page_title: Nancy Pelosi
section_title: LGBT rights
hierarchical_section_title: Nancy Pelosi / Political positions / Civil liberties and human rights / LGBT rights
caption_attribution_description: Nancy Pelosi
context_page_description: Nancy Patricia Pelosi is an American politician serving as a congresswoman from California, and is the two-time and current Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. A member of the Democratic Party, Pelosi is the only woman in U.S. history to serve as Speaker, and is the highest-ranking female elected official in United States history. As House speaker, Pelosi is second in the presidential line of succession, immediately after the vice president.
  Pelosi was first elected to Congress in 1987, following her father Thomas D'Alesandro Jr., who served as a U.S. Representative from Maryland and Mayor of Baltimore, into politics. She started her 17th term in 2019. She represents California's 12th congressional district, which consists of four-fifths of the city and county of San Francisco. She initially represented the 5th district, and then, when district boundaries were redrawn after the 1990 Census, the 8th district. Pelosi has led the House Democrats since 2003—being the first woman to lead a party in Congress—serving twice each as House minority leader, and as Speaker.
context_section_description: Pelosi has long supported LGBT rights. In 1996, she voted against the Defense of Marriage Act, and in 2004 and 2006, she voted against the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment, which would amend the United States Constitution to define marriage federally as being between one man and one woman, thereby overriding states' individual rights to legalize same-sex marriage. When the Supreme Court of California overturned the state's ban on marriage between same-sex couples in 2008, Pelosi released a statement welcoming the "historic decision". She also indirectly voiced her opposition to California Proposition 8, a successful 2008 state ballot initiative which defined marriage in California as a union between one man and one woman.
  The LGBT advocacy group Human Rights Campaign gave Pelosi a 100% rating in 2006 for her voting record in the 107th through 109th congresses (2001–2006), indicating that she voted favorably on legislation supported by the organization on every occasion. In 2012, Pelosi said her position on LGBT rights such as same-sex marriage grows from and reflects her Catholic faith; it also places her at odds with Catholic doctrine, which defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman. She said "My religion compels me—and I love it for it—to be against discrimination of any kind in our country, and I consider [the ban on gay marriage] a form of discrimination. I think it's unconstitutional on top of that."
  Pelosi supports the Equality Act, a bill that would expand the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. In 2019, she spoke in Congress in favor of the bill and called for ending discrimination against LGBT people. Pelosi also opposes Trump's transgender military ban.
caption: Pelosi at the 2013 San Francisco Pride Festival
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