Congressional Equality Caucus

The Congressional Equality Caucus, formerly the Congressional LGBTQ+ Caucus, is a caucus in the US Congress focused on advancing LGBTQ rights in the United States. It was formed by openly gay representatives Tammy Baldwin and Barney Frank on June 4, 2008. The caucus is chaired by the most senior openly LGBTQ member of Congress and is co-chaired by the other openly-LGBTQ members of the House of Representatives; during the 119th Congress, the caucus is chaired by Representative Mark Takano and is co-chaired by representatives Becca Balint, Angie Craig, Sharice Davids, Robert Garcia, Julie Johnson, Sarah McBride, Chris Pappas, Mark Pocan, Ritchie Torres, Emily Randall, and Eric Sorensen (the other sitting LGBT members of the House).

At the beginning of the 119th Congress, the Congressional Equality Caucus is the largest caucus in the United States House of Representatives with 191 members, the most the caucus has ever started a Congress with. In the 118th Congress, the Equality Caucus had a peak membership of 195.

Members of the Equality Caucus have passed several notable pieces of legislation to expand or codify LGBTQ rights into federal law, including the Respect for Marriage Act (which was signed into law by President Biden in 2022) and the Equality Act (which passed the U.S. House in the 116th and 117th Congresses, but was never voted on in the Senate).