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GOP Makes Pointed Dig With 'Family Month' Push

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Republicans are taking their longstanding anti-Pride Month crusade a step further this year by trying to officially rebrand June as being about nuclear families and so-called traditional values.

At the federal level, Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.) has reintroduced a resolution in the House to formally observe June as "Family Month." By doing so, according to the resolution, the U.S. would no longer recognize "perverse" Pride events, which "denigrate the nuclear family."

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Miller first introduced the resolution last year, and it failed to make it out of committee. And although the resolution remains a long shot, it has picked up more steam this year — 21 Republicans have signed on as co-sponsors.

The Illinois Republican, who is up for reelection in November, chairs the Congressional Family Caucus, which she launched in 2023 to strengthen the "God-ordained structure of the family," defined as one man, one woman and children.

A spokesperson for Miller's office did not respond to HuffPost's request for comment.

"Last year I was on an island by myself," Miller told Daily Citizen, a website run by Focus on the Family, the evangelical Christian group that lobbies for anti-LGBTQ+ policies and campaigns. "This year, we're seeing governors get on board and issue resolutions for their states."

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Indeed, at least seven GOP governors have announced new themes for June.

In Tennessee and Indiana, governors declared June to be "Nuclear Family Month." In Utah and Arkansas, it is "Fidelity Month," with an emphasis on faith and the "pursuit of fidelity" in a "well-ordered society." Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey proclaimed June as "Strong Families Month," highlighting the role fathers play in married families.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis went as far as to champion "the Biblical family unit" for "Faith and Family month," making perhaps the most explicit anti-Pride declaration of all. In his announcement, he underscored the role Christian faith has played in shaping the state's values and constitution.

DeSantis' office did not immediately respond to HuffPost's request for comment.

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While this year's proclamations by Republican lawmakers do not address the LGBTQ+ communities directly or attempt to replace Pride, their anti-gay and anti-trans sentiment is very thinly veiled. At the beginning of June, Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) wrote, "Homosexuality has no place in America. Happy Nuclear Family Month," in a now-deleted post on X. Ogles issued an apology and blamed the post on one of his staffers, after both Democrats and Republicans condemned it.

Kevin Roberts, the president of the conservative Heritage Foundation, told The Washington Post that Pride events "were going so far as to make it difficult to celebrate traditional marriage."

Conservatives' explicit celebration of married heterosexual families comes as nationwide support for same-*** marriage has begun to falter for the first time in two decades. A Gallup poll found last week that acceptance of same-*** marriage and trans people has started to slip — ultimately because of ongoing but sharp opposition from Republicans.

The Trump administration has loudly attacked trans rights specifically, but it has more quietly pushed pro-natalist and faith-based policies. Various Trump officials, including Vice President JD Vance and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, have publicly expressed concerns about declining birth rates and have touted their own children and pregnancy announcements as a model for others to follow.

Read: Sorry, But 'Nuclear Family Month' Is Not Going To Erase Pride

President Donald Trump himself has yet to offer any words on Pride month or its conservative foils — and it's unlikely he will, as no Republican president has ever formally recognized Pride. Democratic presidents, however, have followed Bill Clinton's lead in acknowledging the month since 1999.