'Bigoted': Rep. Mark Pocan rebukes House Republicans for effort to cut support for LGBTQ groups

WASHINGTON – Democratic U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan on Tuesday delivered an impassioned rebuke of House Republicans' efforts to roll back funding for the LGBTQ community — calling a move to eliminate community directed spending for LGBTQ groups "insane" and labeling one Republican colleague a bigot.

Pocan's pointed remarks came as Appropriation's Committee Republicans moved to strike from the Transportation Department's annual funding bill three earmarks that would provide services to several LGBTQ centers in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. The move is among the latest in a culture war playing out on Capitol Hill in which Republicans have set their sights on, in part, transgender issues and diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

"If you were to take away earmarks because they went to the NAACP or the Urban League, you would rightfully so be called racist bigots,” Pocan said during the subcommittee hearing, using the acronym for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. “But when you do it to the LGBT community, it’s another fricken day in Congress.”

At issue were three earmarks tucked into the department's spending bill: $1.8 million to expand an LGBTQ center in Philadelphia; $970,000 toward a transitional housing program at an LGBT Center in Reading, Pennsylvania; and $850,000 for an LGBTQ senior housing group in Massachusetts.

Republicans on the Appropriations subcommittee ultimately voted to eliminate the three spending projects as part of a bloc of amendments that included other cultural sticking points, including one measure that would prohibit flying gay pride flags over government buildings.

Pocan, who is gay, called the effort an "embarrassment" to the committee and described the move as "bigoted."

He told a personal story of his experience being a gay man. He said someone wrote a slur over his face on an article that was sent to him.

Pocan said he once left a gay bar "and two people followed me and beat me with a baseball bat until I was bloodied and unconscious" and used a an anti-gay slur.

"This is what you guys do by introducing amendments like this — taking away from people’s earmarks is absolutely below the dignity of Congress and certainly the Appropriations Committee.”

Connecticut Democratic U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, was similarly critical of her Republican colleagues. She equated the discussions to "negotiating with terrorists" — remarks that were later removed from the record, according to news reports.

At one point during the hearing, Maryland Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Harris claimed without providing evidence that one of the LGBTQ centers in question had support groups for 7-year-olds "to groom 7-year-olds."

"Why else would you have — it's not for adults, it's not an adult group," Harris said.

Pocan attacked Harris for the remark, saying: "You know there's a saying — how do you show you're a bigot without saying you're a bigot? I'm just saying there's a saying." When Harris asked Pocan if he was calling him a bigot, Pocan said: "No, I said a saying. There's a saying." Harris then asked Pocan's words be stricken from the record.

"I know it's a little warm outside and a snowflake can melt, but this is a little bit ridiculous," Pocan responded.

When Pocan said he would take down his words, Harris objected, claiming Pocan did not move to take down the words but rather moved to "explain them."

"I said I would take down my words. Perhaps his eyes are so tired from reading so many websites that his ears can't hear," Pocan said, referencing Harris' review of LGBTQ community center websites. "I don't know why this is such an issue."

The committee recessed following the clash, and Pocan's remarks suggesting Harris was "tired" were removed from the record, according to an aide to Pocan. The Madison Democrat was prohibited from speaking for the rest of the day. He was not censured, however, for suggesting Harris is a bigot.

Pocan later tweeted: "How do you say you’re a bigot, without saying you’re a bigot?"

“They always say there are Democrats, Republicans and appropriators," Pocan said of the committee at one point. "And now we have to say that there are Democrats, Republicans, appropriators and, unfortunately, a bigger umbrella called bigots. Because when we do this stuff, that is what happens."

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Rep. Mark Pocan slams House GOP efforts to cut LGBTQ support