NEW YORK – GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, today released the following background on Tennessee Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn which highlights her anti-LGBTQ activist record during her time as a public servant. This backgrounder is in response to media coverage of Blackburn’s decision to run for the open seat in the U.S. Senate following the unexpected retirement of current Senator Bob Corker.

Marsha Blackburn, who served as the vice chair of President Trump’s transition team, has been a leading voice against LGBTQ acceptance – including expressing vocal support for Trump’s transgender military ban. Rep. Blackburn’s own anti-LGBTQ record also includes opposing the Violence Against Women Act for including LGBTQ provisions, championing a federal constitutional amendment that would have banned marriage equality, and targeting elected officials working to protect and support LGBTQ students in the classrooms.

Read more about Congresswoman Blackburn’s anti-LGBTQ record below.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Marsha Blackburn’s Anti-LGBTQ Record

• Said of Supreme Court ruling granting marriage equality to same-sex couples in all fifty states: “Today’s Supreme Court decision is a disappointment. I have always supported traditional marriage. Despite this decision, no one can overrule the truth about what marriage actually is — a sacred institution between a man and a woman.”
   
• Applauded President Trump’s transgender military ban.
   
• Spoke out aggressively against the Obama administration’s transgender guidance (1:00–2:48).
   
• An original cosponsor of H.R. 2802, the so-called First Amendment Defense Act.
   
• Voted against LGBTQ-inclusive Employment Nondiscrimination Act.
   
• Voted against the repeal of the military’s discriminatory Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy.
   
• Voted against LGBT-inclusive hate crimes legislation.
   
• Opposed the Violence Against Women Act specifically because it included LGBTQ provisions.
   
• Actively worked to remove an openly gay safe schools chief for what she and her conservative colleagues denounced as “an integral role in promoting homosexuality and pushing a pro-homosexual agenda in America’s schools.”
   
• Championed a federal constitutional amendment banning marriage equality and said it was “very sad, very sad, that some courts and some activist judges have taken it upon themselves to usurp the will of the people.”