Democrats kill a GOP effort to make Pride Month nonpartisan. No class | Opinion

The other day, Republican Assemblyman Carl DeMaio of San Diego had the floor to speak about his concerns about a resolution commemorating Pride Month, the annual June celebration for members of the LGBTQ+ community. The first openly gay Republican elected to the legislature, DeMaio wanted to support this resolution, but he was seeking the removal of numerous unrelated political accolades about various Democrats.

The resolution was stuffed with one fawning reference to one Democrat after another: There was the nod to former San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and another to Barack Obama (who initially opposed same-sex marriage). Even former President Joe Biden got kudos. To DeMaio, the resolution has lost its focus: Pride. And it included unrelated clauses meant to promote fear, like the tracking of parental notification legislation across the country.

It was the kind of request that Democrats who value bipartisanship could easily accommodate. Instead, DeMaio’s amendments were denied and he was forced to endure as rude an interruption the chamber has seen in a long time.

Josh Lowenthal, a Long Beach Democrat who was presiding over the floor at the time, began speaking over DeMaio, seeking to change the subject to — of all things — the birthdays of fellow lawmakers.

Pride Month shouldn’t be partisan

Finally allowed to speak after all the birthdays of Democrats were duly noted, DeMaio said the obvious: What the Democrats were doing, by their interruptions and by commemorating Pride Month with a partisan resolution, was bad governance.

“What a missed opportunity,” the San Diegan said on the floor, who added it was “inflammatory,” “dishonest” and “divisive.”

In a phone interview later, DeMaio told me that he’d hoped to have unanimous support from the legislature’s Republican caucus that he could use to inspire Republican caucuses in legislatures throughout the country to support Pride Month in a nonpartisan way.

The resolution gave a history of LGBTQ+ history in America — as told through modern Democratic politicians. Important stories like that of Matthew Shepard, who was tortured and killed over his sexuality in Laramie, Wyoming in 1998 at the age of just 21, were surprisingly omitted.

DeMaio had asked the resolution’s author, Democratic Assemblyman Chris Ward, for amendments that removed some of the more controversial passages. According to DeMaio, Ward was polite and collegial, but he ultimately declined.

Rivas runs Assembly like a bully

I’ve known DeMaio for years now and I like him personally, but he can be a pain when it comes to politics — especially when he’s challenging your legislation. He’s smart and sticks to his message. He often highlights things that are tough to defend, like when he repeatedly questioned inappropriate expenditures in budget hearings earlier this year. But that doesn’t justify Assembly Democrats’ actions.

It’s not just DeMaio, though. Republicans are routinely banished to tiny offices. Their bills are often dead without so much as a hearing. One time, a Republican Assemblyman’s microphone was removed from his desk.

This is how the Assembly runs under Speaker Robert Rivas. The Democrat from Hollister took flak earlier this year for removing DeMaio and others from committees. He also looked truly absurd when he allowed or approved attack ads against Republicans for opposing tougher penalties against sex traffickers when it was his caucus that killed the legislation.

Democrats have the majority, but too often they run the Legislature like bullies in a school yard. With such a lack of decorum and focus it’s little wonder the problems in this state remain unsolved.

This story was originally published June 30, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Democrats kill a GOP effort to make Pride Month nonpartisan. No class | Opinion."