- Adam Kinzinger criticized Marjorie Taylor Greene for declaring a sign from Marie Newman’s office across the hall.
- Newman, who has a transgender daughter, placed a transgender flag across Greene’s office.
- The legislators are scrambling over the equality law.
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The Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger has his colleague Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene exclaimed on Twitter for hanging up a sign declaring a gender binary outside her office.
The sign, which is in the office of Rep. Marie Newman addressed, said: “There are TWO genders: MALE & WOMAN.” It also includes the phrase “trust science!” in quotes.
Newman, a Democrat from Illinois, has a transgender daughter.
Greene tweeted a video of herself hanging the sign, writing: “Our neighbor, @RepMarieNewman, wants to pass the so-called ‘Equality’ Act ‘to destroy women’s rights and religious freedoms.”
“Thought we were putting ours up so she could look at it every time she opened her door,” Greene said.
—Adam Kinzinger (@RepKinzinger) 25 February 2021
Kinzinger, an anti-Trump Republican, tweeted the video again, saying he is sad and sorry and noted that Newman’s daughter is transgender. He said: “this video and tweet represents the hate- and fame-driven politics of self-promotion at all costs.”
“This garbage should end up making #RestoreOurGOP,” Kinzinger said.
Greene’s sign and video was a direct response to Newman, who first hoisted a transgender flag directly opposite Greene outside her office.
—Congresswoman Marie Newman (@RepMarieNewman) 24 February 2021
Newman tweeted a video of herself hanging the flag, saying, “Our neighbor, @RepMTG, tried to stop the Equality Act because she believes discrimination against Trans-Americans is ‘disgusting, immoral and evil.'”
“Thought we were putting up our transgender flag so she could look at it every time she opened her door,” Newman said.
The scientific consensus is that gender is a spectrum and that many people exist between male and female identities.
Greene and Newman face equality law
Lawmakers have been haunted by the Equality Act, a bill that House Representatives will vote on this week that would ban discrimination based on ‘gender, gender identity and sexual orientation’.
The Equality Act has strong support among Democrats, but opponents believe it would infringe on religious freedom. They also argued that it would hurt women by, for example, preventing them from having only women, prisons and locker rooms.
Proponents of the bill, however, say it provides protection against non-discrimination to LGBTQ people.
If adopted, the civil rights legislation would be amended to include gender identity and sexual orientation as protected traits. However, it will also extend to the typically protected protections, such as employment and housing, with a category called ‘public accommodation’, which includes retailers.
This extension is important for advocates for religious freedom, as it may make it illegal for a baker to, for example, deny making a wedding cake for married couples on the grounds that it is against their religion.
The bill has been tabled several times in the past and was even passed in the Democratic-controlled House in 2019. The Equality Act is likely to be passed in the House again this week. However, the bill would require 60 votes in the Senate to avoid a filibuster, but at least one known GOP swing vote was opposed.
Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah told the Washington Blade that he would not vote to pass the law, citing “protection of religious freedom.”
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