Scott Walker’s Record on LGBTQ Issues

Media reports, based on records obtained by One Wisconsin Now, reveal a top lawyer in Gov. Scott Walker’s office joined Attorney General Brad Schimel and two Department of Justice lawyers attending a controversial conference hosted by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). According to a Walker spokesperson, state employee J.D. Tripoli had all expenses covered by the ADF, classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, to attend their conference at a luxurious ocean side resort in California in July 2017.

[One Wisconsin Now, 05/21/2018]

The governor’s 2017-19 budget proposal would make optional the “allocable segregated fees” portion of the tuition bill at University of Wisconsin System schools. These are the student fees that fund such things as student government, student organizations and even a free bus pass program for UW-Madison students. “At a time when we want to make college more affordable, we should not be forcing all students to pay for things such as ‘Sex Out Loud,’” said Walker spokesman Tom Evenson in a statement. “The governor’s proposal reduces tuition for students by 5 percent and ensures they have the final say on what their money funds in terms of allocable programs. It is all aimed at affordability and accountability.”

[WatchDog, 03/28/2017]

The state on Wednesday halted insurance coverage of gender reassignment surgery for transgender state workers, noting that a federal judge blocked federal rules requiring such coverage. Covering gender reassignment surgery and related benefits would have cost $100,000 to $250,000 a year in a $1.5 billion program that provides health benefits to about 250,000 state and local government workers and their dependents, a state consultant said. The estimate assumes two to five people would have used the transgender services per year. Mark Lamkins, spokesman for the state Department of Employee Trust Funds, said the department couldn’t determine Wednesday if any workers or dependents pursued the benefits in January, when they were available. The services had to be deemed medically necessary. The Group Insurance Board, which oversees the benefits program, decided in July to add coverage of transgender services in 2017, following advice from its attorneys that federal rules from the Affordable Care Act require the coverage. In August, the state Department of Justice, at Gov. Scott Walker’s request, asked the board to reconsider. It said the board’s decision was based on “unlawful” rules that “improperly reinterpret” Title IX, which covers discrimination on the basis of sex, as applying to gender identity.

[Wisconsin State Journal, 02/02/2017]

Wisconsin is joining 10 other states in a federal lawsuit to challenge President Barack Obama’s mandate requiring all public K-12 and postsecondary schools to allow students to use locker rooms and restrooms based on their “gender identity.” Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel, backed by Gov. Scott Walker, is leading the state’s entry into the lawsuit, joining Texas, Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

[Milwaukee Business Journal, 05/23/2016]

A spokeswoman for Gov. Scott Walker, who appointed Bradley to three judgeships in as many years — including as Supreme Court justice last fall — said Monday that “neither the Governor nor our office was aware of the columns.” The spokeswoman did not immediately respond to whether Walker would have appointed Bradley had he known. “Justice Bradley appropriately made it clear today that a column written in college does not reflect her views as a Supreme Court Justice, a court of appeals judge, a circuit court judge or as an attorney,” Walker said in a statement.

[Wisconsin State Journal, 03/08/2016]

Gov. Scott Walker Thursday came out in favor of clearer rules on which bathrooms can be used by transgender students in public schools. The Republican governor was reacting to a proposal by two GOP lawmakers that would require public schools to designate their restrooms and locker rooms as “male” or “female.” The bill would effectively bar transgender students from using the facilities in the gender with which they identify. The measure would allow transgender students to use single-stall restrooms if their parents or guardians seek the accommodation in writing. “I think it’s important to have some clarity about that and I know school districts around the state have just begun to deal with that,” Walker said of the issue. “I understand at least one school district has looked at a separate bathroom and I think that makes some sense but I think with respect to all the other students there’s got to be some clarity.” Rep. Jesse Kremer (R-Kewaskum) and Sen. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) said in an email seeking co-signers for the bill that it would protect all students’ privacy and safety and reinforce “the societal norms in our schools.”

[Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 10/08/2015]

“I have had a lifelong commitment to the Scouts and support the previous membership policy because it protected children and advanced Scout values.” [Independent Journal Review, 07/14/2015]

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, seizing the moment after the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, called Friday for a Constitutional amendment that would allow the states to decide whether gay marriage should be legal. Walker’s call came shortly after the high court ruled 5-4 that same-sex couples could marry across the country, overturning a number of state same-sex marriage bans. The ruling was “a grave mistake,” the Republican governor said, touting his support for amending his state’s constitution “to protect the institution of marriage from exactly this type of judicial activism.” “As a result of this decision, the only alternative left for the American people is to support an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to reaffirm the ability of the states to continue to define marriage,” Walker said in the statement. [Politico, 06/26/2015]

Thousands of Wisconsinites have signed a One Wisconsin Now petition demanding Gov. Walker cease having Wisconsin do business with Indiana in light of the Hoosier state’s unprecedented attack on the LGBT community signed into law by Republican Gov. Mike Pence.

[One Wisconsin Now, 04/03/2015]

The State of Wisconsin's unsuccessful court battle to prevent gay marriage will cost taxpayers more than $1 million, under an agreement released Friday. State Attorney General Brad Schimel, a Republican, and attorneys for eight gay and lesbian couples reached the agreement after the couples successfully sued to overturn the state's 2006 constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. The couples were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, which sought $1.25 million to cover its costs because the couples prevailed in their lawsuit. Ultimately, the ACLU will receive nearly $1.1 million, under the stipulation released Friday...Gov. Scott Walker, one of the defendants, and then-Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, both Republicans, opposed the same-sex plaintiffs at every level of the federal court system, he said. "The state never seemed to appreciate how much taxpayer money is expended on this type of litigation in which it was pretty clear from the outset that Wisconsin was going to lose," Tobias said. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 03/27/2015]

In his twenty years in office, Scott Walker has amassed a truly astounding record of failure. To commemorate the looming anniversary of his first election to office, One Wisconsin Now is highlighting a different and depressing failure of Gov. Walker every day, for twenty days. The title “Governor of the State of Wisconsin” suggests that the holder of the office would consider the diversity of the entire state's population. As judged by his actions in office, Scott Walker has clearly failed in this regard.

[One Wisconsin Now, 06/20/2013]

The Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the state’s domestic partnership registry Thursday, ensuring same-sex couples will retain certain rights no matter how a federal court rules on the state’s constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. In a unanimous decision written by Justice N. Patrick Crooks, the court emphasized that proponents of the amendment, including Wisconsin Family Action executive director Julaine Appling, the lead plaintiff in the case, and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, made public statements in 2006 that the marriage amendment wouldn’t prevent the Legislature from granting certain rights to same-sex couples.

[Capital Times, 03/24/2011]

After his 2010 election Walker fired Pines, leaving defense of the law up to gay rights advocate Fair Wisconsin and other interested parties that had intervened in the case. Pines said Thursday the state paid his firm $75,000 between Oct. 29, 2009, and June 28, 2011, for work on the case.

[Capital Times, 03/24/2011]

Gov. Scott Walker has fired the lawyers defending the state in a challenge to Wisconsin's domestic partnership law. But the governor's spokesman said his office "is still working to appoint a new counsel to the case." Madison attorney Lester Pines informed Dane County Circuit Judge Daniel Moeser in a March 22 letter that his firm, Cullen Weston Pines & Bach, had been "terminated" by Walker as counsel for the state in the lawsuit filed in 2009 by Julaine Appling, president of Wisconsin Family Action, a conservative advocacy group.

[Capital Times, 03/24/2011]

A Milwaukee County Board committee on Monday recommended that the full board sustain County Executive Scott Walker's veto of a measure that would lay the groundwork for granting domestic partner health benefits to county employees. The Personnel Committee voted 5-2 to uphold Walker's Nov. 16 veto. Walker and other opponents of the domestic partners measure said the benefit would be too costly at a time when the county faces serious budget problems.”

[Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 12/14/2009]

“I’ve had concerns about (county benefits) in general because of the cost. Quite frankly, I think people are fed up with a number of benefits given at the county level. The last thing we can do is be adding even more to it.”

[Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 04/21/2002]

The bill prohibited same sex marriages from occurring in Wisconsin and prohibited the state from recognizing a same sex marriage performed in another state where it was legal. (Assembly Journal)

[1997 AB 104, 05/13/1997]