Mitch McConnell

Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate

As Senator and Senate Majority Leader

— Blocked a vote on an amendment that would have stopped the Trump Administration’s ban on transgender military personnel.

— Co-sponsored both the 2004 and the 2006 versions of the so-called Federal Marriage Amendment, which would have turned the US Constitution into a weapon against marriage equality

— Callously said of changing the U.S. Constitution to ban marriage equality: “If it takes a constitutional amendment to achieve a statement of the obvious, then so be it.”

— Insisted that a Federal Marriage Amendment was needed because “I believe that traditional marriage, the union between a man and a woman, is the cornerstone of our society and the best possible foundation for a family. I believe that traditional marriage, the union between a man and a woman, should be the only form of marriage recognized by law.”

— Responded to the Supreme Court’s legalization of marriage equality with insistence that “…the American people, through the democratic process, should be able to determine the meaning of this bedrock institution in our society.”

— Voted for the discriminatory so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

— Joined an Amicus Brief defending the discriminatory so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in federal court.

— Voted against repealing the military’s discriminatory Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT) policy.

— Tried to stop the Senate’s successful repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT) by pushing a last-minute poison pill amendment that would have demanded a complicated certification process by military chiefs.

— Voted against federal employment protections for LGBTQ people in both 1996 and 2013.

— Voted against federal hate crimes protections for LGBTQ people in the years 2000, 2002, and 2009.

— Voted for a 1994 amendment that was designed to protect employees of the Department of Agriculture who questioned the department’s pro-LGBTQ policies (Sponsor Jesse Helms said on the Senate floor that the amendment was needed because “To be blunt about it, the Department of Agriculture is being overrun by homosexuals, and they have been running the store to a great extent.”)

— Voted for a 1992 amendment that prevented federal funds from being used for HHS Surverys that gauged teen sexual behavior (Sponsor Jesse Helms admitted on the Senate floor that the amendment was designed to stop “the sexual liberation crowd” from cooking “the scientific facts to legitimize homosexual and other sexually promiscuous lifestyles.”)

— Appointed viciously anti-LGBTQ activist Tony Perkins to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.

— Has changed Senate rules in order to confirm a record number of anti-LGBTQ conservative judges at all levels of the judiciary.

— Bragged to an audience of the anti-LGBTQ Family Research Council, “We are changing America more than some people recognize, but I’m glad you do.”