House Passes The Equality Act Over Republican Bigotry

David Gordon briefly touched on this in an earlier post, but on Thursday the House Passed Sweeping Gay and Transgender Equality Legislation:

[The House voted 224-206 on Thursday to pass the Equality Act], a bill that would extend civil rights protections to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, but the measure faced an uphill battle to enactment [in the Senate], with Republicans almost uniformly opposed.

[I]t was the second time the Democratic-led House had passed the measure, known as the Equality Act, which seeks to amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to add explicit bans on discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in both public and private spaces.

Via Axios: Unlike its passage in the House in 2019, the measure is now being considered after the Supreme Court ruled that Title VII protects employees from being fired based on their gender identity or sexual orientation. [Employment discrimination].

So the Equality Act is now conforming Title VII to the Supreme Court decision and codifying it into federal law, albeit with broader protections.

In Arizona, a similar bill to amend the Arizona Civil Rights Act has been introduced in the legislature every year since at least 1994. To the best of my recollection, only once has the bill ever received a hearing in committee,  only so Republicans could vote against it. In light of the Supreme Court ruling, the Arizona Civil Rights Act should also be amended to conform to current law.

“In most states, L.G.B.T.Q. people can be discriminated against because of who they are, or who they love,” said Representative David Cicilline, an openly gay Democrat from Rhode Island and the lead sponsor. “It is past time for that to change.”

The passage of the legislation came as a broader fight over transgender rights played out on Capitol Hill, with Republicans attacking transgender people and Democrats insisting they warranted the same civil rights protections afforded to anyone else.

In the House, QAnon Queen Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, the first-term Republican from Georgia who is known for spreading false and bigoted conspiracy theories, referred to the transgender daughter of Representative Marie Newman, Democrat of Illinois, as “your biological son.”

The Chicago Sun-Times reports The inside story about Rep. Marie Newman, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and their transgender rights fight:

To understand this story about Thursday’s vote on a transgender rights bill, first know that freshmen Rep. Marie Newman, D-Ill., and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., are across-the-hall neighbors in the Longworth House office building.

Greene is on the fringe of the fringe.

So much so that Democrats who control the House stripped her of committee assignments after the QAnon conspiracy booster and 9-11 denier threatened to execute Democrats, spread anti-Semitic tropes and pushed baseless claims about staged school shootings.

On Tuesday, Newman delivered an impassioned speech on the House floor to support passage of the LGBTQ anti-discrimination Equality Act.

She knows a lot about this issue.

Her daughter Evie, 20, a DePaul University student, transitioned about five years ago.

The Equality Act is needed, Newman said in her floor speech, because she knew from the day Evie “came out to her parents as transgender” she could be “discriminated against merely because of who she is.

“And yet it was still the happiest day of my life. And my daughter has found her authentic self.”

Later on Tuesday, Newman tweeted out a clip from that speech, adding the line, “I’m voting to pass the Equality Act for my daughter — the strongest, bravest person I know.”

On Wednesday, Greene tried unsuccessfully to block a vote on the Equality Act.

That prompted Newman on Wednesday afternoon to plant the light-blue and pink transgender flag next to the State of Illinois flag outside her office — where Greene would be sure to see it.

Newman wrote in an afternoon tweet above a video of her putting up the flag, “Thought we’d put up our Transgender flag so she can look at it every time she opens her door.”

A short time later, Greene tweeted in reply, “As mothers, we all love and support our children. But your biological son does NOT belong in my daughters’ bathrooms, locker rooms and sports teams.”

This is classic ignorance fear mongering. There are a spate of Republican “bathroom bills” and bills seeking to ban transgenders from women’s sports in state legislatures this year. This is not something new. Who could ever forget Rep. John Kavanagh’s “show me your papers before you pee” bill in 2013, which was defeated in the end. The ‘show me your papers before you pee’ bill is dead, for now.

Even though Newman got this ball rolling by planting the trans flag — a symbol — Greene knew or should have known how making her blunt message specifically about Newman’s child could be hurtful.

A few hours later, Greene escalated by putting up an in-your-face sign outside her door that said: “There are two genders. Male & Female. ‘Trust The Science,’” said Greene.

That this message was directed to the mother of a trans child made it more than a matter of a policy dispute. What kind of unfeeling person does that?

Greene said in a tweet about her sign, “Our neighbor, @RepMarieNewman, wants to pass the so-called ‘Equality’ Act to destroy women’s rights and religious freedoms. Thought we’d put up ours so she canlook at it every time she opens her door.”

Let’s be clear about what Republicans really mean when they say “religious freedom.” They are talking about the freedom to openly discriminate against people whom they hate, hiding behind the veneer of a supposed religious belief that endorses hatred, bigotry and discrimination. They want a “get out of jail free card” to engage in hatred, bigotry and discrimination.

And by the way, Greene does not trust science. She had to be forced to wear a COVID mask on the House floor.

* * *

And to add another wrinkle to this, on Thursday, Facebook removed Newman’s video. “Facebook took down our video of me putting up the Transgender flag outside my office and labeled it as “hate speech.” Meanwhile, they’re still allowing Marjorie Taylor Greene’s transphobic video to be posted.”

