Rep. Mark Pocan is hoping for a “Republican with a conscience.” “Charlatan” Nancy Mace isn’t it.

Representative Mark Pocan (D-WI)
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

On November 6, 2024, most LGBTQ+ people found themselves weighed down by shock, sadness, and anger after watching a man who campaigned heavily on dehumanizing attacks on the community handily win reelection to the White House.

And this time, his party gained a trifecta (control of the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the presidency), so Congress couldn’t be counted on to limit his excesses. The progress that will be erased, the rights that will be lost — it seemed all too overwhelming.

For the ever-pragmatic out Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI), though, the time for sadness is over. Now, it’s time to fight.

“We have to be in the action stage,” he said in a conversation with LGBTQ Nation just before Donald Trump’s inauguration. “Anger and grieving have to be in the back window, and we have to be moving forward.”

The former chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus (CEC)—the group of lawmakers working to promote equality for all, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or sex characteristics—Pocan knows what’s going on regarding LGBTQ+ policy in Congress. With House Republicans hiding anti-LGBTQ+ measures as riders attached to larger appropriations bills (spending bills that must pass to keep the government funded), this knowledge is crucial.

Part of the problem with assessing how bad the next two years of Congress will be for LGBTQ+ people, Pocan said, is that it’s…

Read full story, and more, from Source: Rep. Mark Pocan is hoping for a “Republican with a conscience.” “Charlatan” Nancy Mace isn’t it.

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