Maryland Republican Neil Parrott is an anti-LGBTQ+ disaster

Neil Parrott, a Republican politician from Maryland, has been a polarizing figure in state and national politics for his ultraconservative stances. Parrott, a former state delegate representing Washington County in northwestern Maryland, has built his career advocating for limited government and “traditional” family values. He has been particularly outspoken on social issues, often taking positions that align with the most regressive factions of his party. Now running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Maryland’s Sixth Congressional District, Parrott has come under scrutiny, especially for his long-standing opposition to LGBTQ+ rights.

Parrott’s anti-LGBTQ+ stance was evident in his reaction to the 2020 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Bostock v. Clayton County. This landmark ruling determined that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, also covers sexual orientation and gender identity. Parrott expressed his disappointment with the ruling, arguing that the justices had overstepped their bounds and created law from the bench rather than interpreting the Constitution as written. “The justices are supposed to be strict constitutional justices,” he said to MarylandReporter.com.

Parrott’s record extends beyond his reaction to the Supreme Court ruling. In 2005, he wrote a letter published on the website of the Herald-Mail suggesting that people with HIV should be tattooed to warn potential partners of their status, proposing that lifesaving medications be withheld until the tattoo was applied. This proposal was condemned by many, with local journalists comparing it to “Nazi-era tactics” and labeling Parrott an “anti-gay bigot.” The letter to the editor was subsequently removed from the news site.

During his tenure as a state delegate, Parrott voted to keep sodomy laws in place in Maryland and cosponsored bills aimed at restricting marriage to one man and one woman, effectively denying same-sex couples the right to marry. He also argued that children raised by same-sex parents are worse off than those raised by heterosexual couples, claiming that traditional households provide better outcomes across various measures.

A 2020 study by Oxford’s Department of Sociology found that children raised by same-sex parents from birth perform better in both primary and secondary education compared to children raised by different-sex parents. The study, published in the American Sociological Review, utilized comprehensive data from the Netherlands, the first country to legalize same-sex marriage, and indicated that children of same-sex couples outperformed their peers regardless of sex, ethnicity, or parental marital status.

Parrott also opposed legislation that would have required insurance companies to provide same-sex couples with the same coverage for in vitro fertilization procedures as heterosexual couples. He called the proposed bill “shockingly bad,” arguing that it offered “a false sense of equality” and criticized LGBTQ+ marriage and family structures, Business Insider reported.

His opposition to LGBTQ+ rights has been consistent throughout his political career. Parrott actively campaigned to repeal measures granting legal rights and hate-crime protections to LGBTQ+ people and voted against expanding hate-crime law to include offenses motivated by sexual orientation and gender identity. In 2022, he voted against providing state veterans’ benefits to LGBTQ+ veterans who were dishonorably discharged due to their sexual orientation or gender identity. He supported former President Donald Trump’s ban on transgender people serving in the military, describing it as a necessary measure to maintain military readiness.

Parrott also opposed a bill that would allow transgender Marylanders to change the gender marker on their birth certificate without proof of gender-affirming surgery, saying it would allow people to “rewrite history,” according to MoCo360.

April Delaney, Parrott’s Democratic opponent, has positioned herself as a strong advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. She supports full equality for LGBTQ+ people, including the rights to marry, access health care, and live free from discrimination. Delaney has pledged to advocate against any efforts to end marriage equality or ban gender-affirming care, and has committed to championing the Equality Act on her first day in Congress.