Majorie Taylor Greene’s Democratic colleagues hit back at the Qanon Congresswoman after she delivered a lengthy rant opposing the Equality Act on the House floor.
On Tuesday, Greene said the LGBTQ+ civil rights bill “completely annihilates women’s rights and religious freedoms” while introducing what she called her “America First amendments,” a series of proposals that would effectively gut the landmark legislation. The first-term Georgia lawmaker is seeking to introduce provisions that would ban trans girls from competing in women’s athletics in school and grant wide exemptions to religious entities that wish to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people.
While many of those measures are supported by fellow Congressional Republicans who are expected to introduce a conservative “compromise” to the Equality Act later this week, Greene’s proposals go much farther. According to U.K. newspaper The Independent, she wants to allow individuals to sue the federal government should they feel “their religious rights are violated” by treating LGBTQ+ people equally.
In coordination with those amendments, Greene published a series of tweets earlier this week calling the Equality Act “disgusting, immoral, and evil.” “It is a direct attack on God’s creation,” she wrote. “He created us male and female.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), one of the legislation’s most vocal supporters in Congress, wasted no time in dunking on Greene following her address on the House floor. After Greene attempted to kill the Equality Act by issuing a motion to adjourn on Wednesday, Ocasio-Cortez jokingly accused her of just wanting the rest of the day off.
“You could just vote ‘no’ instead of trying to get out of work early,” she tweeted.
Ocasio-Cortez, who voted in favor of the Equality Act when the House passed the bill for the first time ever last year, also took issue with Greene’s characterization that LGBTQ+ equality and women’s rights are in opposition. In tweeting about her failed adjournment, Greene used the hashtags #WomensRights, #WomensSports, and #ReligiousFreedom.
“And you should probably stop using those hashtags because women’s rights include trans women,” Ocasio-Cortez added.
While opponents of the Equality Act have attempted to use wedge issues to erode support for the bill, it is broadly popular. The legislation, which would update the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include LGBTQ+ protections in areas like housing, education, health care, and public accommodations, has been endorsed by over 600 advocacy groups and 325 major companies. Meanwhile, over 70% of Americans support fully inclusive nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people.
