Former Gov. Tommy Thompson (R-WI)

With his primary win last Tuesday, four-term former Gov. Tommy Thompson (R-WI) will be the Republican nominee against Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D) for the open seat of retiring Sen. Herb Kohl (D). Unlike Baldwin, the nation’s first openly lesbian Member of Congress and a 100 percent supporter of LGBT equality, Thompson has opposed the LGBT community on several major issues.

Over his time as a Wisconsin state legislator (1967 to 1986), Governor (1987 to 2001), President George W. Bush’s Secretary of Health and Human Services (2001 to 2005), an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican presidential nomination (2008), and this Senate race:

1. Thompson ran for governor opposing his predecessor’s pioneering efforts to protect gay and lesbian people from discrimination. In 1983, then-Gov. Tony Earl (D) created a Council on Lesbian and Gay Issues. Thompson, in his successful 1986 campaign to succeed Earl, repeatedly pledged to eliminate the council. Dick Wagner, who co-chaired the council, told ThinkProgress that Thompson did not reauthorize the Council on Lesbian and Gay Issues but “did continue the Bicycle Coordinating Council.”

2. Thompson said it should be legal to fire someone for being LGBT — and then said it shouldn’t. During a 2007 Republican presidential primary debate, Thompson was asked whether employers who believe “homosexuality is immoral” should be allowed to fire gay employees. Thompson forcefully responded that “business people have to make their own determination” on whether to fire employees based on sexual orientation. A day later, he reversed himself, saying “I didn’t hear the question properly and I apologize. It’s not my position. There should be no discrimination in the workplace and I have never believed that.” Thompson later blamed his answer on a dead hearing aid, illness, and a urgent need to go to the bathroom. Indeed, back in 1981, then-Assemblyman Thompson voted against the Assembly version of the nation’s first statewide gay rights bill (he later voted to accept the Senate’s amended version in a largely uncontested vote).

3. Thompson opposes marriage equality and strongly supports DOMA. Earlier this month, he backed the unconstitutional Defense of Marriage Act, telling a Wisconsin TV station “I believe very strongly in the Defense of the Marriage Act [sic], that marriage is between one man and one woman. I support that. That’s the federal law.” While he expressed reservations about a federal constitutional amendment, he pledged to “defend the federal law – one man, one woman for marriage.” Thompson declined to join the bipartisan coalition of former governors who opposed Wisconsin’s 2006 state constitutional amendment against same-sex unions.

4. Thompson has proudly promoted his anti-LGBT backers. His campaign website endorsement list prominent features one of the nation’s most notorious anti-gay extremists — Fox News Channel host and Chick-fil-A appreciator former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR). Huckabee also appeared in a TV ad backing Huckabee in the primary and praising him for defending “our conservative values.”

5. Thompson lead the Bush administration’s failed “abstinence-only” programs. In 2001, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund gave Thompson an “F” for “throwing money into ineffective and discriminatory ‘abstinence-until-marriage’ sex education programs in the face of skyrocketing rates of HIV infection among young people.” In addition to being highly ineffective in general, pushing abstinence until marriage while simultaneously opposing allowing same-sex couples to marry at all has an especially damaging effect on LGBT youths.

Watch Thompson argue in favor of legal workplace discrimination:

Though Thompson has taken a few pro-equality positions over his more than 45 years in politics, he has all too often been on the wrong side of issues of LGBT rights. His election to the U.S. Senate would be a huge threat to LGBT people and families.

Former Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI)

Second in a series examining how anti-LGBT Senate candidates have worked to hurt the cause of equality.

With his primary win last Tuesday, nine-term former Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) will be the Republican nominee against incumbent Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D). Unlike the incumbent, who has had a solid record in support of equality, Hoekstra has consistently worked to oppose the LGBT community on every major issue.

Over 18 years in Congress, his unsuccessful 2010 campaign for Michigan governor, and this Senate race:

1. Hoekstra actively pushed anti-LGBT bills. At least nine times, he signed on as a co-sponsor of anti-equality measures including the unconstitutional Defense of Marriage Act of 1996, a proposal to amend the U.S. constitution to prevent states from voluntarily recognizing same-sex unions, and a radical proposal to take away the right of same-sex couples to challenge discriminatory laws in state or federal courts.

2. Hoekstra backed an effort to restrict same-sex adoption. In 1999, he voted in favor of an amendment adding a rider to the District of Columbia Appropriations Act that would have prohibited “any funding for the joint adoption of a child between individuals who are not related by blood or marriage.”

