Politics
DNC slams Trump, MAGA Republicans on anniversary of Respect for Marriage Act
Pelosi, Equality Caucus celebrate the milestone

The Democratic National Committee slammed former President Donald Trump and other Republicans for their positions on marriage equality in a statement Wednesday, on the one-year anniversary of President Joe Biden’s signage of the Respect for Marriage Act:
āAfter Donald Trump appointed and celebrated far-right extreme judges who were willing to undermine 50 years of precedent and rip away Americansā freedoms, one year ago today President Biden signed the historic Respect for Marriage Act into law ā landmark legislation that reaffirms that love is love and protects every American’s freedom to marry in the face of attacks from the MAGA movement,” said DNC National Press Secretary Sarafina Chitika.
“When Donald Trump, Mike Johnson, and 2024 MAGA Republicans continue to villainize the LGBTQ+ community, they are showing us who they are ā and we must believe them,” she said, adding, “The choice next November couldnāt be more clear: President Bidenās plan to pass the Equality Act and ensure rights and freedoms for all Americans, or Donald Trump and MAGA Republicansā agenda to undermine our freedoms, harbor hate, and enable discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community.ā
While Trump has not weighed in directly on the Respect for Marriage Act, he has come out against same-sex marriage repeatedly over the last 20 years.
In 2015, after the U.S. Supreme Court established the constitutional right of LGBTQ couples to wed, he told Lou Dobbs of Fox Business, “if something can happen” to overturn the ruling “most people think it can’t at this point, but I would have loved to have seen the states make the decision, Lou, and let it be that way.”
Having named three right-wing justices who voted to overturn the high court’s precedent protecting abortion access in his first term, Trump in June pledged to “once again appoint rock solid conservative judges in the mold of justices like Antonin Scalia and the great Clarence Thomas” if he is reelected next year.
Thomas, in his concurring opinion in the abortion case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, voiced his support for revisiting rulings on same-sex marriage, contraception, and the nullification of sodomy laws.
In fact, this opinion spurred efforts to pass the Respect for Marriage Act to guard against the fallout that could result if the court were to reverse or substantially weaken its ruling establishing the nationwide constitutional right to marriage equality.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, meanwhile, a candidate for president who is polling in a distant second place behind Trump in surveys of likely GOP primary voters, told Fox host Laura Ingraham the bipartisan group of lawmakers behind the Respect for Marriage Act were “using the power, I think of the federal government in ways that will absolutely put religious institutions in difficult spots.”
On Capitol Hill, House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the Congressional Equality Caucus celebrated the anniversary with separate statements.
āOne year ago, President Joe Biden signed into law the Respect for Marriage Act: a triumph of love, liberty and justice for all,” Pelosi said.
“Responding to a Republican supermajority on the Supreme Court that took explicit aim at marriage equality, this law requires states to recognize same-sex marriages that are valid in the state where they were performed and tossed the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act into the dustbin of history,” she said. “It is with great personal pride that this law protecting marriage bears my signature, as one of the final bills I signed as Speaker of the House.”
Congressional Equality Caucus Chair Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) said, āThis law illustrates whatās possible when Democrats and Republicans come together to do whatās right and protect the rights of LGBTQI+ people.”
He added that, “Unfortunately, extremist politicians have introduced an avalanche of anti-equality bills at both the state and federal level since this bill became law, illustrating that progress isnāt always linear. As we celebrate todayās important anniversary, we must also all recommit to defending the rights of LGBTQI+ people, especially the transgender community, every day.ā
Politics
George Santos sentenced to 87 months in prison for fraud case
Judge: ‘You got elected with your words, most of which were lies.’

Disgraced former Republican congressman George Santos was sentenced to 87 months in prison on Friday, after pleading guilty last year to federal charges of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
āMr. Santos, words have consequences,ā said Judge Joanna Seybert of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. āYou got elected with your words, most of which were lies.ā
The first openly gay GOP member of Congress, Santos became a laughing stock after revelations came to light about his extensive history of fabricating and exaggerating details about his life and career.
His colleagues voted in December 2023 to expel him from Congress. An investigation by the U.S. House Ethics Committee found that Santos had used pilfered campaign funds for cosmetic procedures, designer fashion, and OnlyFans.
Federal prosecutors, however, found evidence that “Mr. Santos stole from donors, used his campaign account for personal purchases, inflated his fund-raising numbers, lied about his wealth on congressional documents and committed unemployment fraud,” per the New York Times.
The former congressman told the paper this week that he would not ask for a pardon. Despite Santos’s loyalty to President Donald Trump, the president has made no indication that he would intervene in his legal troubles.
Congress
Democratic lawmakers travel to El Salvador, demand information about gay Venezuelan asylum seeker
Congressman Robert Garcia led delegation

