Out Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA) will chair the Congressional Equality Caucus (CEC), the group of Congressmembers that advances LGBTQ+ equality. Out Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) was the previous CEC chair.

“Over the next several years, we will see a constant barrage of attacks on the rights and dignity of the queer community — especially against our transgender siblings — by the Trump administration and the Republican majorities in both the House and Senate,” Takano said in a statement.

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“This is too important election to sit out,” he said. And it’s not just about Harris’ views.

“As Chair of the Equality Caucus, I will lead our coalition of openly-LGBTQI+ members and our allies in the fight to both defend the queer community and push equality forward, including by reintroducing the Equality Act.” The Equality Act would add sexual orientation and gender identity to federal anti-discrimination legislation, banning anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination at the federal level in a number of areas, including housing, public accommodations, and credit. It is unlikely to pass the House because Republicans have a majority.

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Takano, a high school English teacher for 23 years, became the first out Asian American and the first out person of color in Congress after he was first elected in 2012. He was outed by a Republican while running for Congress in 1994, who called him a “homosexual liberal.” Today, he is the ranking member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, the first vice chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, and a vice chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Takano told LGBTQ Nation last year that he hopes Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-DE) will be “tremendous” in helping Congress pass pro-LGBTQ+ legislation “by humanizing trans people.”

“Sarah McBride made the case with her Republican colleagues by, in a way, disarming them because of who she is,” he said, referring to her tenure in the Delaware Senate.

The CEC was founded in 2008 by then-Reps. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Barney Frank (D-MA). While its membership is not limited to any party, the fact that members of the CEC must support equal rights for LGBTQ+ people resulted in almost every House Democrat in the last session of Congress – 195 out of 212 – being a member but no House Republican joining.

The out LGBTQ+ members of Congress are all co-chairs, and Reps.-elect McBride, Julie Johnson (D-TX), and Emily Randall (D-WA) will be joining as co-chairs as well.

Pocan celebrated Takano taking over the CEC in a statement.

“I look forward to continuing to work with him — and every member of the Equality Caucus — in defending the rights of all Americans from Republican extremists in every branch of government,” Pocan said.

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