Congressional Equality Caucus

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

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 LGBTQI+ 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).