Virginia Democrat who praised LGBTQ+ inclusion is now helping Republicans out trans kids

Rep. Eugene Vindman spent part of this spring praising a gay farming couple in rural Virginia as proof that LGBTQ+ people belong everywhere in his congressional district and in American life.On Wednesday, Vindman voted for a bill critics say tells transgender children the opposite.The first-term Virginia Democrat is facing fierce backlash from LGBTQ+ advocates after joining Republicans in support of H.R. 2616, the “Stopping Indoctrination and Protecting Kids Act,” that legislation opponents have labeled a national “Don’t Say LGBTQ+” bill. It would require schools to notify parents before affirming a transgender student’s identity and restrict federally funded schools from teaching what Republicans describe as “gender ideology.”Vindman was one of eight Democrats who voted for the legislation alongside Republicans. The others were Reps. Cleo Fields, Henry Cuellar, Don Davis, Laura Gillen, Vicente Gonzalez, Marcy Kaptur, and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez.Related: Meet the Gardening Gays, a couple planting the seeds of LGBTQ+ acceptanceOf those Democrats, Vindman, Gillen, and Gluesenkamp Perez are members of the Congressional Equality Caucus, the House group dedicated to advancing LGBTQ+ rights.For many LGBTQ+ Virginians, the vote landed with particular force because Vindman had only weeks earlier spoken warmly and at length with The Advocate about visibility, acceptance, and progress in the 7th Congressional District, while discussing the Gardening Gays, a now well-known farm run by married couple Kevin Graham and Dragan Kurbalija in conservative King George County, southeast of Washington, D.C.The congressman described the couple as neighbors, and the kind of people rural communities ultimately embrace once ideology gives way to familiarity.“The labels are less important than who they are as people. And clearly they've demonstrated they're a dedicated business, they've provided a good product, and they're just good folks,” Vindman said during the March i