Out gay Rep. Chris Pappas was one of 81 Democrats who voted in favor of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) yesterday, a $895.2 billion military bill that included a provision restricting gender-affirming care for minors. Pappas is co-chair of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus and has a long history of supporting pro-LGBTQ+ legislation, but he was the only out LGBTQ+ Congress member to vote for the NDAA.

A previous version of the NDAA reportedly banned all gender-affirming care covered by the military’s health insurance plan, TRICARE — Pappas voted against this version last June. The current NDAA provision only bans any medical treatment for “gender dysphoria that could result in sterilization” for children under 18. It’s unclear if the current legislation would ban puberty blockers (which don’t affect fertility), hormone replacement therapies (which can), or mastectomies (which are rarely ever performed on minors).

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The NDAA would remove gender-affirming care coverage for servicemembers’ trans children.

In a statement to LGBTQ Nation explaining his vote, Pappas wrote, “This legislation provides the largest pay raise for junior servicemembers in more than 25 years, helping all junior service members, including the up to 275,000 military families currently eligible for food stamps, feed their families and make ends meet. It also makes critical investments in new military housing and child development centers, increases pay for staff at Department of Defense child care centers, and addresses staffing shortages at [Veterans’ Affairs] centers in rural areas.

“This legislation also provides vital support for the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, a key support facility for our nuclear submarine fleet which generates $1.5 billion in economic impact for the state of New Hampshire,” he added.

Pappas wrote that he remains “incredibly frustrated that this process was politicized in the worst way” and blamed House Speaker Johnson (R-CA) for adding “unnecessary riders to limit care for some LGBTQ+ individuals.”

“We should never play politics with the health and wellbeing of the LGBTQ+ community, nor should we ever allow our national defense and security to be obstructed by partisanship,” Pappas said.

The current version of the NDAA still needs a Senate vote and the signature of President Joe Biden to become law. The Democrat-controlled Senate could potentially remove the provision before passing its own version of the NDAA, and Biden has previously pledged to veto any legislation that harms the LGBTQ+ community.

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“I continue to urge the Senate to make necessary adjustments to this bill,” Pappas continued in his statement, “but we cannot shrink from our responsibility to fund our national defense and provide for our service members and their families, including LGBTQ+ service members.”

A brief history of Pappas’ LGBTQ+ advocacy

Pappas was first elected to Congress in 2018, is the first out member of Congress from New Hampshire, and has served as co-chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus. The centrist Democrat has gotten a score of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign’s Congressional Scorecard for his previous sessions in Congress. He was also one of the Advocates for Trans Equality’s inaugural Trans Equality Champions, recognizing legislators who have fought to protect and advance trans rights amidst a surge of federal legislative attacks.

Pappas co-sponsored the Equality Act, a bill that would update existing federal civil rights legislation to explicitly ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. “Every American deserves the same rights and responsibilities, and no one should be discriminated against just because of who they are or whom they love,” he said of the bill.

In January 2024, Pappas was one of three out representatives who asked Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to expedite the process for former LGBTQ+ soldiers still seeking to upgrade their less-than-honorable discharges after being kicked out of the military under “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” (DADT) and other historic bans on out queer military service members.

In the same vein, in June 2023, Pappas introduced the SERVE Act (Securing the Rights our Veterans Earned). The legislation sought to guarantee and protect Veteran Affairs (VA) benefits for military veterans discharged from the military due to their LGBTQ+ identity.

In June 2023, Pappas introduced a House bill to ban the gay and trans panic defenses in federal courts. In October 2023, he was co-sponsor of a bill to research and create a National Museum of American LGBTQ+ History and Culture. He also voted in favor of the Respect for Marriage Act, a law that requires the federal and state governments to recognize same-sex and interracial marriages performed by other states.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated with comments from Rep. Pappas.

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