5 Anti-LGBTQ+ Candidates We Need to Defeat This November – Them

October 24, 2022 Kim Martel

Although Yvette Herrell has not quite made headlines in the same ways that other candidates on this list have, she’s still utilized the same hateful rhetoric. Last February, Herrell, who represents New Mexico’s largest congressional district in the House of Representatives, spoke out against the passage of the Equality Act, which would enshrine protections for LGBTQ+ Americans into federal law.

In a three-minute speech, Herrell said that the House “can’t be so anxious to protect one class of people that we harm another.” She went on to claim that the Equality Act “places women in sports, in domestic shelters, in the healthcare profession at risk,” and that it would force people to “perform abortions and gender transition surgeries against their deeply-held religious beliefs.” Herrell even claimed that parents who don’t support their children having “gender reassignment surgery” (which is not performed on children, ever) could risk having their children taken away. Ironically, New Mexico’s neighbor, Texas, has done the opposite, with supportive parents of trans children being investigated for “child abuse.”

In a July interview with local outlet KSVP, Herrell also claimed that the Respect for Marriage Act, which would protect both same-sex marriage and interracial marriage, was “extreme,” an “attack on traditional marriage,” and “undermines the nuclear family as we know it.”

She’s facing Democratic candidate Gabe Vasquez, who is “running for Congress to be a champion for working families and to build an economy that benefits everyone,” as his campaign website has it. He’s spoken out for marriage equality, directly calling out Herrell, and has been endorsed by the Equality PAC, which is focused on LGBTQ+ advocacy. FiveThirtyEight has named the race as one of the top 10 districts that is most likely to decide whether the Democrats will maintain control of the House. While an August report found that Vasquez had a lead, that lead was 45% to 44%, and Politico still considers the race a toss-up.

Steve Chabot (Ohio)