Evan McMullin's Stance On LGBTQ Rights

On Monday morning, voters who were finding themselves largely unenthused with either major political party candidate were offered hope of a third choice (or fifth choice, if you want to count Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein). Reports began circulating that former Chief Policy Director of the House Republican Conference Evan McMullin would launch an independent presidential bid. Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of him — McMullin has largely remained out of the public eye until now. But with this new potential option on the table, we wanted to ask: What are McMullin’s views on LGBTQ rights?

The short answer is that we don’t really know yet. McMullin’s campaign website hasn’t yet published his position on the major issues in the 2016 election. However, McMullin has endorsed and praised congressional candidates whose views on LGBTQ rights are definitely to the right. Mike Gallagher, who is running for Congress and previously served on Scott Walker’s 2016 presidential campaign, devotes a section of his campaign website to “Religious Faith and Freedom,” stating that “Big government reaches further into our personal lives every single day, threatening the Constitutional liberties we have fought and bled for. This needs to stop.” Often, Religious Freedom Restoration Acts, or RFRAs, are laws disguised as defending religious freedom that end up legalizing discrimination against LGBTQ citizens through "religious" justifications.

Additionally, McMullin calls Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers his “boss” in a March 29 Facebook post. Rodgers’ page at On the Issues states that she opposed prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation, and that she has earned a “strongly opposed” rating for the topic “comfortable with same-sex marriage.”

Given that the GOP — separate from Trump — passed one of the most anti-LGBTQ platforms in recent memory, it will be interesting to see if McMullin’s own views stray far from that.