The federal government shut down at midnight Wednesday, the third such lapse under President Donald Trump, plunging the country into familiar uncertainty. For LGBTQ+ lawmakers, the standoff is not only evidence of dysfunction but also a direct threat to health care access, equality, and the stability of families nationwide.
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The deadlock stems from irreconcilable demands over health care and funding authority. Democrats insisted that any short-term deal must extend Affordable Care Act subsidies set to expire at year’s end and rein in Trump’s use of “rescission” powers that allow him to claw back money Congress has already approved. Republicans rejected those terms and pressed forward with their own continuing resolution, which excluded the subsidies while maintaining funding at the current level. With neither side willing to budge to reach the 60-vote threshold required to keep the government open, both Democratic and Republican stopgap bills failed in the Senate late Tuesday, triggering the shutdown just after midnight.
Gay Democratic California U.S. Rep. Mark Takano, who chairs the Congressional Equality Caucus, said the crisis exemplifies what he called the Republican Party’s inability to govern responsibly, despite being in complete control of the country. With a conservative super-majority on the U.S. Supreme Court, Republicans control the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the White House.
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“Since Republicans took control of the House in 2023, we’ve seen irrefutable proof that they simply don’t know what they’re doing. This shutdown is just the latest example,” Takano told The Advocate in a statement. He argued that GOP leaders slashed Medicaid and refused to extend enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits, worsening a health care crisis while “cutting working families’ healthcare to pay for tax cuts for billionaires.”
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“Now, we’re in D.C. fighting to clean up their mess while Republicans try to push blame on us from the comfort of their vacation homes," Takano said. He stressed that Democrats remain vigilant against the use of appropriations bills as vehicles for anti-LGBTQ+ measures. “Last Congress, we were able to beat nearly every anti-LGBTQI+ rider that Republicans included in their partisan appropriations bills,” he said. “If Republicans try to revive them as we work to end the shutdown, we’re committed to beating those riders again.”
Democratic U.S. Rep. Becca Balint, a lesbian who represents Vermont, voiced similar frustrations, stressing that Republicans’ control of government leaves them with no one else to blame.
Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the White House. Not once did they come to the negotiating table with Democrats, so they cannot expect to have our votes,” Balint told The Advocate. “LGBTQI+ Americans, like all Americans, will have higher premiums, fewer options, and in some cases be kicked off of their health insurance. Democrats in Congress will continue to fight against hateful, homophobic riders and ensure our equal rights are protected.”
Republicans are falsely claiming that Democrats have shut the government down over their insistence that undocumented immigrants receive free health care. Not only is that not true, but federal law expressly prohibits undocumented people from accessing benefits under Medicaid, Medicare, and health insurance exchanges. Negotiations between the two parties have stalled.
On Wednesday afternoon, Delaware Democratic Congresswoman Sarah McBride sounded the alarm. In a press release, she condemned what she called a betrayal, saying “Delawareans deserve better than this reckless shutdown.”
"Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the Presidency. They manufactured this shutdown by refusing to work in a bipartisan fashion,” the first out transgender member of Congress said. “Now, more than 40,000 of our neighbors will be facing higher costs, furloughs, and shuttered services because Republicans are more interested in political games than governing.”
Her office warned of steep consequences: ACA subsidies expiring could result in premiums for 16,000 residents increasing by as much as 90 percent. Thousands of federal workers, including civilian National Guard technicians, face furloughs. Veterans’ programs are suspended. SNAP and WIC benefits could run out by November if the shutdown drags on.
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A senior Capitol Hill staffer told The Advocate that despite claims circulating during the standoff, there are no health care riders attached to the short-term continuing resolutions. Riders, including those attacking LGBTQ+ rights, appear in long-term appropriations bills, but Congress has failed to pass them for more than three years.
Independent journalist Erin Reed notes in Erin in the Morning that the House’s full-year funding bills for fiscal 2026 are loaded with anti-LGBTQ+ provisions, from banning federal funds for gender-affirming care to barring Pride flags at federal sites and imposing bathroom restrictions on military bases. These riders, Reed wrote, represent “a wholesale rewrite of federal policy on LGBTQ+ rights” that could strip health care protections, curtail civil rights, and reshape daily life for transgender Americans.
The Senate’s versions of the identical bills are far cleaner, but the failure of continuing resolutions means the eventual fight over those appropriations is still looming. For now, Democrats’ refusal to cave under shutdown pressure has reassured some advocates. However, Reed cautioned that the risk remains: a protracted shutdown could tempt lawmakers to trade away LGBTQ+ protections in exchange for a deal.
The shutdown reprises a familiar drama. While former President Joe Biden was able to avoid closing the government under his leadership, the longest shutdown in U.S. history, from 2018 to 2019, also happened under Trump and cost the economy an estimated $11 billion. Then, as now, federal workers went unpaid, services shuttered, and basic government functions faltered.
“Standing up for health care and keeping the government open should never be partisan,” McBride said.
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