Recommendations of the Editorial team
It’s Pride Month – and that means Republican lawmakers and right-wing influencers on social media are expressing their disdain for the LGBTQ+ community and the celebrations, which will take place throughout the month.
Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) is doing damage control after apparently going a step too far even for his own party.
On Tuesday evening, Ogles’ office said it had “warned” an unnamed employee who had posted from Ogles’ official X account earlier that same day: “Homosexuality has no place in America. Happy Nuclear Family Month.”
Ogles shifts blame
“While I was working on the farm this morning, my phone went crazy over a post someone on my communications team made,” Ogles wrote Tuesday evening. “The post was stupid, hurtful and completely distracts from my America First focus. The employee has been warned.”
Ogles’ social media profile is replete with extremist rhetoric aimed at nearly every minority in the country. He deleted the attack on gay Americans – but posts claiming that “the only antidote to mass rape is mass remigration” (a reference to a white nationalist concept), accusing LGBTQ+ youth groups of “child seduction” and describing Islam as “incompatible” with America can still be found on his profile. Ogles also campaigned against same-sex marriage, and when the Supreme Court overturned federal abortion rights, he wrote that marriage rights for LGBTQ+ people were “next.”
Even some Republicans found the anti-pride post distasteful. New York Rep. Mike Lawler, who is in a tough re-election fight, responded to his colleague on X. “Homosexuality exists. In America. In fact, Andy, you have family, friends, neighbors, colleagues and constituents who are gay or lesbian,” he wrote. “That doesn’t make them any less or somehow unworthy of being an American. What an absolutely idiotic statement.”
Cruz rows back
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told TMZ that “homosexuals have been a part of humanity since time immemorial” — “since recorded history began.”
“The behavior of consenting adults is their private matter,” Cruz said.
That’s not a particularly harsh rebuke from Cruz — the same man who once called the legalization of same-sex marriage a “tyranny.” It would also be a mistake to believe that the mild criticism Ogles received from within his own ranks was an expression of support for LGBTQ+ equality – and not just a slap on the wrist for essentially stating out loud the core commitment of the right-wing anti-LGBTQ+ agenda.
Culture clash for Pride Month
Republicans across the country nonetheless used the start of Pride Month to celebrate the series of culture-warring, homophobic initiatives they have pushed. The governors of Indiana and Tennessee have declared June “Nuclear Family Month” – as an alternative to Pride Month. Texas Senate candidate and incumbent Attorney General Ken Paxton kicked off Pride Month with a lawsuit against the city of Denton, which hosted a “Big Gay Swim Day” at a public pool. In Fresno, California, the county Board of Supervisors banned public libraries from participating in Pride events.
Pride commemorates all the struggles LGBTQ+ Americans have faced toward equality. It’s also an annual reminder that Republicans want to undo any progress they’ve made as soon as they get the chance. Ogles may blame his staff for posting that gays have no place in America – but there is no doubt that he is using his position in Congress to limit their rights.