Lawmakers have stripped a $1 million earmark for a LGBTQ+ community center in Philadelphia from the funding package Congress is expected to clear this week.
Sen. John Fetterman's (D-Pa.) office, in a letter to appropriators, requested the funding be cut from the bill. But he said Wednesday that his staff had made the decision to pull the funding without his input, and implied that a conservative social media account, which accused the center of hosting sex parties, had played a part in the decision.
“I wasn't part of that decision. It wasn't my personal decision to do that,” he said in an interview. “I never realized that the Libs of TikTok should determine our priorities and what we're going to support,” referencing a notorious conservative account.
Libs of TikTok posted March 5 that the funding would help a center that promoted a forthcoming event for those interested in “BDSM, kink and fetish” and singled out Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and Fetterman for supporting the funds.
The executive director of the LGBTQ+ center said the funding was withdrawn “as a result of lies and distortions” by “political extremists.”
“These extremists falsely stated that sexual behavior is allowed in rental programs of the Center, which is inaccurate and against our Center’s code of conduct,” Chris Bartlett, who heads the William Way LGBT Community Center, said in a statement.
House Republicans were also successful in blocking other LGBTQ+ earmarks from the final funding bills, including a $970,000 project Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) initially got approved last summer for an LGBTQ+ housing program in her southeastern Pennsylvania district. GOP lawmakers also stripped out $850,000 for affordable housing units for LGBTQ+ seniors in Boston that Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) initially got approved.
@TradeTariffDonnyRepublican2mos2MO
Pennsylvania getting $1M of taxpayer, same “Pennsylvania LGBTQ youth club where teens play with sex toys received $630,000 in state funding in 2022
America your hard earned is going into this really ! This is nothing but child abuse and sexualisation!
@KindLobby1stWorking Family2mos2MO
The William Way Center, which has been a hub for Philadelphia’s LGBTQ community since the 1970s, offers meals, job training and other services to low-income seniors, many of whom identify as LGBTQ. The center also rents its space to groups, including one that hosts monthly fetish and kink parties. NO federal Funds would have gone to the group.
No one in Washington D.C. represents We the People any longer!
@P0litic4lFaithPatriot2mos2MO
Power has been centralized in DC with the RNC & DNC because they control the money & the candidates.
Mr Smith no longer goes to Washington. He is sent from Washington to tell you what issues matter.
@ISIDEWITH2mos2MO
@ISIDEWITH2mos2MO
@ISIDEWITH2mos2MO
@AmnestyUrchinGreen2mos2MO
John Fetterman is not “based“ or a secret conservative. He is & always will be a raging liberal just like the rest of them
Conservatives need to stop getting excited whenever a liberal makes a good decision-even a broken clock is right every once in a while but it’s still broken
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