Politics

Marjorie Taylor Greene says trans people have rights during baffling rant about women

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene
Marjorie Taylor Greene Photo: Screenshot

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) got annoyed with a journalist asking her about what legislation that she’ll be filing this year regarding transgender people, claiming that trans people have the same rights as everyone else.

“I think, you know what? Transgender Americans have the same rights as all Americans,” she barked at journalist Pablo Manríquez at the Capitol yesterday. “So I don’t understand what your question is.”

“What about the rights of women! Like we don’t want biological men in our bathrooms,” she ranted. “How about women’s rights! How about women’s rights when it comes to sports? We don’t want biological men in our sports.”

“So if we’re gonna talk about people’s rights, why don’t we talk about women’s rights. Because trans Americans have the same rights as everyone else but they need to respect real women’s rights and not invade our privacy.”

Manríquez then asked about specific policy actions.

“We’re gonna respect gender again, male and female,” she snapped back. “We’re gonna use pronouns and family names, like [former Speaker] Nancy Pelosi took it away.”

Pelosi, of course, did not take away anyone’s pronouns.

In November, Greene made a similar statement about “gender pronouns and family names” being brought back to the Capitol. She was likely referring to House rules resolution passed by Congress in January 2021 that changed words used in the House’s Standing Rules to “honor all gender identities by changing pronouns and familial relationships in the House rules to be gender neutral.”

The resolution was the subject of exaggerations online, with conservatives saying that words like “brother” and “sister” were banned completely even though they were only changed in one document that the vast majority of Americans will never read. In fact, USA Today reported that the part about family relationships only applies to Clause 8(c)(3) of the Standing Rules, which defines what it means to be a “relative.”

On the question of whether transgender people have the same rights as everyone else, Greene touched on two areas where they often don’t, depending on the state and municipality. Many school districts deny transgender students the right to use the restroom of their gender, effectively making it hard to get an equal education since being forced to use the wrong restroom makes it difficult to get through an entire day of school.

And many states have passed laws in recent years denying equal access to sports education to transgender students, since many trans kids don’t want to play sports on a team of the opposite gender.

The ACLU’s Gillian Branstetter pointed out that Greene’s bill from the last Congress – the Protect Children’s Innocence Act – would ban many medical procedures for transgender kids that it doesn’t ban for cisgender kids. Greene has not yet introduced this bill in the House this year.

Other people expressed confusion at Greene’s rant.

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