California Congressman Robert Garcia on Tuesday said the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador has agreed to ask the Salvadoran government about the well-being of a gay asylum seeker from Venezuela who remains incarcerated in the Central American country.
The Trump-Vance administration last month “forcibly removed” Andry HernĆ”ndez Romero, a stylist who asked for asylum because of persecution he suffered because of his sexual orientation and political beliefs, and other Venezuelans from the U.S. and sent them to El Salvador.
The White House on Feb. 20 designated Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang, as an āinternational terrorist organization.ā President Donald Trump on March 15 invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which the Associated Press notes allows the U.S. to deport ānoncitizens without any legal recourse.ā
Garcia told the Washington Blade that he and three other lawmakers ā U.S. Reps. Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-Fla.), Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.), and Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) ā met with U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador William Duncan and embassy staffers in San Salvador, the Salvadoran capital.
“His lawyers haven’t heard from him since he was abducted during his asylum process,” said Garcia.
The gay California Democrat noted the embassy agreed to ask the Salvadoran government to “see how he (HernĆ”ndez) is doing and to make sure he’s alive.”
“That’s important,” said Garcia. “They’ve agreed to that … we’re hopeful that we get some word, and that will be very comforting to his family and of course to his legal team.”

Garcia, Frost, Dexter, and Ansari traveled to El Salvador days after House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) and House Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.) denied their request to use committee funds for their trip.
“We went anyways,” said Garcia. “We’re not going to be intimidated by that.”
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on April 14 met with Trump at the White House. U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) three days later sat down with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who the Trump-Vance administration wrongfully deported to El Salvador on March 15.
Abrego was sent to the countryās Terrorism Confinement Center, a maximum-security prison known by the Spanish acronym CECOT. The Trump-Vance administration continues to defy a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that ordered it to “facilitate” Abrego’s return to the U.S.
Garcia, Frost, Dexter, and Ansari in a letter they sent a letter to Duncan and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday demanded “access to” HernĆ”ndez, who they note “may be imprisoned at” CECOT. A State Department spokesperson referred the Blade to the Salvadoran government in response to questions about “detainees” in the country.
Garcia said the majority of those in CECOT who the White House deported to El Salvador do not have criminal records.
“They can say what they want, but if they’re not presenting evidence, if a judge isn’t sending people, and these people have their due process, I just don’t understand how we have a country without due process,” he told the Blade. “It’s just the bedrock of our democracy.”

Garcia said he and Frost, Dexter, and Ansari spoke with embassy staff, Salvadoran journalists and human rights activists and “anyone else who would listen” about HernĆ”ndez. The California Democrat noted he and his colleagues also highlighted Abrego’s case.
“He (HernĆ”ndez) was accepted for his asylum claim,” said Garcia. “He (HernĆ”ndez) signed up for the asylum process on an app that we created for this very purpose, and then you get snatched up and taken to a foreign prison. It is unacceptable and inhumane and cruel and so it’s important that we elevate his story and his case.”
The Blade asked Garcia why the Trump-Vance administration is deporting people to El Salvador without due process.
“I honestly believe that he (Trump) is a master of dehumanizing people, and he wants to continue his horrendous campaign to dehumanize migrants and scare the American public and lie to the American public,” said Garcia.
The State Department spokesperson in response to the Blade’s request for comment referenced spokesperson Tammy Bruce’s comments about Van Hollen’s trip to El Salvador.
“These Congressional representatives would be better off focused on their own districts,” said the spokesperson. “Instead, they are concerned about non-U.S. citizens.”
Congress
Goodlander endorses Pappas’s Senate bid
Announcement puts gay congressman on the path to securing his party’s nomination

U.S. Rep. Maggie Goodlander (D-N.H.) on Thursday announced she will not run to represent her state in the U.S. Senate, endorsing gay U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas’s (D-N.H.) bid for the seat of retiring U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, putting him on the path to secure the Democratic nomination.
“We are in the fight of our lifetimes right now, of a moment of real crisis and challenge,” she said. “I feel humbled and grateful to so many people across our state who have encouraged me to take a look at the U.S. Senate, and after a lot of thought and conversations with people I love and people I respect and people who I had never met before, who I work for in this role right now, I’ve decided that I’m running for re election in the House of Representatives.”
When asked by a reporter from the ABC affiliate station in New Hampshire whether she would endorse Pappas, Goodlander said, “Yes. Chris Pappas has been amazing partner to me in this work and for many years. And I really admire him. I have a lot of confidence in him.”
She continued, “He and I come to this work, I think with a similar set of values, we also have really similar family stories. Our families both came to New Hampshire over 100 years ago from the very same part of northern Greece. And the values that he brings to this work are ones that that I really, really admire. So I’m proud to support him, and I’m really excited to be working with him right now because we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Today in Salem @MaggieG603 tells @WMUR9 she is not running for U.S. Senate & endorses @ChrisPappasNH #NHPolitics #NHSen #NH02 #WMUR pic.twitter.com/W2CMrhRuIC
— Adam Sexton (@AdamSextonWMUR) April 17, 2025
“Maggie Goodlander has dedicated her career to service, and we can always count on her to stand up to powerful interests and put people first,” Pappas said in a post on X. “I’m so grateful to call her my friend and teammate, and Iām proud to support her re-election and stand with her in the fights ahead.”
Earlier this month, former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, a Republican, announced he would not enter the Senate race, strengthening the odds that Democrats will retain control of Shaheen’s seat.
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