QAnon Lawmaker Launches Attack On Trans Girls In Sports

Another day, another vicious attack on transgender women.

Today’s transphobic attack comes from an unsurprising source; Republican Congresswoman, Marjorie Taylor Green, who announced yesterday morning that she had filed Articles of Impeachment on US President Joe Biden merely one day after his inauguration, set her target on transgender girls in sports just a few hours later.

The Right Wing radical has been heavily scrutinized for a series of events that demonstrated contentious and bizarre behavior since taking seat in the US House of Representatives, including joining efforts to overturn the results of the Presidential election and nullify the votes of millions of people of color. The conspiracy obsessed lawmaker has professed her loyalty to Donald Trump and the QAnon belief that Democrats are a cabal of Satan worshipping pedophiles who eat babies and receive regular, top secret missives from a anonymous figure known only as Q- allegedly a high ranking person in Donald Trump’s former cabinet or, possibly, Donald Trump himself.

Last week, Greene found herself in the headlines again after refusing to walk through the newly installed metal detectors at the entrance to the Capitol Building where a deadly riot saw Trump Supporters attempt to kill the members of the former President’s perceived political opposition party. She also refused to concede to a search of her bag, claiming it was against her constitutional rights.

Alongside Greene, 12 other Republicans- and only Republicans- have signed up to co-sponsor the bill which intends to ban Transgender women and girls from participating in sports. This does not just apply to school sports, but is a sweeping bill that could see Transgender woman of any age ousted from sporting events in every field.

The bill, titled “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act” has gotten support from the GOP’s most notorious figures, most of who are Trump acolytes and perpetuated the myth that the 2020 election results were fraudulent and publicly stoked the ire of Trump’s supporters resulting in the insurrection that took place on January 6th that killed five people.

The bill was (re) introduced on January 21st by Greg Steube (R-Fla.).

The co-sponsors are:

Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.)
Jim Banks (R-Ind.)
Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.)
Rick Allen (R-Ga.)
Kevin Hern (R-Okla.)
Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.)
Barry Moore (R-Ala.)
Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.)
Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.)
Mo Brooks (R-Ala.)
Bob Good (R-Va.)
Bill Johnson (R-Ohio)
Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.)

It states:

“By forcing biological female athletes to compete against biological male athletes in competitive sports, we are taking away women’s opportunities on and off the field,” Steube said. “These unfair policies discount the hard work and determination put in by our female athletes and give biological male athletes an unfair advantage in joining teams, setting records and earning scholarships.”

Stuebe’s previous effort to have the bill passed was overwhelmingly rejected by Democrats in the House of Representatives. Former Presidential candidate and Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard also attempted to stop transgender women and girls from participating in competitive sports with her 2020 bill titled the Protect Women’s Sports Act.

The bill is nothing more than a clear example of trans misogyny. It specifically attacks only transgender women, as so many of these events where politicians weaponize their position as lawmakers and exclusive target trans women, using derogatory language in reference to them and ignoring the years of scientific studies that demonstrate transgender women have no advantages in sport. In 2020, US Republicans took aim on transgender women in sports and introduced 20 bills seeking to ban trans people from participating in athletics. These discriminatory bills claimed to focus solely on biology, and ignores biological differences between cisgender women. For example, a woman who it taller and has longer legs is allowed to compete in marathons against a woman who has a shorter stature. This bill presumes, dangerously, that women all have factory issued bodies, and would open the door to more discrimination, whether one is transgender or not, because it sets precedent for deeming features that one perceives as advantageous to being unfair. We have already seen cisgender women who appear to have more masculine bodies or have naturally high levels of testosterone, experience grotesque displays of discrimination by leaders in an attempt to reject them.

So, while it is legal for a 5'3 male to play basketball with with other men, some who reach over 7 feet tall, the pursuit by critics to reduce transgender women to their genitals as the sum of all parts and completely dependent on whatever skills they may have is nothing more than prejudice.