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Ogles deletes homophobic post
Rep. Andy Ogles, a Tennessee Republican, deleted a homophobic post from his official congressional X account that said, “Homosexuality has no place in America. Happy Nuclear Family Month.”
“Republican lawmakers blasted a homophobic post that appeared on GOP Rep”
Ogles later blamed “a member of my comms team” for the message and wrote that “The employee has been reprimanded.”
The deleted post appeared on Tuesday “at the beginning of Pride Month,” and CNN reported that GOP lawmakers called it “gross,” “disgusting,” and “inappropriate.”
Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York told CNN he was encouraged to “do better” after texting with Ogles and being told it was a staffer, while also saying the tweet was “offensive.”
Rare GOP pushback
Republican Rep. Nick LaLota of New York told CNN that the post was “Gross, disgusting tweet, inappropriate,” and said “All Americans, regardless of their sexual orientation, should enjoy the protections of America, our Constitution, and all of our blessings.”
LaLota also described the episode as a distraction from the party’s focus ahead of the midterms, while CNN reported that Ogles said the post was a “complete distraction from my America First focus.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson addressed the deleted X post during a Wednesday press conference, saying it was “right” to take it down and quoting, “The Bible is unequivocal.”
Johnson said, “We’re supposed to love our neighbor as ourselves, everybody,” and framed the response as treating “every single person with dignity and respect whether we agree with them or not.”
What happens next
The backlash also included criticism from within Ogles’ own party, with Lawler telling CNN that it was “pretty clear that it was f**ing stupid” and that “everybody has family members, friends, neighbors, colleagues, staff that are in fact homosexual.”
Lawler said the insinuation that gay people are “less than or not Americans, or should not be Americans” was “idiotic and offensive,” and he said he was “glad he deleted the post, but do better.”
Ogles’ explanation that the post came from his comms team echoed earlier controversy involving President Donald Trump, whose Truth Social video depiction of Barack and Michelle Obama as apes was also met with staff-blame after Trump said he “didn’t see” the part of the video that portrayed the Obamas that way.
NBC News reported that Ogles’ deleted Pride Month post was followed by Democrats slamming it, including Rep. Katherine Clark writing that “bigots like Andy Ogles have no place in America.”
