Michigan LGBTQ+ Leaders Push Back After Former State GOP Chair Uses Gay Slur
Rep. Jason Morgan: ‘Republicans are dangerous to gay people.’
When out gay Rep. Jason Morgan, vice chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, read what former co-chair of the Michigan GOP Meshawn Maddock posted about him on X, he was shocked, to a point. But then again, Maddock’s language seems par for the course for a party that has built a campaign around othering and dehumanization. So far, the state Republican party has shown no sign of denouncing Maddock’s hate speech.
The failed fake elector took to X last week to post this bit of public discourse, which has since been flagged with the warning, “Visibility limited: this Post may violate X’s rules against Hateful Conduct”:
You know it’s bad when even the X algorithm takes a step back. Why this felt necessary is anyone’s guess, but Maddock’s post, Morgan says, stands in strong contrast to the inclusive message central to the Harris-Walz campaign.
“As I’ve been thinking this through the last couple of days,” Morgan tells Pride Source, “I really keep coming back to kind of one central point for myself, and that’s that I ran for office to fight bullies like Meshawn Maddock and Donald Trump, and I won’t rest until we defeat them.”
“It’s such a direct contrast between the two parties,” he adds. “One party is empowering and lifting up the LGBTQ+ community, and the other is calling us homophobic slurs from the ‘90s. You can’t make a starker contrast than what I’ve seen in the past week.”
That contrast includes a Democratic convention that saw a record-breaking number of LGBTQ+ attendees on the convention floor. DNC LGBTQ Caucus Chair Earl Fowlkes addressed the crowd on the second night of the big event and drew attention to the more than 800 LGBTQ+ delegates, up from 635 in 2020. Other national LGBTQ+ figures in attendance included Harris-Walz National LGBTQ+ Engagement Director Sam Alleman and senior advisor to Vice President Harris Sergio Gonzales, alongside dozens of leading state figures like Michigan’s own Sen. Jeremy Moss, Rep. Jason Hoskins, Oakland County Executive Dave Coulter and many others.
“When I saw the tweet, yes, I was shocked, but then I remembered that this is what the Republican party has shown us time and time again under Donald Trump. It’s what they stand for,” Morgan says. “There’s this idea among some gay Republicans that they will be OK under another Trump presidency, and this is just a shining example that they are wrong.”
Morgan responded to Maddock’s post with a pointed post of his own, writing, “Former @MIGOP Chair and advisor to Trump’s 2024 campaign, just called me a f*g. As a proud gay man who loves his husband, these hateful taunts don’t undermine my Pride, but to countless LGBTQ young people across the USA, hateful rhetoric can lead to depression and suicide.”
“Donald Trump and Republicans are dangerous to gay people, and if anyone fails to see that, then they are just naive and choosing not to believe what we’ve been shown time and time again. And that’s the frustrating thing to me,” he says.
Morgan says there are LGBTQ+ voters who plan to vote for Trump or to abstain. “But the reality is that as gay people, our basic rights, our dignity and our safety from harm is on the ballot in November,” he adds. “And I hope that people will see that and understand how high the stakes are in this election.”
Trump and his cohorts have made anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment a cornerstone of 2024 Republican campaign efforts, with candidates across the country running on their success in outlawing transgender healthcare in states like Florida, Ohio and Texas. Dismantling anti-discrimination laws, banning books from public schools and libraries and enacting laws like Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” policy are all emblematic of what today’s GOP stands for. Many political experts warn that the Supreme Court is poised to knock down its 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision, which established a federally protected right to marriage for same-sex couples. As ACLU of Michigan attorney Jay Kaplan wrote in an op-ed for Pride Source, “Emboldened by the decision to strip the right to an abortion from federal law, conservative politicians and activists have turned up the volume on calls for the Court to do the same with marriage equality.”
“Many of these folks who are empowered by Donald Trump will be in positions of power in government if he is reelected,” Morgan says. “I have some colleagues who are phenomenal Republicans, who I get along with great, who are pushing back and saying ‘This isn’t what the Republican Party stands for,’ but I see no repudiation from the Michigan Party Chair or Donald Trump to these comments by Meshawn Maddock and, to me, that says that this really is what the overall Republican Party stands for under Donald Trump. That’s just the reality.”
Maddock’s photo of Michigan DNC attendees included Oakland County Executive Dave Coulter. Coulter responded in a post, “It was a special honor to represent Oakland County as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last week. I left the convention feeling like many of you: optimistic, determined, and yes… joyful. I was greeted home by the former cochair of the Michigan Republican Party and current wife of a county state representative calling me a fag. It was a sober reminder of the hate that courses through the MAGA right and that our fight is far from over.”
Coulter took a defiant stance, adding in a second post, “I’ll never back down to bullies, and I’ll never bow to hate. I am more determined than ever to embrace the slogan so popular at the convention: ‘We’re Not Going Back!’ Oakland County is moving forward in responsible ways that lift up everyone.”
On Tuesday, Morgan prompted Republican leaders to respond to Maddock’s hateful post, writing, “It's been three days since I posted @MeshawnMaddock's words, and we've heard no response from the @MIGOP or Donald Trump. I want to know, @realDonaldTrump, do you condemn this use of homophobic slurs by your supporters? Or does Meshawn truly reflect your values?”
So far, the non-answer seems to be a quiet, but resounding, “Yes, she does.”
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