—Strongly opposed marriage equality: “Protecting the institution of marriage is a critically important issue and one I’ll defend in Congress. I firmly believe that marriage is the union of one man and one woman. I support the NC Marriage Amendment on the May ballot.”
—Joined a congressional letter to President Trump insisting that the United States not include sexual orientation and gender identity language in a North American trade agreement, insisting that “it is especially inappropriate and insulting to our sovereignty to needlessly submit to social policies which the United States Congress has so far explicitly refused to accept.”
—A key proponent of banning transgender people from the military, reportedly threatening not to vote for a military appropriations bill unless the trans ban was enacted.
—Said of transgender men and women using the restroom: “Men need to use the men’s restroom. Women need to use the women’s restroom. For over 200 years, we haven’t had a problem defining that.”
—Suggested that affirming marriage equality would “usurp the authority of Congress” and ignite a “constitutional crisis”: “Well I mean obviously we start to have a constitutional crisis. We’ve already seen some of that with the executive branch saying that they’re not going to enforce certain laws. I think it was Justice Scalia that brought this out in the last couple of days is when you get an executive branch that starts to decide what’s constitutional and what’s not and what they’re going to enforce and what they’re not, they’re usurping the authority of Congress and that’s the representative form of government and we can’t stand for that, as a people we can’t stand for that so we need to stand up and make sure that our voice is heard.”
—Insisted he was running to stop President Obama’s pro-equality values: “From Obamacare, to our state’s upcoming marriage amendment, President Obama has run roughshod over Western North Carolinians’ values, and I’m running to stop him.”
—Described anti-LGBTQ hate group leader Tony Perkins as “a dear friend” who “understands that the battle here in DC is a spiritual battle in the heavenly realms.” (audio begins around 40:00 mark)
—As chair of the House Freedom Caucus, called on President Trump to repeal guidance protecting transgender students in public schools and no discrimination protections in the Affordable Care Act.
—Co-sponsored the so-called Marriage and Religious Freedom Act, which is designed to allow nonprofits to discriminate without reprisal.
—Co-sponsored failed attempts at a so-called Federal Marriage Amendment.
