Protesters marching in front of HRC offices in honor of trans visibility on Aug. 24, 2024. (Erkki Forster/Washington Blade)
JOE REBERKENNY | Washington Blade
Courtesy of the National LGBT Media Association
A recent study by the Human Rights Campaign shows House Republicans continue to push anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, despite overwhelming nationwide support for nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people.
The study found that Trump-supporting Republicans are attempting to pass 52 anti-LGBTQ riders — unofficial amendments to legislation with little chance of passing on their own — across 12 of the must-pass FY26 federal appropriations bills.
If enacted, these riders would become a significant vehicle for undermining LGBTQ+ equality.
The riders impose broad anti-LGBTQ measures, including blocking gender-affirming care, erasing sexual orientation and gender identity data, restricting nondiscrimination protections, limiting support for LGBTQ+ communities, targeting global LGBTQ+ rights and public health, interfering in medical decisions and curtailing LGBTQ+ participation in sports, education and civic life.
In addition to the riders, congressional Republicans have used the rescissions process — where the government takes back money already approved for programs deemed no longer necessary — to remove funding from Biden-era programs that have served as major lifelines for the most vulnerable members of the LGBTQ community, particularly low-income individuals, transgender youth, and people living with or at high risk for HIV.
Together, these efforts, combined with an already hostile White House eager to remove funding from anything deemed too “woke” or “wasteful,” have created a sizable gap in federal funding for programs once seen as foundational. Funding for nondiscrimination, public health, housing and civil rights is now at risk, as Republicans follow Trump’s lead.
The HRC report shows that these proposed bills would drastically affect many aspects of LGBTQ existence, highlighting actions that will harm LGBTQ Americans.
These include establishing a “First Amendment Defense Act,” which allows individuals, businesses, universities and federally funded agencies to refuse services to LGBTQ+ people in the name of personal belief; pushing drag bans on military bases and in U.S. foreign aid programming; minimizing gender-affirming care by reducing funding and punishing medical providers and even applying a global gag rule to gender-affirming care in U.S.-supported foreign assistance programs.
The study also highlights attempts to block Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement for gender-affirming care and efforts to restrict PrEP, HIV testing, and sexual health services — policies that will particularly harm transgender people.
It details extensive Republican efforts to redefine “sex” as strictly biological in standalone bills, appearing in riders that would gut Section 1557 protections and affect access to HIV prevention, Ryan White services, Title X reproductive health and HOPWA housing programs.
Additional bills listed criminalize or stigmatize LGBTQ identity and are informing restrictions on community health education, HIV prevention campaigns, school-based health centers and public health research funding at the CDC and NIH.
“This country deserves leadership that uses its power to help meet the needs of the people.
Instead, MAGA Republicans make everything about attacking transgender people,” said David Stacy, Human Rights Campaign’s vice president of government affairs. “They have now spent three years attempting to poison these must-pass bills with anti-LGBTQ+ riders that polarize the House appropriations process and weaponize the federal government against our community, while doing nothing to address the urgent needs of their constituents.
“The American people have been clear: anti-equality politicians should stop shirking responsibility and actually serve all of their constituents,” Stacy added. “Pro-equality members of Congress must defeat the latest wave of anti-LGBTQ+ provisions and hold the line against hate.”
On election night in November, HRC released a memo showing anti-trans ad campaigns are failing and Americans overwhelmingly support equality. Nearly two-thirds of Americans back federal nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people, including 58 percent of independents and 42 percent of Republicans.
Almost 7 in 10 say politicians are too uninformed about transgender youth healthcare to make fair policies, and nearly half think lawmakers shouldn’t focus on transgender issues at all. And 70 percent worry politicians are targeting LGBTQ youth to divide the country and score political points.