Community Voices: Ken Calvert’s Speaker Vote Is His Latest Attack on the LGBTQ+ Community

Over his 30 years in Washington, career politician Ken Calvert has done a lot of damage to California. Due to his voting to cut Social Security benefits for seniors and raise the retirement age; blocking bipartisan infrastructure investments to improve our water, roads and broadband resources; and working to end the right to an abortion held by California women for 50 years, Californians are forced to pay higher costs and hold fewer rights due to his tenure.

But perhaps no group has borne the brunt of Calvert’s failures more than California’s LGBTQ+ community. Again and again, throughout his decades in office, Calvert has used stereotypes and bigotry against queer people to distract Californians from his track record of failed leadership and broken promises.

He’s not alone. Two weeks ago, Calvert voted to make far-right Rep. Mike Johnson speaker of the House, installing a fellow anti-LGBTQ+ crusader into one of the most influential positions in the country. Johnson has called for criminalizing gay people, compared homosexuality to pedophilia, and was the author of a bill that would implement Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ homophobic “Don’t Say Gay” law in Florida nationwide.

It should be no surprise that Calvert would support Johnson’s bigotry. In his very first re-election campaign, Calvert sent out pink and lavender mailers attacking his opponent for the crime of being gay in what The Press-Enterprise called a campaign of “nastiness, sleaze and innuendo.” To this day, he refuses to disavow that homophobic campaign.

He then spent much of the next three decades attacking the rights of California’s LGBTQ+ community. In 1996, he voted to ban same-sex marriage, and then 13 years later, he attacked the California Supreme Court when it issued a decision legalizing marriage equality.

In 2007 and 2009, he voted against the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which passed the House with bipartisan support and toughened penalties on violent crimes where a victim is attacked because of their sexuality.

Just two years ago, he voted against banning employment discrimination against LGBTQ+ Americans. And now, facing “the challenge of his career” next November, Rep. Calvert is again reverting to his old playbook.

In July, Calvert predictably voted for extreme anti-LGBTQ+ provisions in a defense bill and tried to defund multiple community centers that would have provided services for queer people.

Whether with a bull horn or a dog whistle, Calvert has spent the better part of 30 years denigrating and legislating against the LGBTQ+ community. And now that he’s put a fellow anti-LGBTQ+ crusader in charge of the House, the damage they’ve already done might only be beginning.

To protect the rights of all Californians, we must replace Calvert with leadership that strengthens California communities—not tears them down in a desperate attempt to hold on to power.

Will Rollins is a Palm Springs resident and Southern California native. A former federal counterterrorism prosecutor, he is now running for Congress in California’s 41st Congressional District.