Nancy Pelosi, retiring from Congress, leaves a record as a champion of LGBTQ+ equality

U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who announced Thursday that she will not seek another term, will leave with one of the most pro-LGBTQ+ rights records of any member of Congress.

Pelosi, a Democrat, has been a member of the U.S. House of Representatives since 1987, when she won a special election to represent a San Francisco district. She was a House leader, either as speaker or minority leader, depending on whether Democrats held a majority, for 20 years until she stepped down from leadership in 2023. She was the first woman to be speaker of the House.

An ally from the very beginning

In her first year in office, she joined in the March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. In a video from the march, a reporter observed that Pelosi was one of the few members of Congress participating. She replied that she was there not only to show solidarity with the many San Franciscans who had traveled to D.C. for the event but to demonstrate support for a gay civil rights bill and increased funding to address the AIDS crisis (her first speech to the House dealt with AIDS). She also noted that she had taken part in AIDS Walks and Pride parades in San Francisco.

Related: Nancy Pelosi honors those lost to AIDS epidemic with Gay Men's Chorus of D.C. during WorldPride

Pelosi was fighting for LGBTQ+ rights even when many Democrats were lukewarm on the issue. For instance, the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which banned federal government recognition of same-sex marriages, had support from numerous Dems, including then-U.S. Sen. Joe Biden, and was signed into law by President Bill Clinton. No state offered same-sex marriages at the time, but it looked as if a court case in Hawaii would make it the first state with marriage equality (it didn’t), and politicians were scrambling to appease panicked conservative constituents.

Pelosi not only voted against DOMA but spoke out against it, saying, “I rise in strong opposition to this ill-named ‘Defense of Marriage Act,’ and I do so on the basis of conscience, Constitution, and constituency.” One could argue that with Pelosi's constituency, it was easy for her to champion LGBTQ+ rights, and she certainly could do so without fear of repercussions. But it remains indisputable that she has been a champion.

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She has received a perfect 100 score or close to it on the Human Rights Campaign's Congressional Scorecard as long as it's existed — since the 108th Congress, 2003-2005. In 2007, she voted for a controversial version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act that included sexual orientation but not gender identity, but she said she would have preferred a more inclusive version (one had died in committee).

The House did approve the bill, but it never came to a vote in the Senate. The opposite happened a few years later — in 2013, the Senate approved a version of ENDA that included gender identity, but it failed to receive a vote in the House.

Pelosi has continued to back such legislation. ENDA has now been superseded by the Equality Act, which would ban anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination in credit, housing, and other areas in addition to employment. As speaker, she twice oversaw House passage of the act, while it languished in the Senate. It was reintroduced this year, with Pelosi joining in support.

Related: Nancy Pelosi shouts ‘shut up’ at far-right reporter who asked accusatory January 6 question

The Respect for Marriage Act

She also led the fight for the Respect for Marriage Act, which passed both chambers in 2022 and was signed into law by then-President Biden. It would protect marriage equality in many ways even if the Supreme Court overturns its 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision, requiring the federal government to recognize same-sex and interracial marriages and states to recognize those performed in other states. It does not require states to offer marriage rights to same-sex couples, however.

She supported several pieces of pro-LGBTQ+ legislation during her first stint as speaker, which included the first two years of Barack Obama's presidency. The major successes were the passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, to address hate crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell." She was also key in the effort to pass the Affordable Care Act, which made health insurance available to many marginalized groups of people and featured inclusive antidiscrimination language.

In 2011, as cases against DOMA and California's anti-marriage equality Proposition 8 were making their way through the courts, Pelosi spoke optimistically to a group of LGBTQ+ activists about winning the freedom to marry for all. “To those who mock me on this subject, I say to them, ‘The inconceivable to you is the inevitable to us,’” she said. This was a year before Obama and Biden came out for marriage equality, two years before DOMA and Prop. 8 were struck down for good, and four years before marriage equality became the law of the land.

Pelosi coming out for trans rights

Beyond marriage, she has been ahead of the curve on other LGBTQ+ issues, endorsing military service by transgender Americans as far back as 2014, two years before the Obama administration ended the ban, and backing legislation to classify conversion therapy as consumer fraud, something that still hasn’t passed.

Speaking to The Advocate in 2024, she emphasized the importance of moving beyond mere tolerance to respect and pride: “People always say to me, ‘San Franciscans are so tolerant.’ I say, don’t use the word ‘tolerant.’ It’s a condescending word. It’s not about tolerance, which might have been a good thing a hundred years ago. It’s about respect. It’s about taking pride. It’s beyond tolerance; it’s about embracing and celebrating our differences.”