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The Maryland governor and Delaware congresswoman spoke passionately to a packed room.
The prominent Democrats called for solidarity, courage, and unapologetic representation in rousing speeches.
As the political climate grows increasingly hostile toward LGBTQ+ people, the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund’s National Champagne Brunch in Washington, D.C., served as both a celebration and battle cry. Speaking to a packed room on April 27 at the Ritz-Carlton, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, opened the event with a speech grounded in military clarity and moral urgency: “We leave no one behind.”
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Moore, the Victory Fund’s 2025 Equality Champion Award recipient, invoked his Army training and policy record. “Never as a society can we become a place where someone’s humanity needs to be justified,” he said. “Particularly justified by people who never gave it to you in the first place.”
Related: Maryland’s Wes Moore Vows to Protect LGBTQ+ Rights as Governor
He highlighted Maryland’s Trans Health Equity Act, which he signed within his first 100 days, mandating Medicaid coverage of gender-affirming care. He also extended legal protections to providers and patients of that care through executive action — even those crossing state lines. “In Maryland, hate will find no oxygen,” Moore said. “We will protect you.”
His remarks echoed what he told The Advocate ahead of his 2022 election when he vowed that any effort to roll back LGBTQ+ rights would have to “go through me first.” At the time, Moore sharply contrasted himself with his far-right opponent, calling out “the danger in our opponent that even the [Republican] governor recognized.” He said then — and reaffirmed Sunday — that his administration would lead “aggressively” to defend queer and trans people in Maryland and beyond.
At the event, Moore named the people his policies are designed to defend: a same-sex couple in Ellicott City who fear adoption may be stripped away and a trans teacher in Pasadena whose image was doxxed by far-right accounts. “You are not in the room because of someone’s benevolence,” Moore said. “You are in that room because you belong in that room.”
That theme of belonging carried into remarks by Democratic Delaware Congresswoman Sarah McBride, the first out transgender member of the U.S. House. “Some of my colleagues are trying to use me as a pawn,” she said. “To gain attention. To get clips on social media. And I refuse to be used as a pawn.”
She described a dysfunctional and hostile political environment — including a recent incident where Rep. Lauren Boebert reportedly followed another congresswoman into the bathroom, mistakenly thinking it was McBride. “These people are so incompetent they can’t even police the one bathroom off the floor of the House,” McBride said. “But the consequences of their actions are serious.”
Related: Out former California lawmaker pays $106k fine for hiding payment to Alec Baldwin for campaign appearence
She warned that anti-trans rhetoric has already spilled over into broader harm, citing a cisgender woman fired from her job because a customer thought she was trans. “You don’t look woman enough. You don’t talk woman enough,” McBride said. “Apparently, you have shoulder-length hair and glasses — and these people tell you that you don’t belong.”
“But we know we belong,” she said. “We belong in our workplaces. We belong in the military. And yes, we belong in the halls of Congress.”
Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, the first out LGBTQ+ person elected to the U.S. Senate, joined fashion and reality television icon Tim Gunn and LGBTQ+ Victory Fund President and CEO Evan Low for a panel conversation. Baldwin recalled the overwhelming anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric she encountered during the 2024 campaign cycle. During that campaign, Republicans attacked her and her partner. “I worried so much,” she said. “What does this say to young people... that they were weaponizing our community as part of an electoral campaign?”
With his signature blend of candor and calm, Gunn put it simply: “This isn’t about fashion — it’s about decency. And what I see happening in this country is indecent.”
Low reflected on the moment with a call to scale LGBTQ+ political power. “We must fight — until out politicians are not simply the exception, but the expectation,” Low said. “We cannot be what we cannot see.”
Low, who assumed leadership of Victory Fund and its sister organization, Victory Institute, in March, brought decades of public service experience. A former California Assemblymember, mayor, and congressional candidate, he made history as one of the nation’s youngest and first out gay Asian American elected officials.
His appointment comes amid scrutiny. Just weeks before the brunch, Low agreed to pay a $106,000 fine after the California Fair Political Practices Commission found he violated campaign finance laws in connection with a 2020 fundraiser featuring actor Alec Baldwin. Low did not dispute the findings. “I am now focused on the important work of building and growing a pipeline of LGBTQ+ elected officials across the country,” he told The Advocate in a statement.
