The newly revealed federal spending bill, announced on Thursday, does not include most of the more than 40 anti-LGBTQ+ “policy riders” that extreme right-wing Republicans wanted. This is good news for transgender journalist Erin Reed, who has reported. Erin Reed has reported. The bill still needs to go through the House and Senate and be signed into law by 12:01 a.m. Saturday to avoid a government shutdown.
The only remaining anti-LGBTQ+ provision in the bill stops Pride flags from being flown over U.S. embassies in foreign countries, but embassies can find creative solutions. The budget also gives extra funding for PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, an international HIV-prevention plan that has been praised for saving over 25 million lives since it was started by then-President George W. Bush in 2003.
Members of the House Freedom Caucus who are conservatives had attempted to use budget negotiations to stop government funding for any organizations that “promote transgenderism” or provide gender-affirming care; federal agencies that are working to expand diversity, equality, and inclusivity (DEI); legal actions against federal labor contractors who discriminate against LGBTQ+ people for religious reasons; and the enforcement of the Department of Education’s rules for accommodating trans students.
In a letter in February 2023 to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), the House Freedom Caucus threatened to vote against the spending bill and shut down the government unless these riders were included. “Rather than working to address the problems facing Americans and supporting working families, anti-equality members of Congress [had] attempt[ed] to hijack the appropriations process to restrict the rights and fundamental freedoms of LGBTQI+ people,” the Congressional Equality Caucus and 163 representatives wrote
in in a November 2023 letter to President Joe Biden. “The majority of Americans —Democrats, Republicans, and Independents — support nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQI+ people and we should not enshrine discrimination into law via the appropriations process or restrict the ability of the federal government to enforce existing nondiscrimination laws.” a statement released on Thursday
In , the House Appropriations Democrats noted that the recently unveiled budget also eliminated Republican riders preventing the collection of data on bank lending to minority-owned businesses, the pursuit of climate change reduction efforts, data collection on firearm-related violence, and grants to recruit teachers in low-income schools. The spending bill also denies any new funding to help build former President Donald Trump’s wall at the southern border.The new spending bill will fund PEPFAR for at least one more year. Republicans had sought to
decrease funding to PEPFAR , falsely claiming that the international HIV-prevention program funded abortions and objecting to language in PEPFAR’s international guidebook around sex workers, trans people, abortion, and human rights.The spending bill will also provide $60 million for the Minority HIV/AIDS Initiative, a fund that supports HIV-prevention and health projects in racial- and ethnic-minority communities; an important fund considering the disproportionate HIV infection rates in Black and Latinx communities.
The bill includes a rule against flying rainbow Pride flags at foreign U.S. embassies. However, Reed pointed out that some embassies have found ways to get around the rule by using rainbow colors on parts of the embassy or hanging flags on the side of buildings instead of flying them over the embassy.
Republicans may still attempt to include their anti-LGBTQ+ rules in the spending bill, but the limited time for its approval to avoid a government shutdown makes it less likely. Nevertheless, the spending plan will probably receive criticism from both the left and the right for cutting funding to initiatives that each side supports.
Republicans made efforts to add more than 40 anti-LGBTQ+ rules, but all but one of them failed.
