Majorie Taylor Greene Attacks LGBTQ People

Majorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has angered progressives after her homophobic and transphobic rant on the House floor as she responded to the proposed Equality Act. After her speech she fought with democratic colleagues and continued to spew hate toward the LGTBQ community. She said on the House floor that the bill “completely annihilates women’s rights and religious freedoms.” In the lead up to the Equality Act being introduced to the House, she tweeted similar hateful rhetoric. Greene said that the Equality Act is “disgusting, immoral, and evil.” “It is a direct attack on God’s creation,” she wrote. “He created us male and female.” Greene now seeks to introduce her own provisions that would block trans women from competing in sports and gives broad rights to those claiming religious freedom to discriminate against LGBTQ people. The Equality Act seeks to expand protections in the 1964 Civil Rights act to make discrimination against those in the LGBTQ community illegal when it comes to housing, education, healthcare, and public accommodation. It is also a widely popular bill with the public, with a poll finding 70 percent of the public support nondiscrimination protections for the LGBTQ community. In a tweet, Greene filed a motion to adjourn “in order to give every Member of Congress time to rethink destroying #WomensRights and #WomensSports and #ReligiousFreedom before voting for the #EqualityAct!” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) responded to her statements mocking Greene for filing to end the session early, as well as pointing out that using the hashtag “women’s rights” included rights for trans women.

You could just vote “no” instead of trying to get out of work early. And you should probably stop using those hashtags because women’s rights include trans women. ✌ ️‍⚧️ https://t.co/iJzA5BrLZF — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 24, 2021

Since her speech on the floor, she has doubled down on her transphobic rhetoric, even attacking Congresswomen Marie Newman’s daughter after Newman put up a transgender flag to show support for the Equality Act. In response, Greene tweeted a video of her hanging a poster on her door that read “There are TWO genders: Male & Female. Trust the Science!” Since then, she has received widespread condemnation from both parties who see the poster as a personal attack on Newman, who has a trans daughter. “This is sad and I’m sorry this happened,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican who has been critical of the emergence of far-right politics in the U.S, tweeted Wednesday night. “Rep. Newman’s daughter is transgender, and this video and tweet represents the hate and fame driven politics of self-promotion at all evil costs. This garbage must end.” Others have been quick to point out that science has not aligned with the idea that gender is binary. Newman gave a speech on the House floor Wednesday where she gave an impassioned speech in support of the Equality Act. “I rise today on behalf of the millions of Americans who continue to be denied housing, education, public services and much, much more because they identify as members of the LGBTQ community,” Newman said. “Americans like my own daughter, who years ago bravely came out to her parents as transgender. I knew from that day on, my daughter would be living in a nation where [in] most of its states, she could be discriminated against, merely because of who she is.” The bill has passed in the House but faces a battle in the Senate where 10 republicans will have to join democrats in support for the bill to avoid a filibuster. Image Courtesy of Marie Newman via Twitter