Six out LGBTQ+ House members voted in favor of a Republican resolution entitled, “Honoring the life and legacy of Charles ‘Charlie’ James Kirk,” a recently murdered MAGA influencer, made numerous anti-LGBTQ+ statements.

The six aforementioned House members who voted for the resolution — Reps. Becca Balint (D-VT),
Angie Craig (D-MN), Sharice Davids (D-KS), Chris Pappas (D-NH), Sarah McBride (D-DE), and Mark Takano (D-CA) — were among the 95 House Democrats who supported the resolution, which passed in a 310 to 58 vote. Only Rep. Craig and Rep. McBride responded to LGBTQ Nation‘s request for a comment explaining their support.

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“I have always condemned political violence in the strongest possible terms – just as I did last week, following the killing of Charlie Kirk. And in June, after the murders of my friends [Minnesota state Rep. Melissa [Hortman] and [her husband] Mark Hortman. Political violence is a grave threat to our democracy,” Craig told LGBTQ Nation.

“As Members of Congress, we have a responsibility to lead our country through this incredibly difficult time and that means working to unite, not further divide us. While I strongly disagree with Charlie Kirk’s views and wholeheartedly reject his hateful and divisive rhetoric – including toward people of color, immigrants, and LGBTQ+ families like my own – free speech is a fundamental right in our nation,” Craig added.

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“I firmly believe that now more than ever, we must unite to denounce political violence in all its forms. It is going to take all of us coming together to restore civility to our politics, and that starts here in the United States Congress,” Craig concluded. 

Rep. McBride said, “I disagree vehemently with so much of what Charlie Kirk said in his life. And I disapprove of parts of the resolution that I believe misrepresent his work and his words. But I chose to vote yes because I believe there must be no mistake that I condemn violence in this moment, and that is what the heart of this resolution is about. We could debate language, but at its core, it was a statement about political violence.”

The resolution said Kirk “was a devoted Christian, who boldly lived out his faith with conviction, courage, and compassion,” praised him for “engaging in respectful, civil discourse across college campuses … always seeking to elevate truth, foster understanding, and strengthen the Republic,” and “stood as a model for young Americans across the political spectrum.”

The only LGBTQ+ House member to vote against the resolution was Rep. Emily Randall (D-WA). The four following LGBTQ+ House members only voted as present or didn’t vote at all: Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), Rep. Julie Johnson (D-TX), Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI), and Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA).

Kirk had a long history of animus toward the LGBTQ+ community in his Christian nationalist vision for the country, particularly with transgender people. He characterized being gay as an “error,” compared homosexuality to alcoholism and drug addiction, notoriously called stoning gay people to death “God’s perfect law,” called trans people “pure evil,” a “social contagion,” and an “abomination to God,” and compared gender-affirming medical professionals to child-mutilating Nazis.

Speaking to CNN’s State of the Union last weekend, LGBTQ+ ally Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) said, “For the most part, the only people that voted ‘no’ were people of color, because the rhetoric that Charlie Kirk continuously put out there was rhetoric that specifically targeted people of color.” She said that, by her count, only two white Democrats voted against the resolution to honor Kirk.

“It is unfortunate that more of my colleagues, even on my side of the aisle, could not see the amount of harm that this man was attempting to inflict upon our communities,” she added.

She noted that Kirk cited her by name in a segment pushing the “Great white replacement” conspiracy theory that Jews, Marxists, and people of color are trying to replace white Americans in a bid to radically alter Western culture. Kirk also made comments saying that several Black female political figures “do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously,” adding, “You had to go steal a white person’s slot to go be taken somewhat seriously.”

Nonetheless, Crockett condemned the violence that took Kirk’s life, saying that he should not have been killed.

Update (6/22/25, 6:56 p.m. EST): This article now includes a statement from Rep. McBride (D-DE) as well as text from the resolution.

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