Requiem for the Anti-LGBTQ+ Career of Kevin McCarthy

RIP to Kevin McCarthy's political career.

Kevin McCarthy is leaving the U.S. House of Representatives with a lengthy anti-LGBTQ+ and generally far-right record.

McCarthy, representing California’s 20^th Congressional District, was always viewed as a mainstream Republican and never attracted attention with outrageous statements like those of say, Marjorie Taylor Greene or Louie Gohmert, his voting record shows he’s no supporter of LGBTQ+ equality — or any other progressive cause.

He has received a zero on the Human Rights Campaign’s Congressional Scorecard in every session of Congress since he was first elected in 2006. Meanwhile, he’s received high ratings from the American Conservative Union.

He has been a longtime opponent of marriage equality. In 2011, he blasted President Barack Obama’s decision to cease defending the Defense of Marriage Act, which denied federal government recognition of same-sex marriages, therefore depriving couples of many benefits. He denounced Obama’s “decision to shirk his constitutional responsibility to defend this law.” The Bipartisan Legal Advocacy Group, a collection of House leaders that included McCarthy, took up the defense and hired attorney Paul Clement, who’d worked in the George W. Bush administration, to handle the case. But it was a losing cause, with the U.S. Supreme Court striking down the main part of DOMA in 2013.

In 2021, five years after the Supreme Court ruled for nationwide marriage equality in the Obergefell v. Hodges case, a reporter asked him if his position on the issue had changed. He said, “Look same-sex marriage is the law of the land, and it’s what America holds, and that’s the law of the land.” But the following year, he voted against the Respect for Marriage Act, which wrote marriage equality into federal law, protecting it in case the Supreme Court reverses itself. He said Democrats were simply playing a political game by pushing the act, which ultimately passed and was signed into law by President Joe Biden.

He has also voted against the Equality Act, which has yet to pass; it would outlaw anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination nationwide in employment, housing, public accommodations, and many other aspects of life. In 2021, he called the bill “an onslaught against freedom of religion” and girls’ sports as well.

This year, he voted for a bill that would bar transgender women and girls from female sports nationwide, mimicking legislation that has passed in more than 20 states. “There’s a reason why there’s men and women’s sports,” he said at a press conference in April. “It’s about fairness. And if there’s one final fiber of America, it’s about giving people an opportunity.” The bill passed the House but has no chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate.

In September, seven AIDS activists protested and were arrested at McCarthy's D.C. office. They were objecting to the delay in reauthorizing the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a program started under George W. Bush to fight HIV and AIDS overseas.

McCarthy has also been a staunch opponent of abortion rights and gun control.

McCarthy’s district, which includes his hometown of Bakersfield, is in a conservative section of California, so it’s solidly Republican. There will be a special election to replace him, but it will be several months away. Today is McCarthy's last day in Congress.

He was a restaurant owner and California state legislator before running for Congress. In the House, he has been majority whip, majority and minority leader, and speaker. He was elected speaker in January after 15 rounds of voting, then was ousted in October because many of his fellow Republicans considered him insufficiently conservative and too willing to work with Democrats on some issues — such as funding to keep the government open. Anti-LGBTQ+ Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina was elected acting speaker, and then the even more virulently anti-LGBTQ+ Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana was elected as McCarthy’s official replacement.

McCarthy gave a farewell address to the House today. He realized that joining in the temporary funding resolution sealed his fate, but he wouldn't do anything differently, he said. “One thing I think we must quite understand, and if there’s advice I can give: Do not be fearful if you believe your philosophy brings people more freedom. Do not be fearful that you could lose your job over it,” McCarthy said, according to The Hill. “I knew the day we decided to make sure to choose to pay our troops while war was breaking out, instead of shutting down, was the right decision. I also knew a few would make a motion.”

Speaking with reporters afterward, he said he'd use his ample fundraising connections only to help "conservatives who want to govern," a dig at the fellow Republicans who voted to oust him, Politico reports. He also said he'd accept a cabinet position if Donald Trump is elected president. “Yes, I believe in public service,” he said.