental freedoms of LGBTQI+ people.”
With the Nov. 17 funding deadline looming, the letter argues, “These members lack the votes and public support to pass their anti-LGBTQI+ agenda into law as standalone bills, so they are working to include them in must-pass funding legislation.”
These total more than 40, according to the letter, which specifies they fall largely within four categories:
- Gender-Affirming Care Ban Riders: These riders would restrict access to evidence-based, medically necessary care for transgender people or eliminate funding to organizations that provide such care.
- License to Discriminate Riders: These riders would create a license for people and organizations—including those receiving taxpayer funds—to discriminate against LGBTQI+ people under the guise of religious liberty, and they prevent the federal government from adequately responding. For example, they prohibit the federal government from reducing or terminating a federal contract or grant with an organization that discriminates against LGBTQI+ people if the organization justifies their discrimination based on the belief that marriage should only be between a man and a woman.
- Pride Flag Riders: These riders would prohibit funds from being used to fly pride flags at covered facilities.
- DEI EO Riders: These riders would prohibit funds from being used to implement, administer, apply, enforce, or carry out three LGBTQI-inclusive Executive Orders (EO Nos. 13985, 14035, and 14091) meant to ensure the federal workforce is an inclusive and affirming workplace for employees with marginalized identities.
Pocan also issued a statement on behalf of the Caucus objecting to the House’s passage of H.R. 4364, the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act.
“In 2013, I had to fight for my marriage to be recognized so my husband could receive his House Spouse ID,” the Wisconsin Democrat wrote.
“Now, a decade later, Republicans are using this bill to bring us back to a time where Legislative Branch employees and contractors can discriminate against me and other members and staff in same-sex marriages.”
Then, on Nov. 3, a Democratic aligned group called the House Accountability War Room issued a statement objecting to passage of the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, H.R.4821.
Among others, the group highlighted provisions prohibiting “discriminatory action against a person” based on their “sincerely held religious belief, or moral conviction, that marriage is, or should be recognized as, a union of one man and one woman.”
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