Facebook later put it back, telling Newman it was removed in error. Facebook Apologizes For Removing Video Of Congresswoman Marie Newman Displaying Transgender Pride Flag:

Facebook later restored the video, and the social media giant’s policy communications director, Andy Stone, apologized for mistakenly flagging it as hate speech.

“Congresswoman, this plainly should not have happened. We’ve restored this content and you have our sincere apologies,” Stone wrote in a Twitter post.

The New York Times continues:

Several Republicans assailed the Equality Act as dangerous, leading one top Democrat, Representative Sean Patrick Maloney of New York, to accuse them of believing that gay and transgender people “are morally inferior, and that firing us should be permitted.”

“Why hide behind the ridiculous, embarrassing, easily debunked arguments, falsehoods, fear-mongering about locker rooms and women’s sports?” said Mr. Maloney, the openly gay chairman of House Democrats’ campaign arm. “Why not just say what they really mean?”

In a landmark decision in June, the Supreme Court ruled that the 1964 civil rights law protects gay and transgender people from workplace discrimination, and that the language of the law, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, also applies to discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. House Democrats sought to build on that ruling with the Equality Act, which would expand the scope of civil rights protections beyond workers to consumers at businesses including restaurants, taxi services, gas stations and shelters.

It would also water down the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the 1993 law at the heart of the [ridiculousHobby Lobby Supreme Court case that set a high bar for governments to enact laws that “substantially burden” an individual’s freedom to exercise religious beliefs. Those protections have been cited by, for example, bakers or photographers who object to serving same-sex weddings.

A “get out of jail free” card for hatred, bigotry ad discrimination. The Equality Act could be used in argument to overturn these wrongly decided decisions in future lawsuits.

Three Republicans — Representative Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Representatives John Katko and Tom Reed, both of New York — joined Democrats to support the bill.

The House first passed the legislation in 2019, but the Republican-controlled Senate at the time refused to take it up. Upon taking office, Mr. Biden encouraged the Democratic-controlled Congress to “swiftly pass” the bill, calling it a “critical step toward ensuring that America lives up to our foundational values of equality.”

But 10 Republicans would need to join Democrats to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to pass legislation [this is the cloture rule, ie., the filibuster. 60 votes are not required to pass legislation] under normal [McConnellized] Senate procedures, a level of support its proponents are unlikely to muster, unless substantial changes are made.

I’m guessing that Sen Kyrsten Sinema will not support the filibuster rule on this civil rights bill. Kyrsten Sinema makes history as first bisexual member of U.S. Senate. Who the hell knows what Joe Manchin will do? This is as good a reason as any to kill the filibuster rule.

[The mythical moderate from Maine (what a fraud)] Senator Susan Collins, the only Republican in that chamber to co-sponsor the legislation during the last Congress [when she knew it had zero chance to pass], told The Washington Blade that she would not do so again, citing the lack of certain revisions she had requested. Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah, has indicated he would not support the legislation, saying it lacked “strong religious liberty protections.”

In the House, consideration of the measure devolved into bitter acrimony.

In emotional remarks in support of the bill, Ms. Newman said she was fighting to advance the legislation to ensure that people like her transgender daughter would no longer face discrimination. Ms. Greene responded on Twitter, saying Ms. Newman’s daughter did not “belong in my daughters’ bathrooms, locker rooms, and sports teams.”

The back-and-forth came after Ms. Newman had earlier posted video of herself putting up a transgender pride flag outside her office on Capitol Hill, so Ms. Greene, who has the office across the hall, would have to “look at it every time she opens her door,” Ms. Newman said. In response, Ms. Greene circulated her own video in which she put up a poster of her own outside her office that bore the phrase: “There are TWO genders: MALE & FEMALE.”

Ms. Greene may have been the most vocal in her opposition to the legislation, but it drew fierce criticism from nearly all House Republicans, many of whom argued that the protections were overly expansive and infringed on religious freedom. [See above.]

“This is a government using its power to tell us to bow down to the will of a cultural elite in this town who want to tell us what we’re supposed to believe,” said Representative Chip Roy, Republican of Texas. “We’re not going to do that.”

So now the LGBTQ community are “cultural elites” and not the target of hatred and bigotry and discrimination. Who knew? An Epidemic of Violence: Fatal Violence Against Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming People In the U.S. in 2020. This is what ignorance, fear and hatred lead to.

Others claimed that the legislation could imperil women’s rights, an argument long used by conservatives to oppose transgender rights legislation, despite the fact that the bill contains protections explicitly to prevent discrimination against women.

Before the vote, Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, approvingly shared on Twitter a Wall Street Journal op-ed that asserted that the measure would “threaten the existence of women’s prisons, public-school girls’ locker rooms, and women’s and girls’ sports teams.”

“One of the many reasons to oppose this bill,” Mr. Jordan wrote.

This is the last guy anyone should listen to about “locker rooms.” This is the sonuvabitch who covered up sexual abuse of athletes at Ohio State University. Six former wrestlers say Rep. Jim Jordan knew about abusive OSU doctor; Referee says he told Rep. Jim Jordan that Ohio State doctor performed sex act in shower; Ex–Ohio State Wrestler Says Rep. Jim Jordan Asked Him to Deny Abuse Allegations. The only reason “Gym” Jordan is still in Congress after this scandal is because IOKIYAR in Ohio.

