U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance at the Republican National Convention. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
In comments to the Washington Blade on Nov. 1, two gay members of Congress rebuffed claims by the Republican vice presidential candidate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, that he and former President Donald Trump have “the normal gay guy vote.”
A poll of LGBTQ voters in August by the Human Rights Campaign showed the community overwhelmingly supports the Democratic ticket, led by Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, by a margin of 74-7.5 percent.
Nevertheless, Vance told podcaster Joe Rogan during an interview on Oct. 31 that, “I wouldn’t be surprised if me and Trump won, just, the normal gay guy vote, because, they just wanted to be left the hell alone.”
The senator continued, “Now you have all this crazy stuff on top of it that they’re like, ‘No, no, we didn’t want to give pharmaceutical products to 9-year-olds who are transitioning their genders.’”
Gay U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, told the Blade “I don’t trust JD Vance on a lot of things, and I sure as hell don’t trust him to know what’s ‘normal.’”
“JD has spent his time as both a candidate and Senator attacking the rights of the LGBTQI+ community, and he has no idea what “normal gays” go through because of bullies like him and Trump,” Pocan said.
He added, “‘Normal’ gays are like ‘normal’ non-gays — we care about our families and we care about our country. My guess is the vast majority are voting for Kamala Harris because they know what’s at stake for our community and our country.”
Over the phone, U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), a gay co-chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, said the suggestion that “gay people are gonna somehow, en masse, start voting for Donald Trump and JD Vance, who are completely anti-gay, anti-LGBTQ and [have been] saying horrible things about the community” is “so stupid” and “ridiculous.”
“There might be, like, a handful of these MAGA Log Cabin folks that, quite frankly, are few and far between” the congressman said, referring to the LGBT conservative group Log Cabin Republicans, “but the support that Kamala Harris has in the gay community is is huge” and these voters are going to turn up on election day.
“And then, of course, this idea that [Vance is] somehow separating out ‘normal,’ regular gay guys,” Garcia said, “shows their complete lack of awareness about our community, what motivates us,” and “the solidarity we have together — we’re a close community; we support each other.”
“Trying to separate us is not going to work in these last few days, it’s completely desperate and just completely out of touch,” he said.
Asked whether he believes the message might appeal to some gay men, or lesbian or bisexual folks for that matter, at a time when trans rights have become a salient political issue, Garcia emphasized that by and large, “Because of our own identity and struggles, we support our members of the trans community and trans families and we understand how difficult that is for folks.”
“Most of us in the community know people that are trans, have trans friends, have marched for rights with them, have been to fundraisers, raising money for causes, for the community with them,” the congressman said. “So they’re part of of our community.”
“We’re not going to allow Donald Trump and JD Vance try to separate them out,” he said. “I think that is something that conservatives try to do is to somehow say that they’re okay with, you know, the LGB, but not with trans people, and that’s unacceptable to us.”
Garcia added, “It should be unacceptable to all members of our community. We should never allow them to separate us and to damage the solidarity that we have with people that are our friends and that are being attacked every day.”
Asked about the Trump campaign’s last-ditch outreach to gay conservatives, Garcia said the “Log Cabin types should look in the mirror and ask themselves what the fuck they’re doing and what the fuck they’re thinking because this is absolutely destructive to anyone that they care about.”
He continued, “this idea that they can still blindly support Donald Trump who wants to overthrow our government, move us backwards, attack our community, install a Supreme Court that will take away our rights — it’s insane, total insanity.”
“That’s why overwhelmingly our community supports Kamala Harris,” Garcia said. “We’ve done a lot of events with the Out for Harris team and get out the vote efforts, and the energy is there, people are excited, gay people are turning out and showing up, and we’re not going to be separated out by weirdos like JD Vance.”
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