Robert Garcia on why his 2026 Pride playlist is an act of joy in the face of hate

U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia’s 2026 Pride playlist arrived Tuesday as a bright, danceable thing. Beyoncé and Selena, Britney Spears and Bad Bunny, RuPaul and Rosalía, the sound of a summer party curated by one of Congress’s most visible gay lawmakers.

But minutes before Garcia spoke with The Advocate exclusively about the playlist, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a decision that reshaped the conversation. The justices ruled that states may bar transgender girls and women from competing in girls’ and women’s school sports. It’s a major victory for Republican-led states and the latest sign that transgender Americans remain at the center of the country’s legal and political backlash.

Garcia, a California Democrat and the first out LGBTQ+ immigrant elected to Congress, did not treat the ruling and the playlist as separate subjects. Pride, he said, is not a detour from the fight over civil rights. It is one of the places where that fight is sustained.

“I've always believed that young people should have a chance to participate and learn teamwork and play in sports and that includes all young people,” Garcia told The Advocate. “And so I know, unfortunately, it's not a surprise with the Supreme Court that they continue to roll back rights not just for LGBTQ+ people but for all people.”

He added, “I think it continues to reaffirm why we have to move forward and protest and be proud of who we are and use not just Pride, but every day of the year to advance the civil rights for all LGBTQ+ people. And that includes trans people.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, the playlist available on Apple Music and Spotify included 19 songs and ran for just under an hour. It moves across pop, Latin music, queer club sounds and nostalgia: Bruno Mars’ “I Just Might,” Justin Bieber’s “DAISIES,” Olivia Rodrigo’s “bad idea right?,” PinkPantheress’ “Stateside,” Inji’s “MADELINE,” Britney Spears’ “Toy Soldier,” Paris Hilton and Megan Thee Stallion’s “BBA,” Lady Gaga and Doechii’s “RUNWAY,” RuPaul’s “The Queendom (UROB Remix),” Little Mix’s “Wasabi,” The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Hypnotize - 2007 Remaster,” Karol G’s “LATINA FOREVA,” Bad Bunny’s “DtMF,” Rosalía’s “BIZCOCHITO,” Azul Azul’s “La Bomba,” Selena’s “Como La Flor - Remastered 2025,” Beyoncé’s “Ego,” Taylor Swift’s “You Need To Calm Down,” Neon Trees’ “Animal” and John Mayer’s “Your Body Is a Wonderland.”

The Advocate first covered Garcia’s Pride playlist in 2023, when it reflected the arrival of a new kind of congressman: Garcia, a former Long Beach mayor, a comic book fan, a pop culture omnivore, and the first gay immigrant ever elected to Congress. The next year, the playlist became more of a ritual. By 2026, Garcia is no longer simply a newly elected lawmaker with a fondness for Beyoncé and RuPaul. He is the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, one of the highest-profile investigative roles in Congress, and he would be in line to chair the panel if Democrats retake the House in the fall, as expected.

That means Garcia now occupies two lanes that Washington often pretends are incompatible. He is a serious oversight figure pressing for accountability from the Trump administration. He is also a gay man who talks without embarrassment about dancing to Britney Spears and loving Selena.

“Well, I am who I am,” Garcia said. “I've always liked pop culture. I've always liked music. I put out this playlist the last couple of years during Pride, and this year we thought on the last day of Pride, let's put this out again.”

Garcia said the playlist is simply what he listens to.

“I make these playlists honestly for the music that I'm currently listening to and that I like,” he said. “It's usually just a combination of kind of music that is currently kind of popular that I like, but also a combination of older music that I grew up with that I'm currently listening to and that are favorites of mine.”

His friends, he said, now expect it.

“This has become something my friends really like,” Garcia said. “My friends are all like, ‘Oh, you're putting out your playlist.’ And so yeah, it's just something for Pride. It's my own way of celebrating.”

The list is also a map of identity. Garcia immigrated from Peru to the United States as a child, was raised in Southern California and became a U.S. citizen in his 20s. His playlist carries that history in its Spanish-language tracks and Latin pop choices, including Karol G’s “LATINA FOREVA,” Bad Bunny’s “DtMF,” Rosalía’s “BIZCOCHITO,” Azul Azul’s “La Bomba” and Selena’s “Como La Flor.”

“I love Latino music. I love music in Spanish,” Garcia said. “I love Selena. I listen just consistently. I think there's probably been a Selena song in the other Pride playlist I've put out too. And so yeah, it's part of my culture, it's part of my identity.”

Some songs are less about biography than memory. For Garcia, Britney Spears’ “Toy Soldier” reaches back to the years when he was coming out.

“Britney Spears, obviously I grew up on Britney Spears,” he said. “When I think about my coming out experience, I think about Dancing to Britney Spears and that era.”

When asked which song best matched his current mood, Garcia hesitated. Then he landed on Beyoncé.

“Beyonce is telling my list from an artist perspective, and ‘Ego’ is my favorite Beyoncé song,” he said. “And I know it's not a favorite of a lot of people. It's a more obscure song, but it is my all-time favorite Beyoncé song.”

There is a temptation in politics to treat joy as unserious, especially when the news is grim. Garcia rejects that premise. His work on Oversight, he said, consumes most of his time. In recent weeks, he has previewed a more aggressive investigative posture toward the Trump administration if Democrats win back the House, including potential subpoenas connected to the Jeffrey Epstein files and scrutiny of officials he says have evaded accountability. But that work does not erase the need for music, family, friends or release.

“Look, I think obviously there's a lot of awful things happening in the world, and I think at the center of that is what's happened with the Trump administration,” Garcia said. “And I take the job of oversight and the job of taking on corruption very seriously. That's the vast majority of where I put my time.”

Still, he said, “we all have to find opportunities to enjoy ourselves, do a family, be with friends, take our mind off things.” Garcia often builds playlists on airplanes between Washington and California, he said, listening as he moves between the demands of Congress and those of the district he represents.

“I like to typically listen to music or watch a movie on my plane rides back and forth from DC, take an opportunity to wind down,” he said. The ritual has become useful even to him. “I've been really surprised how often I listen to the other Pride playlist I put out,” Garcia said. “Now I have 60 songs I can listen to.”

He added, “We have to move forward and protest and be proud of who we are."

Catch Robert Garcia's Pride Playlist on Spotify and Apple Music.