Powerful anti-LGBTQ GOP congressman calling it quits after a quarter century
14 April 2021
U.S. Congressman Kevin Brady of Texas speaking at the 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland.
U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, a member of Congress since 1997, will be retiring at the end of his term next year. The 66-year old powerful Texas Republican will have served a quarter-century in the House, after serving in his state legislature for six years.
Brady, whose active Twitter feed is daily filled with partisan falsehoods echoing the latest GOP talking points, chaired the Ways and Means Committee for four years until 2019. He is now its Ranking Member.
Brady, a hard-core conservative, has voted against LGBTQ people at every turn.
"I am for equal rights, not special rights," he said in 2019 about the LGBTQ Equality Act, claiming it would "create greater inequality, undermine the fundamental rights and religious liberty of Texans, and penalize individuals for their personal views."
Responding to the Supreme Court's landmark 2015 marriage ruling Congressman Brady said his "strong, sincerely-held belief is that marriage is a union between one man and one woman. The Supreme Court should have upheld the 10th Amendment of the Constitution, and left this principled issue to the voters and their elected representatives in each state."
Brady has voted against reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, against prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation, and voted to constitutionally define marriage as only between one man and one woman.
Last year Brady said he was "honored" to accept an award fron the anti-LGBTQ hate group Family Research Council:
The Texas Tribune in announcing Brady's retirement calls his district a "potent Republican stronghold," and says it would be "difficult…to see any scenario in which this seat becomes competitive territory for Democrats."