Lindsey Graham, U.S. Senator and Trump Loyalist, Dies at 71

This story originally appeared on The Advocate.As questions swirl around Washington about the health status of Kentucky U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, who has been hospitalized for weeks after emergency responders went to his house for a patient in cardiac arrest, the political world woke up Sunday morning to news of another high-profile lawmaker’s death. U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a foreign policy hawk who evolved from one of Donald Trump’s fiercest Republican critics into one of the president’s most dependable congressional allies, died Saturday evening after what his office described as a “brief and sudden illness.” He was 71.Graham’s office announced his death in a statement posted late Saturday and did not disclose the nature of the illness. His family asked for prayers and privacy, the Associated Press reports.Trump responded at 3:21 a.m. Sunday in a post on Truth Social.“Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the greatest people and Senators I have ever known, is dead!” Trump wrote. “He was always working, and was a true American Patriot. Lindsey will be greatly missed!!! DETAILS AND ARRANGEMENTS TO FOLLOW. So sad!”Graham had met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Friday, one day before his death, as he continued his yearslong campaign for strong U.S. support of Ukraine and additional pressure on Russia. His advocacy for an assertive American role abroad made him one of the Senate’s most recognizable foreign policy voices, even as it sometimes placed him at odds with the more isolationist elements of Trump’s movement.For LGBTQ+ Americans, Graham leaves behind three decades of opposition to many of the community’s most significant civil rights advances.A long record opposing LGBTQ+ equalityGraham voted for the Defense of Marriage Act as a member of the House in 1996. The legislation defined marriage for federal purposes as the union of one man and one woman and allowed states to decline to recognize same-sex