LGBTQIA+ Issues and Policy – Caroline County MD Democratic Club

Summary:

To summarize, LGBTQIA+ Americans, but especially transgender and non-binary people, face systemic issues that are being exacerbated by the current administration, congress, and many states’ governors and legislatures. Discrimination of sexual orientation or gender identity (made illegal in many sectors of life (but not all) just 4 years ago in Bostock vs. Clayton County) is still a prevalent issue. The current republican government seeks to remove these recent protections and many more that Biden put in place during his administration. The prevalence of discrimination can explain why LGBTQ+ people (especially POC, disabled people, and trans/non-binary people) to this day face significant health/healthcare, housing, income, educational, and employment disparities. We are also seeing republican attacks on gender-affirming care––which is already difficult to access––and cuts/eradication of key social supports implemented by democratic lawmakers––including to the suicide hotline. While transgender/non-binary people are the ones most targeted by politics today, sexual orientation/marriage rights are also facing attacks.

These attacks kill queer people, especially vulnerable queer youth. They are perpetrated, in part, by the people elected to represent us. Over the last two congresses, Andy Harris has sponsored or cosponsored 19 bills that are seeking or have sought to do harm to LGBTQ+ people––from trying to ban gender affirming care, to voting no on the Equality Act and the Respect for Marriage Act. Of the 6 anti-lgbtq+ bills proposed in MD this year, half (HB-1399, HB-0156, SB-0588) were cosponsored by our elected representatives: Sen Mautz (37), and Reps Arentz (36), Ghrist (36), Adams (37b), Hutchinson (37b). State Senator Hershey (36) cosponsored SB-0381 in the 2024 legislative session and Representative Jacobs (36) voted against gay marriage. These are the people who represent our voices. I know many people in our rooms do not agree. If you’d like to consider a candidacy to change who speaks for Caroline County, please reach out to me. I can connect you with the resources to make the changes we’d like to see in our future. And please, next year, vote with your values where you can.

Email info@carolinemddemclub.com for Corinna’s notes from the sources below or with any questions left unanswered.

Table of contents for below:

Official platforms and positions
supplementary sources used for this meeting
A list of Biden’s lgbtq exec orders, memos, and proc.s from Jan 21, 2021–Jun 17, 2021
Where to find Trump’s exec orders, memos, and procs. from his second term
A list of Andy Harris’ cosponsored transphobic legislation in the 118th and 119th congress
A list of Caroline-elected state congress’ transphobic legislation from the sessions in 2024 and 2025

Read the Positions Yourself:

Democratic national policy platform (’24): https://democrats.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/FINAL-MASTER-PLATFORM.pdf

Republican national policy platform (’24): https://prod-static.gop.com/media/RNC2024-Platform.pdf?_gl=1*d517yp*_gcl_au*NjAzMDIwMzYxLjE3NDI5OTA2ODM.&_ga=2.140889520.366644337.1749214992-21864442.1742990684

Wes Moore’s Platform for LGBTQIA+ peoples: https://wesmoore.com/issues/lgbtq/

Project 2025 full text: https://static.heritage.org/project2025/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf

Supplementary sources used for these assessments:

http://translegislation.com