3. Hoekstra has been a virtual zero on LGBT rights. He earned a zero rating from the Human Rights Campaign, voting against LGBT equality 100 percent of the time, in the 104th, 105th, 106th, 107th, 108th, 109th, and 110th Congresses. In the 111th Congress, he earned just a 10 percent score after voting against one anti-gay procedural motion.

4. Hoekstra has not even practiced non-discrimination personally. In addition to voting against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, he refused to even adopt a non-discrimination policy against LGBT discrimination for employees in his own Congressional office. He also voted for an amendment in 1998 that would have effectively nullified President Clinton’s executive order prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation in the federal civilian workforce.

5. Hoekstra proudly boasts of awards he received from a designated hate group. His Senate campaign site highlights that he voted 93 percent of the time with the Family Research Council (FRC). His 2010 gubernatorial campaign site biography page noted that he received both the “Family, Faith and Freedom Award” and “True Blue Award” from the organization. The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated FRC as a hate group for its record of “false claims about the LGBT community based on discredited research and junk science.”

6. Hoekstra has proudly promoted his anti-LGBT backers. In this Senate campaign, he said “I could not be prouder to announce the endorsement of Rick Santorum. This is a major endorsement and shows that our campaign continues to build momentum.” In his 2010 gubernatorial campaign, Hoekstra ran an ad in which Focus on the Family Founder and anti-LGBT activist James Dobson praises him for supporting “traditional marriage.”

Listen to the Dobson endorsement ad:

Hoekstra has often attacked judicial rulings in favor of LGBT equality as “egregious judicial activism,” finding it inexplicable that courts could rule in favor of equal protection when he “firmly” believes marriage “is uniquely and essentially the union of one man and one woman.”

Hoekstra’s record is not just one of opposing LGBT rights, but one of actively seeking to take them away. His election to the U.S. Senate would be a huge threat to LGBT people and families.

Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO)

With his primary win this week, sixth-term Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) will be the Republican nominee against incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill (D). Unlike the incumbent, who has had a solid record in support of equality, Akin has amassed one of the most anti-LGBT voting records of any member of Congress.

Over 12 years in Congress:

1. Akin actively pushed anti-LGBT measures. He co-sponsored at least five anti-equality measures in the current Congress — one of just seven Representatives to sign onto that many — including a constitutional amendment against marriage equality, a bill to ban the use of military facilities for any same-sex unions, and a resolution directing the Speaker of the House to defend the unconstitutional Defense of Marriage Act in court.

2. Akin spearheaded efforts against allowing same-sex unions at military chapels. He boasted that he “led the effort to fight back against gay marriage on military bases” (May 2012 press release).

3. Akin adamantly opposed allowing LGBT armed services members to serve openly. He called Don’t Ask Don’t Tell repeal “an eclipse of reason” and “the imposition of somebody’s social agenda that they want to impose on the military.”

4. Akin has been a consistent zero on LGBT rights. He earned a zero rating from the Human Rights Campaign, voting against LGBT equality 100 percent of the time, in each of his terms in Congress.

5. Akin has claimed marriage equality will destroy traditional families. He criticized President Obama’s endorsement of marriage equality as an “unquenchable desire to tear down the traditional family unit brick by brick” (May 2012 press release).

6. Akin has suggested that not being terrorized based on sexual orientation or gender identity is a “special privilege.” He strongly opposed adding sexual orientation to federal Hate Crimes laws, arguing that it would “increase hatred in America” and give a “special privilege” to bias-crime victims (April 2009 floor speech).

7. Akin has not even practiced non-discrimination personally. He refused to even adopt a non-discrimination policy against LGBT discrimination for employees in his own Congressional office.

8. Akin has proudly promoted his anti-LGBT backers. His campaign website prominently highlights the endorsements of two of the nation’s most notorious anti-gay extremists — Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schafly and Fox News Channel host and Chick-fil-A appreciator former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR). Huckabee also appeared in a TV ad backing Akin in the primary.

9. Akin has said marriages are only about procreation. He argued on the House floor that marriage is only “about a love that can bear children,” and warned that “anybody who knows something about the history of the human race knows that there is no civilization which has condoned homosexual marriage widely and openly that has long survived” (2006 speech in favor of the proposed Marriage Protection Amendment).

Watch Akin’s 2006 speech here:

Akin’s record is not just one of opposing LGBT rights, but one of actively seeking to take them away. His election to the U.S. Senate would be a huge threat to LGBT people and families.