House GOP Strips Funding From LGBTQ+ Related Earmarks In Latest ‘Wokeness’ Witch Hunt

Republican lawmakers removed three Democratic-sponsored projects, each aimed at providing services to the LGBTQ+ community, from a Department of Housing and Urban Development appropriations markup.
UNITED STATES - APRIL 20: Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., left, and Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., talk during the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Commi... UNITED STATES - APRIL 20: Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., left, and Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., talk during the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Committee hearing titled "FY2024 Request for the Department of Transportation," in Rayburn Building on Thursday, April 20, 2023. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg testified. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Republicans on the House Appropriations committee stripped funding from three projects aimed at providing services to the LGBTQ+ community during Tuesday’s fiscal Department of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development appropriations markup, turning an ordinarily uneventful process into a tense and antagonizing meeting.

The earmarks House Republicans stripped funding from — a total of $3.62 million — were for three housing projects, two in Massachusetts and one in Pennsylvania, that would benefit members of the LGBTQ+ community.

The two projects in Philadelphia — requested by Reps. Brendan Boyle (D-PA) and Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA) — were for the expansion of William Way Community Center LGBT Community Center and a transitional housing program at the LGBT Center of Greater Reading. The third earmark was requested by Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) for the LGBTQ Senior Housing Inc., to convert a former Boston Public School building into 74 units of affordable housing for seniors.

The move to strike three LGBTQ+ focused projects from the 2024 markup is yet another example of House Republicans’ targeting the supposedly “woke” priorities of Democrats, derailing the usual rhythms of legislating on Capitol Hill in an attempt to own the liberals they love to hate on.

The amendment to strike funding for the projects was introduced by Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) and among the most outspoken defenders of the amendment was former Trump administration Interior Secretary Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT).

Last week, MAGA House Republicans similarly threw a wrench into what is historically a drama-free set of votes around the National Defense Authorization Act — the legislation that authorizes the annual budget for the U.S. military. A group of Freedom Caucus members forced votes on, and successfully added amendments to, the annual defense policy bill curtailing access to abortion for military personnel as well as ending diversity training and limiting funding for gender affirming surgeries and treatments.

The House’s MAGAfied version of the NDAA would not be able to pass the Democratic-led Senate, setting up a later fight between the chambers. It is a prime example of MAGA Republicans flexing their power in their caucus and over the Speaker, Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), whose power is constrained by the House GOP’s razor-thin majority.

Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI), an LGBTQ member of Congress, said the committee’s move to strip the earmarks was “bigoted” and “insane.” 

He accused the Republican members of fostering hate against LGBTQ+ community, recalling the hate he was subjected to earlier in his career.

“When I first ran for office, where they wrote ‘dead faggot’ over your face and sent [the article] to you in the mail,” Pocan recalled in remarks during the meeting. “Or the time that when I wasn’t out yet, left the gay bars, and people followed me and beat me with a baseball bat until I was bloodied and unconscious and called me a faggot.”

“This is what you guys do, by introducing amendments like this,” Pocan said. “Taking away from people’s earmarks is absolutely below the dignity of Congress, and certainly the Appropriations Committee.”

He was joined by others.

“In all the two years that I dealt and this committee dealt with community projects, never once, never once did we challenge any Republican project,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), the ranking Democrat on the panel, said in response to the cuts. “We said, you do what you want to do and we do what we want. And that has been destroyed today.”

Meanwhile, the Democrats who had their requested funding denied were furious with the cuts.

“It is unconscionable that Republican committee members would hold senior citizen-specific housing hostage and continue their dangerous national trend of targeting the LGBTQ+ community,” Pressley said in a statement, according to Roll Call.

Meanwhile Houlahan took to Twitter, saying, “This cruel and unjust decision is not rooted in any legitimacy, but instead in bigotry and hatred.”

Latest News

Notable Replies

  1. What I’m thinking is worse than that.

  2. They can’t even define woke!!! GOP is the party of hate and fearmongering.

  3. Woke is anything that threatens White male dominance.

    But what is interesting about attacking all gay people is that it attacks many members of their own families. That is what caused gay rights to move forward so fast in the last 20 years is that unlike Blacks, Muslims, and immigrants, Republicans are as likely as anyone else to have gays in their families.

    It caused Rachel Maddow to say, “if only we could find a way to put poor people in Republican families”.

    Which leads me to think that is really what is behind these attacks on these projects, not so much that they might benefit gay people but rather that they benefit poor people.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

45 more replies

Participants

Avatar for slbinva Avatar for epicurus Avatar for becca656 Avatar for wanderer Avatar for murgatroid Avatar for lastroth Avatar for jkrogman Avatar for ifeveroheverawiztherewas Avatar for billymac Avatar for leftcoaster Avatar for dangoodbar Avatar for ronbyers Avatar for fiftygigs Avatar for darrtown Avatar for aru90015 Avatar for edgarant Avatar for coimmigrant Avatar for stellermeller Avatar for kelaine Avatar for demosthenes59 Avatar for rascal_crone Avatar for Kappus Avatar for iafixture Avatar for Vickie48

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: