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Tag: the equality act
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga) puts up transphobic sign outside of her office.

Rep. Greene Mocks Trans Pride Flag Outside Of Her Office

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga) has amped up transphobic attacks in multiple Twitter attacks, culminating in the Qanon congresswoman hanging a sign mocking a transgender pride flag Rep. Marie Newman (D-IL) put across from her office.

"Our neighbor, (Rep. Greene), tried to block the Equality Act because she believes prohibiting discrimination against trans Americans is "'disgusting, immoral, and evil,'" Rep. Newman tweeted. "Thought we'd put up our Transgender flag so she can look at it every time she opens her door."

Then, Rep. Greene retaliated with a similar Twitter post mocking Rep. Newman's original, boasting about displaying a transphobic sign that read, "There are two genders: Male & female. Trust the science!"

Twitter users rushed to defend Rep. Newman, who mothers a transgender girl, and blast Rep. Greene for her blatant, ignorant transphobia.

"Sickening, pathetic, unimaginably cruel," tweeted a fellow Illinois Congressperson Rep. Sean Casten, responding directly to Rep. Greene's tweet. "This hate is exactly why the #EqualityAct is necessary and what we must protect (Rep. Marie Newman)'s daughter and all our LGBTQ+ loved ones against."

Adding to the cruelty, Facebook took down Rep. Newman's post of her setting the transgender pride flag outside of Rep. Greene's office for "hate speech," while leaving up the QAnon congresswoman's.

"Facebook took down our video of me putting up the Transgender flag outside my office and labeled it as 'hate speech,'" Rep. Newman tweeted. "Meanwhile, they're still allowing Marjorie Taylor Greene's transphobic video to be posted. Supporting transgender Americans is NOT hate speech."

Rep. Greene's latest deplorable actions come as she has repeatedly attacked LGBTQ+ rights this week when discussing The Equality Act, which will be voted on Thursday by the House.

"The so called #EqualityAct is evil," she tweeted, while also making false assertions that the bill "destroys women's rights, religious rights, and rights of the unborn."

Then Rep. Greene made multiple transphobic statements, including: "(God) created us male and female." Adding that, "Men who dress and think they are women will have rights over all real girls and women."

Her disgusting, transphobic statements were just the beginning of her attacks on the bill, as she also introduced a hand full of amendments to the bill. One asked that the "entire text" of The Equality Act be removed and replaced with Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act-- an anti-transgender attack that would strip basic human rights from trans women and girls.


Chris Johnson on Twittertwitter.com

All of the claims made by Rep. Greene-- including saying The Equality Act "has nothing to do with stopping discrimination against the LGBT community"-- are entirely false and rooted in nothing but hatred, homophobia and transphobia.

The Equality passed the House in 2019 but never made it to a vote in the Republican Senate controlled by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY). The bill is a top priority for President Joe Biden and is likely to pass the House again, but will be a "slog" in the Senate again, according to Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI)-- who reintroduced it last week.

Rep. Cicilline went on the SiriusXM radio show JulieMason Mornings saying, "(The Equality Act has) bipartisan support by the American people" and "the only place that seems to be controversial is within the Republican caucus."

Rep Greene Reinvents Herself As Raving Anti-LGBT Zealot

Rep Greene Reinvents Herself As Raving Anti-LGBT Zealot

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) on Monday used her time to address the House of Representatives by lying to her colleagues and attacking the LGBTQ Equality Act.

The legislation, which passed the House but has not been debated in the Senate or even voted on, much less signed into law, "has completely destroyed women's rights," and "has completely canceled women," the QAnon Congresswoman lied.

The Equality Act, she continued, "has taken away women's rights in sports," which is also false.

"It has completely canceled women and I think it's a terrible thing that's happened to the women in America who have come so far, our grandmothers and mothers worked so hard to achieve our rights. And now with the passage of the Equality Act they have put men in our little girls bathrooms, sports, locker rooms, playing fields, and seem to care less about women's rights whatsoever."

Again the Equality Act has only passed the House, not the Senate, nor has it been signed into law, so it has not been enacted.

"They've also completely destroyed religious freedoms and and violated our freedoms and rights in every single way," she insisted, not naming who "they" are.

"The Equality Act is atrocious and evil," she said, repeating the false claim she has made several times. "It completely erases gender, that God created us 'male and female in his image.' He created us. Women deserve their rights, we deserve our sports, we deserve our privacy, and should not have the invasion of biological men in any of these areas."

Green has been trying to remake herself from a conspiracy theorist and QAnon promoter to a far right religious extremist anti-choice activist. Her diatribe on International Women's Day did little to advance that goal, or any other cause.

Watch:

Sen. Collins Suddenly Flips Right On LGBTQ Rights Bill

Sen. Collins Suddenly Flips Right On LGBTQ Rights Bill

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Is Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) playing politics with vital civil rights legislation?

Just eight months ago Sen. Collins was the only Republican Senator to co-sponsor the LGBTQ Equality Act. She was also in a desperate re-election race.

On June 15 she tweeted her strong support for the bill:

The following day she signed onto a letter to then-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, demanding he "immediately bring the bipartisan Equality Act (H.R. 5) to the Senate floor for a vote and fully enshrine in federal law explicit protections for LGBTQIA+ people against discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity."

The bill never came to the floor, and Collins got re-elected.

On TuesdayThe Washington Blade reported Sen. Collins was refusing to co-sponsor the Equality Act, a dramatic about-face after being such a strong supporter last year.

Why?

"There were certain provisions of the Equality Act which needed revision," Collins told the Blade's Chris Johnson, not specifying what "revisions" were so desperately needed they were resulting in her refusing to sponsor the bill – and putting its passage in jeopardy.

"Throwing some veiled criticism at the Human Rights Campaign," Johnson writes, "which declined to endorse her in 2020 as it had done in previous elections, Collins added, 'Unfortunately the commitments that were made to me were not [given] last year.'"

The Equality Act will receive a vote on the House floor this week, reportedly Thursday or Friday. President Biden has said he wants to sign it into law in his first 100 days (although his staff has since suggested it may take longer.)

Like so many other critical pieces of legislation, the Equality Act will need 60 votes to pass, unless Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) kills the filibuster, something many liberals are demanding he do.

Other GOP Senators are treating it like they used to treat tweets from Donald Trump.

"I don't know what's in it," Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said.

"I have not read the bill," Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) also said.

Will Collins change her mind? Will she co-sponsor the Equality Act? Will she reveal what vital "revisions" she's demanding be made before she does?

Senator Collins' office did not immediately respond to a call from NCRM.

Democrats Revive Equality Act To Expand LGBTQ+ Rights

Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) reintroduced the Equality Act in the U.S. House of Representatives late last week. The bill, which is a priority for President Joe Biden in his first 100 days, would ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Originally introduced in 2019, the Equality Act amends major civil rights laws -- including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 -- and extend these rights to people in the LGBTQ+ community. The bill would ban discrimination against queer people in such key aspects of life as employment, housing, education, credit, federal funding, public accommodations, and jury service.

"In 2021, every American should be treated with respect and dignity," said Rep. Cicilline. "Yet, in most states, LGBTQ people can be discriminated against because of who they are, or who they love. It is past time for that to change."

Standing with Rep. Cicilline, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) will introduce theEquality Act in the Senate this week.

Biden also chimed in, calling the act "a critical step" in achieving American values. According to the president, the bill is the "best" way protect LGBTQ+ people from discrimination and ensure equal rights.

"Full equality has been denied to LGBTQ+ Americans and their families for far too long," Biden said in a statement. "Despite the extraordinary progress the LGBTQ+ community has made to secure their basic civil rights, discrimination is still rampant in many areas of our society."

During the summer of 2020, the Supreme Court finally banned employment discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community, with the landmark ruling in Bostok v. Clayton County. The conservative court decided in a 6-3 ruling that existing sex-based discrimination laws extended to LGBTQ+ people. Before the landmark decision, 27 states had no explicit statewide laws stopping an employer from discriminating based on sexual orientation or gender identity, according to USA Today.

Not surprisingly, given the bill's goal to protect vulnerable queer people, it has been met with backlash from Republicans. Notably, Sen. Mitt Romney has voiced his opposition to the Equality Act in a statement last Tuesday. According to theWashington Blade, it throws "a massive wrench into plans of the bill's supporters to guide it into law."

"Sen. Romney believes that strong religious liberty protections are essential to any legislation on this issue, and since those provisions are absent from this particular bill, he is not able to support it," a Romney spokesperson told the Blade.

According to Congress' website, the Equality Act has garnered 223 co-sponsors. But in contrast to the original bill, the version introduced last Thursday has no Republican co-sponsors yet.