Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) had a heated exchange with HRC legal director and out bi woman Sarah Warbelow that left Gaetz accusing Warbelow of redefining bisexuality.
“If a woman is with men and women, then they’re bisexual, right?” Gaetz asked Warbelow at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the effect that overturning Roe v. Wade will have on individual rights in the U.S.
“That is not true, sir,” Warbelow responded. “An individual who is attracted to people of both sexes – both men and… male and female – is someone who’s bisexual. They can be in long-term, monogamous relationships.”
“I don’t ask this to be dismissive, but you’re saying that lesbian women are also capable of being into men?” Gaetz asked.
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“That is not what I said. I said bisexual-” Warbelow answered before Gaetz cut her off.
While the discussion was bizarre and off-topic – Gaetz was arguing that LGBTQ people should oppose abortion so that more people will be forced to carry pregnancies to term and gay couples will have more babies to adopt, which is already pretty strange – Warbelow’s point was clear and not new at all: sexual orientation is about a person’s attraction to one, many, or no genders, not about who they are currently having sex with.
But it annoyed Gaetz enough that he tweeted a clip where he cut off Warbelow’s full answer and wrote: “BREAKING: Bisexuality redefined in the House Judiciary Committee…”
On his personal account, he retweeted the video and called it “truly remarkable,” apparently referring to Warbelow’s answer and not the fact that a sitting member of the U.S. House was asking a bisexual woman the definition of bisexuality and then refusing to accept her answer.
Truly remarkable https://t.co/BedA50xO3n
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) July 14, 2022
A longer video of the exchange is below.
Gaetz: What’s more likely, a lesbian woman having an unwanted pregnancy as the consequence of a sexual assault or a gay couple adopting in America? pic.twitter.com/cgSCjRxRvM
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 14, 2022
