Surprise, You Just Woke Up To America’s New Anti-Gay Congress

What, you thought America would vote a whole new class of Republicans into D.C.’s chambers of favor-paying and the Human Rights Campaign wouldn’t notice? (Okay, trick question, because that’s a real possibility!) Watching the 112th Congress take the oath of office last week, Joe Solmonese’s magical elves tallied up the voting records and positions of your elected representatives for at least the next two years and confirmed what we all knew to be true: we’re fucked.

No wonder HRC has already thrown in the towel for 2011-12: In the House, there are 225 representative in the “anti-LGBT” category, which is 53 more than the 172 labeled as such in the 111th House, relays Newsweek. And the “pro-LGBTers” are down 29, from 196 to 167. (There are 43 reps with a “mixed” LGBT record, which has to do with Democrats being a bunch of pansies in their support for equality.)

Over in the Senate, some 20 senators scored a “mixed” record, which means the Democrats’ slim 53–47 doesn’t actually translate to a pro-queer roster. In fact, it’s dead even, says HRC, with a 40–40 split for easily identifiable pro- and anti-LGBT lawmakers.

Then again, we all know that when it comes to HRC and doing math, it’s a crapshoot.