The number of U.S. Senators scoring
zero percent support on HRC's Congressional Scorecard has increased
since the last Congress.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the
nation's largest LGBT rights advocate, on Thursday released its
bi-annual Congressional Scorecard, which measures a lawmaker's
support for LGBT rights. (Scores are based on a lawmaker's support
for HRC's position on bills and nominations that impact the LGBT
community. HRC supported the impeachment of President Donald Trump
for abuse of power.)
For
the 116th
Congress, HRC found a record number of 228 members of Congress –
227 Democrats and 1 Independent – earned a perfect 100 score. Zero
Republicans earned perfect scores.
While HRC reported a slight increase
for the average score among House Democrats since the 115th
Congress, the number of Senators scoring zero reached a new high
since HRC began its survey nearly 20 years ago.
HRC President Alphonso David called the
survey “an important tool to understand your elected officials’
records on issues that impact the LGBTQ community and society’s
most marginalized.”
In both houses, support for LGBT rights
was lopsided toward Democrats. While the average score for Democrats
in the House was 98.3 percent and stood at 96 percent in the Senate,
Republicans scored 4.2 percent in the House and 1.6 percent in the
Senate.
“While Donald Trump and Mike Pence
have spent the past four years unleashing relentless attacks on the
LGBTQ community, the last two years have seen the development of a
critical backstop with the pro-equality majority in the U.S. House of
Representatives,” said David.
HRC's Congressional Scorecard found
only 14 Senators with scores of zero in the 112th
Congress.