The legislation has won the support of several civil rights groups as well as high-profile leaders in the business community, including Coca-Cola, IBM, Microsoft and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

President Biden urged Congress to pass the act last week, saying that “full equality has been denied to LGBTQ+ Americans and their families for far too long.”




2 thoughts on “House Passes The Equality Act Over Republican Bigotry”

  1. Jonathan Capehart writes “A transphobic tirade against the Equality Act masquerading as feminism”, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/27/transphobic-tirade-against-equality-act-masquerading-feminism/

    The Equality Act was made to protect me and other LGBTQ Americans from people like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, people who are always trying to reduce our lives to bedrooms, bathrooms or locker rooms rather than deal with the complex lives of real people who must endure their hatred.

    A lot of people thought the fight for LGBTQ equality was over when the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in 2015. But it wasn’t. And still isn’t. Marriage is legal for same-sex couples in all 50 states. But that couple could lose their respective jobs in 21 states, be denied housing in 27 states, be denied public accommodations in 25 states, and if they or their children are in school or college, their sexual orientation or gender identity could open them to discrimination in their educational pursuits in 31 states.

    LGBTQ Americans deserve equal protection under all the federal laws that secure the safety and dignity of ourselves and our families. Besides, we pay taxes and are part of the sturdy fabric of this nation, from your essential workers to your secretary of transportation.

    “There should not be discrimination of anyone in the United States of America, and I fully believe that,” Greene declared in her anti-Equality Act speech. If she really did believe that, she would stop blocking legislation that would give her hollow words the ring of truth.

  2. Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, fellow, Faith and Progressive Policy Initiative, at Center for American Progress writes “Conservatives opposing the Equality Act don’t speak for most people of faith, and they know it”, https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/conservatives-opposing-equality-act-don-t-speak-most-people-faith-ncna1258910

    For years the religious right has trumpeted a lie: that its opposition to LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections has to do with, or is even required by, religion. It has even, on occasion, distorted the meaning of religious freedom to make this argument.

    But as its opposition to the Equality Act, which passed the House on Thursday, shows, the idea that LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections undermine protections for religious Americans is an egregious mistruth.

    The Equality Act would expand protections for religious Americans by updating the public spaces where the Civil Rights Act applies. Under current federal law, it is perfectly legal to discriminate against someone in a retail store or a taxicab, for example, for being visibly Christian (or Muslim or Hindu — or anything else). The Equality Act would ensure that Americans’ religious freedom is protected in those places, preserve all of the religious liberty provisions of our current civil rights laws and protect LGBTQ Americans from discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations.


    As the weakness of the religious right’s arguments has become more and more visible, and as more and more Americans who identify as religious reject the edicts to discriminate, its fearmongering about the dignity of LGBTQ people has shifted, both over the past decades and more recently. These days, it focuses on scaring Americans about transgender people, from their participation in youth sports to the standards of medical care for transgender youth, about which it spouts vicious fictions. All of its fearmongering is based on falsehoods or stereotypes, like those that have been proven incorrect in states that already have nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ youths playing sports.


    Still, it is not just the lies the religious right tells about transgender youth or religious freedom that should rankle other Americans of faith: Its loud, often bigoted opposition to the Equality Act obscures the fact that most Americans who self-identify as religious support this legislation.

    The vast majority of Americans — 83 percent — favor laws that would protect gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people against discrimination in jobs, public accommodations and housing. That includes majorities of every major religious group in the country, according to the Public Religion Research Institute. Even 59 percent of white evangelical Protestants — the largest and most reliably conservative bloc of religious voters — support the type of protections in the Equality Act.

    Americans of all religious backgrounds also reject the distorted “religious freedom” framing of the religious right’s opposition to the Equality Act, as outlined Wednesday by Rep. Greene. When given a choice between these two statements —”Everyone is free to follow their religious beliefs and practices in their personal lives, provided they do not cause harm to others,” and “Everyone is free to follow their religious beliefs and practices in every part of their lives, including performing their jobs, even if that means excluding certain groups of people” — 89 percent of Americans, as well as majorities of all major religious groups, chose the former.

    All of this is among the reasons that over 100 faith-based organizations have endorsed the Equality Act, including Catholic, evangelical Protestant, mainline Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, Unitarian Universalist and Hindu groups. And faith groups that recognize the dignity of LGBTQ people have a faithful ally in the White House: President Joe Biden — one of the most overtly religious presidents since Jimmy Carter — has made the Equality Act a priority for his administration.

    Despite not representing the majority of Americans of faith on this issue, the religious right will do all it can in the coming weeks to derail the Equality Act by purporting to represent those very Americans. It is certainly its prerogative to advocate against civil rights, but Americans deserve to know that faith communities and people of faith largely support this historic legislation.

    And most religious Americans understand that the response to LGBTQ discrimination most in keeping with the highest callings of the tenets of their various traditions is to enact laws that protect everyone.

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