"Santos isn’t directly attacking LGBTQ+ rights, or is he?"

Well, let's look at it this way. He's a member of The Log Cabin Republicans, a coalition of gay Republicans and Trump supporters who are on the record (many times) opposing the proposed federal Equality Act – on the astonishing grounds that legally barring discrimination against LGBTQ people would harm the rights of religious people.

To put it more bluntly, The Log Cabin Republicans claim that businesses and individuals in the United States SHOULD have the right to fire gay and trans people and to refuse to provide services to gay and trans people.

The Log Cabin Republicans enthusiastically endorse Santos. He's one of them.

I can't know for sure that he also opposes the equality act, but birds of a feather ...