House GOPers Deny Earmarks For Pennsylvania LGBTQ Centers

A House committee dominated by a Republican majority voted 32-26 yesterday to deny federal funding to three LGBTQ organizations, including two in the Philadelphia region; a move that Democrats are blasting as openly discriminatory. Via The Philadelphia Inquirer:

The House Appropriations Committee voted along party lines 32-26 to deny Community Project funding applications from Reps. Brendan Boyle (D., Philadelphia ) and Chrissy Houlahan (D., Berks).

Boyle’s application — known colloquially as an earmark project — would have given $1.8 million to Philadelphia’s William Way Community Center for facility expansion and to providing meals, job training, and other services to low income seniors, many of whom identify as LGBTQ.

Houlahan’s application was for $970,000 for the LGBT Center of Greater Reading to expand transitional housing to individuals, including members of the LGBTQ population. Both of the organization had received similar funding in the past.

“Out of literally thousands of projects, the only three they went after were the three with LGBT or LGBTQ in the organization’s name,” Boyle said in an interview. “This is as clear-cut a case of ugly bigotry as I’ve ever seen. It’s just outrageous.”

Understand, this is typically a rubber-stamp process. Republicans stopped that process specifically to single out these two centers.

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