This article is part of a series — At 250, Who Will America Be? — reporting on threats to American democracy as we approach the nation’s Semiquincentennial, on July 4, 2026.
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“Equality means more than passing laws. The struggle is really won in the hearts and minds of the community, where it really counts,” said Barbara Gittings, who in 1958 organized the New York chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis, the nation’s first lesbian civil and political rights organization.
Now, in the 21st century, the political action committees Agenda PAC and MoveOn are focusing on where they think those hearts and minds can best be found: LGBTQ+ voters and their families, friends, and allies, who support queer civil rights at a time of extreme pushback.
The ACLU is currently tracking 522 anti-LGBTQ+ bills in the U.S. And on June 4, the Southern Poverty Law Center released its annual report on hate and extremism, documenting a 33% rise in anti-queer organizations in 2023, an uptick the organization says reflects the growing far-right, anti-trans movement. But will the combined efforts of these organizations help defeat anti-queer elected officials and bring to power more queer-friendly candidates?
Founded in 2022, Agenda PAC aims to hold anti-LGBTQ+ politicians and elected officials accountable, as well as defend vulnerable elected officials who are advocates for LGBTQ+ rights. While there are existing efforts to promote queer rights, as well as a political push to elect more friendly candidates, “there is currently no organized, national campaign like ours holding accountable politicians who attack our community’s rights via independent expenditures like ours,” Brian Sims, a gay former Pennsylvania state representative and Agenda PAC’s senior adviser, tells the Voice.
North Carolina state senator Buck Newton told a crowd, in 2016, “We must fight to keep our state straight.”
Enter the Hate Squad, a list of 10 legislators from across the country “who have promoted harm, used rhetoric to dehumanize their constituents, and used their power and platforms to harm some of the most vulnerable Americans — our LGBTQ+ youth,” Sims says. He is adamant that amped-up rhetoric against the queer community “has allowed far too many people to feel free to attack, harm, and discriminate against the queer community, and it is having dire and life-threatening results.”
Interim executive director Rachele Fortier explains, “Agenda PAC is directing resources into winnable electoral races and moving pro-LGBTQ+ donors, advocates, and activists to action.” Sims adds, “We cannot allow challenges to our freedoms to go unchecked, and that includes pro-choice policies. We’re standing up against conservative attacks to roll back our hard-fought freedoms.” The PAC has identified the Hate Squad — one U.S. House member and nine state-level legislators from six states — as “beatable bigots.”
California Republican representative Ken Calvert earned his place on the list by voting against repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” and in favor of barring LGBTQ+ people from adopting children; he also favors firing people for being queer. This year Calvert faces a rematch with his 2022 opponent, Democrat Will Rollins, an openly gay man, for the state’s remapped (and now more purple) 41st district, which helps to explain “part of why people are so bullish on flipping the seat,” Rollins told the Washington Blade.
Florida Republican state legislator Susan Plasencia voted to end gender-affirming care and to forcibly detransition trans minors. Her colleague Fabian Basabe voted to expand his state’s controversial “Don’t say gay” law. Iowa Republican state representative Jon Dunwell sponsored a bill that would forcibly out trans students. Missouri Republican state representative Bill Allen voted to ban transgender girls from girls’ sports. Oklahoma Republican state representative Eric Roberts sponsored a bill targeting LGBTQ+ protesters at his state’s capitol.
Two North Carolina Republican lawmakers also made the list. Representative Tricia Cotham switched her party affiliation from Democrat to Republican, giving Republicans a veto-proof majority. She then voted to ban trans girls from girls’ sports. Senator Buck Newton told a crowd, in 2016, “We must fight to keep our state straight.” More recently, during a 2023 debate on gender-affirming care, Newton can be heard audibly laughing at statistics on transgender teen suicide; after being called out by a colleague, he defended his behavior, calling the studies providing these stats “specious.”
Finally, two Pennsylvania Republican state representatives, Valerie Gaydos and Joe Emrick, round out the list. Gaydos has led the charge on banning transgender school athletes. Emrick voted in favor of Gaydo’s ban. He also voted to amend the Pennsylvania state constitution to declare that abortion is not a constitutional right.
