Gay Rep. Mark Pocan Girds for Trump

This Friday when President-elect Donald Trump is taking his oath of office outside the Capitol in Washington, D.C., gay Congressman Mark Pocan (D-Wisconsin) will be volunteering at a food pantry in the city of Verona, which is part of his 2nd Congressional District centered in Madison.

The third-term federal lawmaker, whose district neighbors that of Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, is one of more than four-dozen Democrats in Congress who have decided to boycott Trump's inauguration. Pocan, 52, made the decision last Saturday after Trump attacked Congressman John Lewis, a civil rights icon who was beaten protesting Jim Crow-era laws.

The Georgia Democrat had said he was boycotting the inaugural festivities because he views Trump as not a "legitimate president." His comment prompted several irate Twitter posts from Trump over the weekend.

That was "the breaking point," for Pocan, who met with the Bay Area Reporter Tuesday morning in San Francisco while in town this week for several Bay Area events.

"I made the decision Saturday night," said Pocan, adding that, "I did really want to go."

But he feels that Trump's actions, to date, are not worthy of the highest office in the country.

"I respect the office of the president and I need Donald Trump to respect it," said Pocan, one of seven lesbian, gay, and bisexual congressional members. "He is still acting like a reality television star trying to get people to buy laundry detergent and not acting like the president."

Trump's tweet that Lewis is "all talk, talk, talk - no action or results. Sad!" also led gay California Congressman Mark Takano (D-Riverside) to announce via Twitter last Saturday morning that he too would not be attending the inauguration in solidarity with Lewis. He is among a dozen California Democrats to do so.

The lawmakers' boycott of the January 20 ceremony is "petty and a case of sour grapes," Jason P. Clark, chairman of Log Cabin Republicans of California, the gay GOP group, told the B.A.R.

Elected this month to a four-year term as chairman of the Republican Party of San Francisco, Clark added in an emailed reply, "the Democrats lost this election, just as the Republicans did in 2008. One of the hallmarks of our society is that we celebrate the peaceful transfer of power from one elected official to another - whether you like him or not. Trump's record on LGBT issues puts him ahead of ANY President-elect in history on LGBT issues. As gays, we need to cement allies in this new administration, not create new enemies."

There are legislative issues Pocan said he could work with Trump on, such as rewriting trade agreements to better protect American workers, funding infrastructure projects around the country, lowering health care costs, and reforming the tax code.

"If he is sincere on these things, I would gladly work with him," he said.

Yet Pocan told the B.A.R. he has grave concerns about a number of Trump's Cabinet post picks, in particular charter school promoter Betsy DeVos, his nominee to lead the Department of Education. A number of LGBT groups and leaders have called attention to DeVos' support of Focus on the Family, which opposes marriage equality, and her family foundation's donations in support of a group that endorses so-called "conversion therapy" to turn lesbian and gay people straight.

Pocan and Takano, co-chairs of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus, and three other gay congressmen sent a letter last week urging tough questioning of DeVos by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, which held its confirmation hearing Tuesday. Pocan, first vice chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said he also has concerns about labor secretary pick Andrew Puzder.

And with secretary of state nominee Rex Tillerson, the former Exxon Mobil CEO, "I have concerns on multiple fronts," said Pocan, "especially with his closeness to Russia given its interference with our election."

As for those hoping Trump will be impeached, Pocan said his Vice President-elect Mike Pence could be even worse as president when it comes to LGBT rights and progressive values.

"He was the most homophobic governor in the country," Pocan said of Pence, who led Indiana the last four years. "That should concern people if Donald Trump is the face of the administration but Mike Pence is the point person on policy. We potentially are in trouble."

Aside from anti-LGBT policies Trump's administration, working with a Republican-controlled Congress, could put in place, Pocan is also troubled by whom the incoming president will nominate to the vacant seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.

If his nominee is a staunch conservative, as Trump has indicated the person will be, Pocan predicted, "that could cause potential problems for the LGBT community."

Marriage rights could come under attack, noted Pocan, whose Toronto wedding in 2006 to Philip Frank was legalized by the court's 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges. He pointed to the movement to allow people to cite their religious beliefs to deny services to same-sex couples and other LGBT people as one legal issue the reconfigured court will likely confront.

The Golden State and its incoming attorney general, Congressman Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles), will play an important role in pushing back against the legislative and legal attacks on equality, said Pocan.

"Honestly, we are looking for places like California for leadership and for the likes of leaders like Xavier Becerra to file lawsuits to slow down the process and fight for our rights," he said.

Yet such leadership exists not just on the coasts, added Pocan, as there are countless progressive leaders in the country's heartland also ready to fight against any rollback of LGBT rights and other progressive issues. He boasted that 23 years ago Dane County, where he lives, had more out LGBT elected leaders than all of California at the time.

"I know a lot of these things the coasts move forward, but the heartland has been good on this issue as well," said Pocan, noting that Wisconsin, in 1982 under a Republican governor, was the first state to ban discrimination against gays and lesbians not only in employment but housing and public accommodations.