Ben Wikler

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin is proud to celebrate the resilience and power of the LGBTQ+ community. LGBTQ+ Wisconsinites come from all walks of life, from small business owners and veterans to students and storekeepers, and they deserve to feel safe and welcomed in the Badger State.

For years, Pride has been a celebration of how far we’ve come in the fight for true LGBTQ+ equality, but this year, Pride has taken on a different meaning for so many of us. We’re in the midst of an all-out assault on LGBTQ+ rights by radical far-right politicians across the country who are trying to restrict our personal freedoms and erase the progress we’ve made. Even here in Wisconsin, Republican politicians in the State Legislature blocked efforts to protect people from the discredited practice of conversion therapy and are reviving an effort to ban transgender kids from participating in sports.

 While Pride might feel different this year, there’s still so much to celebrate. Millions LGBTQ+ folks and their families around the country now have a measure of security thanks to the hard work of Senator Baldwin to pass the Respect for Marriage Act and enshrine marriage equality as federal law. And this month, the Progress Pride Flag flies high over the Capitol building because we fought hard to reelect Governor Evers in November.

 We won’t go back to that time before Pride, when we were forced to live in silence, out of sight and out of mind. We’ve come so far, but we won’t stop fighting until we’ve fostered a culture in which everyone is welcomed and treated with equal dignity and respect.

This week, Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature doubled down on their anti-abortion extremism by proposing a package of legislation to enshrine Wisconsin’s 1849 criminal abortion ban into law.

 The new Republican effort to cement the 1849 ban in state statute was announced on the same day that new reporting from POLITICO detailed just how damaging the GOP’s extreme position on abortion has been in recent elections.

 Also under the new GOP legislation, the state would funnel $1 million in taxpayer funds annually to the anti-abortion group Choose Life Wisconsin, which was founded by two of Wisconsin’s leading anti-abortion groups. Choose Life Wisconsin would then distribute this state funding to so-called “pregnancy resource centers” which use misleading and manipulative information to dissuade patients from seeking abortion care.

 Despite Wisconsin voters delivering a clear rebuke of the GOP’s extreme anti-abortion agenda last April, the chaos caucus in Madison is pushing a plan to funnel taxpayer dollars to anti-abortion special interest groups. The GOP can’t seem to see the writing on the wall, and Wisconsinites are left paying the price.