Agenda PAC is looking to replicate its successful strategies in 2022, which focused on school boards and were designed to push back against Moms for Liberty, an anti-queer parental-rights group. “We won 15 out of 16 school board races at the local level,” Fortier notes. Sims says, “Our selection of the 10 elected officials this cycle rests on deep data analysis indicating each candidate is vulnerable,” adding that, for 2024, “We’re bringing the fight for LGBTQ+ rights to the doorstep of those who attack the community by aggressively holding accountable those who attack our freedoms to love and choose body autonomy — and defend elected officials who support LGBTQ+ rights and choice.” Sims also points out “Our enemies are telling us ‘You don’t belong.’ We disagree.”
Using small donations from individuals, Agenda PAC will apply their winning tactics to current efforts. Data tracked by the nonprofit Open Secrets on the 2022 election cycle indicates that Agenda PAC spent 81%, or $186,000, on prudent media buys. “Likewise for this campaign, we will be devoting much of our dollar resources to efficient messaging,” Sims explains. “Now is not the time for disengagement. That’s what the MAGA world wants to see. We’re going to disappoint them like we did in the 2022 school board races across the country.”
On another front, MoveOn is engaging with voters during the month of June, when the queer community and their allies traditionally celebrate Pride. From June 3 to 6, the 10-million-member organization hosted a series of house parties, phone banks, and home-based discussions of the anti-queer legislation popping up all over. Beyond the 522 anti-LGBTQ+ bills the ACLU is tracking this year, in 2023 at least 510 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were introduced in state legislatures across the U.S., a record at the time, according to ACLU data. Against this backdrop, MoveOn press secretary Britt Jacovich says, “Our members are motivated to keep Trump out of the White House.”
Regarding the four-day flurry of activity, MoveOn campaign director Nakia Stephens tells the Voice, “Our work is basic coalition building.” Membership represents “a wide set of demographics — young, old, straight, queer, and from a variety and mix of political persuasions along the continuum.” She states that no matter where a member or potential voter lives on the political spectrum, “I bring up other issues. If your starting point is queer civil rights, I’ll also provide information on, for example, access to abortion, or crime, or economics.” If a participant broadens their own understanding of political issues, Stephens says, “I’ll ask if they’d consider ‘coaching others,’ to broaden their understanding in the same way they did.”
The coalition-building continues on June 25, when MoveOn will host a Drag Lobby Day in Congress. Participants will present themselves in drag, hoping to allay the fears expressed by anti-drag, anti-trans, and anti-queer elected officials. The day involves scheduled one-on-one and small group meetings with members of Congress and staff. “Our long view is that there isn’t a single piece of federal legislation protecting the queer community, and this is our ‘good faith’ effort to create greater awareness in Congress,” Stephens explains. One solution to the nonstop anti-queer bills being introduced by state legislatures is to adopt a federal standard of protections, through amendments to the 1964 Civil Rights Act. “The best way to protect all involved is to have a national standard of rights when it comes to body autonomy issues and gender identities,” Stephens concludes.
Wisconsin’s Tammy Baldwin made history in 2013 by becoming the first openly gay U.S. senator. She often states that the only way to normalize nonheterosexual orientations is for the queer community to act like they are normal, because they are. On April 30, 2000, when she was one of Wisconsin’s Congressional representatives, she gave a powerful speech at the Millennium March for Equality on the National Mall, using rhetoric that echoed Gittings: “Remember that there are two things that keep us oppressed — them and us. We are half of the equation. And there will not be a magic day when it is okay to wake up and express ourselves publicly. We make that day by beginning to do things publicly — first in small numbers, then in greater numbers, until it’s simply the way things are and no one thinks twice. Never doubt that we will create this world, because, my friends, we are fortunate to live in a democracy, and in a democracy, we decide what’s possible.” ❖
Frank Pizzoli is a journalist who has been covering politics, queer issues, healthcare, and literary celebrities for the past 25 years.
