Three pro-LGBTQ+ Democrats voted to out trans students. Who are they?

Featured image (left to right): U.S. Reps. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, Eugene Vindman, and Laura Gillen.

An anti-trans bill targeting students and their schools passed the House of Representatives last week. A few of those who voted for the measure are members of Congress’s pro-LGBTQ+ rights caucus.

In a vote of 217 to 198, Republicans led the vote to prohibit elementary and middle schools from updating a student’s preferred name, gender marker, or pronouns without parental consent — potentially outing students to their parents. The bill also would create a “don’t say trans” policy, banning discussion about trans identities or people in schools that receive federal dollars. 

Eight Democrats voted with GOP lawmakers to pass the measure that now heads to the Senate. Three of those Democrats, U.S. Reps. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, Laura Gillen, and Eugene Vindman, are members of the Congressional Equality Caucus, a legislative group that supports LGBTQ+ rights and lawmakers. 

“The Equality Caucus works toward the extension of equal rights, the repeal of discriminatory laws, the elimination of hate-motivated violence, and the improved health and well-being for all regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, or sex characteristics (including intersex traits),” the group’s website states. 

The remaining five were U.S. Reps. Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, Henry Cuellar of Texas, Don Davis of North Carolina, Cleo Fields of Louisiana, and Marcy Kaptur of Ohio. 

All of the Democrats, aside from Fields, represent swing districts, HuffPost notes. The outlet reports that Fields represents a district that will most likely be redrawn due to gerrymandering by Republicans. 

Marie Gluesenkamp Perez

U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, one of the Equality Caucus members, represents a district in Washington state. She told HuffPost that while her “heart breaks for children who don’t feel safe letting their parents into their world,” she believes “divorcing a young child’s school life from their home life doesn’t resolve the underlying problem of an unsupportive family. 

She added, “It can leave that child more alone. I voted for this bill because I believe the answer is to bring families in, and I’ll keep working so every kid in Southwest Washington has support both at school and at home.”

Elected first in 2022, Gluesenkamp Perez now serves on the House Appropriations Committee.

Eugene Vindman

A Virginia congressman who serves on the U.S. House Armed Services Committee and the U.S. House Agriculture Committee and who has previously supported LGBTQ+ rights, Vindman released a statement after the vote last week. 

“As a dad to two public school kids, I believe parents must be included in their children’s decisions in school,” said Vindman in a press release. “Whether it’s what they put on their school forms, their academic performance, or athletics, parents need to be at the center because that is the key to every child’s success. There are other policies in the bill I don’t agree with and will work to change, but I voted today to make sure parents like me can continue to support their kids at school, and I believe to my core that is what our kids need.”  

The LGBTQ+ rights group Equality Virginia called out Vindman for supporting the GOP bill. 

“With his vote, Rep. Vindman has turned his back on transgender students, their parents, and their teachers in his district,” Narissa Rahaman, executive director of the organization, told The Advocate. “No member of the Equality Caucus should vote in support of a bill that would require schools to forcibly out transgender students — especially if doing so would put the student in immediate danger.”

Laura Gillen

The lawmaker from New York is currently serving her first term. Gillen hasn’t made any statements publicly about her vote last week. She serves on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, sitting on the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, Subcommittee on Aviation, and Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment, and the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee. 

U.S. Rep. Mark Takano of California, the chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, blasted the measure after it passed the House. 

“I spent 24 years as an educator, where I worked with hundreds of high school students and their parents. Most children go to their parents when they need help or are struggling — including transgender children — but not all parents are accepting,” he said in a statement. “The forced outing provision of this bill puts teachers in an impossible situation by requiring them to out trans kids to their parents in certain situations — even if the teacher knows the student will likely face physical abuse.”

Takano did not address the three members of the caucus who voted for the bill.