In a week where Kansas has passed a bill prohibiting transgender people from using public restrooms and other facilities associated with their gender identities, and would bar them from changing their name or gender on driver’s licenses, everyone’s least favorite bigot Marjorie Taylor Greene has delivered another unhinged Twitter post that ignores the basic facts of the situation in America.
This tweet is incorrect on so many levels it would be laughable, if it wasn’t so terrifying for those being targeted by increasingly extreme Republican rhetoric. For a large number of trans people, the reality is that they can’t get a driver’s license that reflects their gender. Many also face bullying and exclusion from school, as well as being barred from using the bathroom that best reflects their gender identity — two things that severely impact their education and future life prospects. They’re also twice as likely to be unemployed, part of which is due to discrimination and mental health issues arrising from being unable to access adeaquate healthcare, so they actually can’t get jobs they’re qualified for — especially in red states.
Trans people can get married, of course, but in many states the marriage certificate wouldn’t reflect their gender identity, making what should be a symbol of love a painful reminder of the bigotry they face on a day to day basis. Trans people are also most definitely not welcome in many public spaces, as proven by the sad fact that violence against them is on the rise — largely thanks to rhetoric from MTG and her ghoulish Republican cronies. So far, so wrong for the Republican congresswoman — something we’re used to from Greene.
What MTG doesn’t seem to realize is that trans people just want what most conservative Americans profess to be willing to die for: The opportunity to live free, as their authentic selves. Her baseless claim that trans people are looking “to force Christians to accept their lifestyle” is also quite ironic, considering Republicans are pushing to turn the U.S into an ethno-religious Christian country despite the First Amendment famously separating religion and the state. Perhaps in Greene’s mind, the constitution is something religious nutjobs like her can pick and choose from, much like the Bible is for them too (what’s that about turning the other cheek and false idols?).
Additionally, if there’s any group trying to “indoctrinate” children, it’s probably the people banning books and trying to normalize conversion therapy. If Greene had the tiniest inkling about the history of transgender persecution, she’d see that the group most famous for banning books were also vehemently anti-trans — and that texts researching LGBTQ+ people were among the first things burned by the Nazis. Then again, the Republicans have been embracing Nazism for a few years now, so this shouldn’t be surprising.
While most of Greene’s claims in her tweet are dangerous as well as wrong, she ends it with a statement that simply makes no sense. “Trans people have nothing to fight for. This is just another political movement.” Political movements are things that inherently fight for rights and outcomes, so her saying that is a bit like somebody claiming the Atlantic Ocean is a vast body of water, not an ocean. However, among the other vitriol she’s flung in the tweet, that little slip up barely registers.
The saddest thing is that it’s not just the U.S. that’s rolling back hard fought rights for trans people this week. The right-wing U.K Conservative government look set to exclude trans people from the legal definition of their gender, at the behest of the cartoonishly evil Home Secretary Suella Braverman (who’s said it’s her “dream” and “obsession” to send asylum seekers on a plane from the U.K. to Rwanda). And, unlike the Democrats, who are at least showing a bit of backbone in the fight against Republican hate, the supposedly liberal and left wing U.K. Labour Party seem more than happy to agree that trans people don’t deserve rights.
While this might all seem like a hellish nightmare, there are at least some green shoots sprouting through the worst of right wing bigotry. The Kansas bill mentioned at the top of the article is likely to be vetoed by the state governer, and most Americans still believe that trans people should be protected from increasing governmental and societal discrimination. For now, though, Greene and her ilk will continue pumping out hate, and it’s up to us to counter it with facts and compassion — two things the congresswoman is in dangerously low supply of.
