—Opposed expanded protections and rights for LGBTQ people throughout his 14 years in Congress. Rogers has voted against “expanding federal hate crime laws to cover crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity.” In addition, “Rogers has also repeatedly voted against expanding federal hate crime laws to cover crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity.”0
—Opposes marriage equality, voting in favor of constitutional amendments to define marriage strictly as a union between a man and a woman. Rogers has argued that denying same-sex couples the right to marry is not discriminatory, claiming that the ‘right has never existed,’ and he has likened same-sex marriage to polygamy.
—“Promised to support legislation to roll back” the Biden Administration’s LGBTQ protections. “We’re going to take the Senate, we’re going to keep the House and we’re going to win the White House and we’re going to fix Title IX,” said Rogers, who also spoke out against transgender participation in sports. “Title IX has been here for 50 years, with the sole purpose to allow women to have equal opportunity to compete in sports,” Rogers said. “It was designed to give women opportunity, and what they’re doing to these women is taking that opportunity away.” Rogers claimed this was not a condemnation of the LGBTQ community: “It’s about fairness. It’s about Title IX.” Meeting participants included former U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and anti-trans athlete Riley Gaines. Rogers used his platform to sign a pledge, the Stand With Women Commitment, which he claimed “preserves female opportunities and private spaces.”
—Received “the maximum allowable political contributions” from former U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and the DeVos family, a combined total of $46,200. DeVos spent much of her career trying to defund Michigan’s public schools, and told Moms for Liberty “the Department of Education should not exist.” Both Rogers and DeVos share anti-LGBTQ, anti-abortion views.
—Tweeted support of Senate Republicans’ efforts to block Title IX expansions to include transgender protections: “Grateful for these strong Senate Republicans for taking action to protect girls and women’s sports.”
—Used a campaign ad to target what he calls “social engineering” in schools. “Schools care more about social engineering than, as my father used to say, the three ‘R’s’: Readin’, ‘Ritin, and ‘Rithmetic.” Social engineering coincides “with the rhetoric from the ‘parental rights’ movement” that opposes “books and curriculum dealing with racism and LGBTQ+ issues.”
—Advocated for book bans and extremist organizations like Moms for Liberty, who support such efforts. Speaking with MSNBC’s Joy Reid, Rogers argued that a book cannot be considered banned if it is still obtainable outside of the classroom or library. Literary and educational experts disagree, restricting or removing access is a barrier to the information and therefore, a book ban. “You could take this argument to the extreme and say, ‘Well, then everything should be available,’” said Rogers. “Let them get on pornography sites.”
—Voted against repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (2010), which barred out LGBTQ people from military service.
—Voted against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, “which sought to prohibit job discrimination based on sexual orientation.”
—Characterized being LGBTQ as a “lifestyle choice,” and said he would vote against same-sex marriage. “That doesn’t mean I would have loved my children any less at all, but I believe when you’re taking what is a lifestyle choice into the public arena, into the courtroom like that, it has ramifications, and I just don’t think that would be the right direction for us to go…We tell people who can drive a car. And we give marriage licenses. And we’ve decided that the best cornerstone for that level of acceptance in American society is that marriage should be between a man and a woman.” As of 2024, nine years after marriage equality was legalized nationwide, support has climbed to a record high 71%.
—Repeatedly pushed to ban abortion nationwide. He opposed reproductive rights 100% of the time, according to scorecards issued by the group NARAL Pro-Choice America, now known as Reproductive Freedom for All. Rogers backed a constitutional amendment to ban abortion and give legal rights to fetuses from the moment of conception, co-sponsored the Life at Conception Act and other proposals intended to give full legal rights to embryos and fetuses (a position that jeopardizes IVF), and voted for a 20-week national abortion ban in 2013. In 2003 and again in 2005, Rogers co-sponsored legislation to require withdrawal FDA approval of mifepristone, a drug used for medication abortions, and he endorsed the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which overturned Roe.