U.S. Rep. Marie Newman Source: U.S. Rep. Marie Newman / Twitter

Watch: Pro-Equality Rep. Flies Trans Flag - Right Next to QAnon-Spouting Marjorie Taylor Greene's Office

Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.

U.S. Rep. Marie Newman of Illinois has responded to the transphobic attacks launched against the Equality Act by U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia by hoisting the flag high, Newsweek reports - the trans flag, that is.

"Newman, an Illinois Democrat, has erected a blue, pink and white flag – which symbolizes support for equal rights for transgender people – outside her Capitol office door," Newsweek reported. "It happens to be directly across from the controversial Georgia Republican's office."

Newman tweeted a video of herself setting up the trans flag. Watch the clip in the tweet below:

"Thought we'd put up our Transgender flag so she can look at it every time she opens her door," Newman posted.

Newman is the mother of a trans daughter. Greene, on the other hand, took aim at trans Americans in a recent jeremiad against the Equality Act, claiming that the Act is a "direct attack on God's creation," because "He created us male and female."

Greene repeated the oft-bandied claim from the anti-LGBTQ right that protections for trans individuals would lead to cisgender men invading women's restrooms and locker areas, and declared that "biological men" would unfairly compete against women and girls in athletics.

Greene also attacked Newman's daughter directly in a tweet to Newman that declared, "your biological son does NOT belong in my daughters' bathrooms, locker rooms and sports teams," Newsweek reported.

Greene has drawn attention because of her past espousal of QAnon conspiracy theories, her apparent online suggestion that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi should be killed, and wild claims that include a story about California wildfires being started by an orbiting laser controlled by Jews and the assertion that school shootings are inventions designed to bolster support for gun control. Greene herself posted a video that showed her haranguing David Hogg, a school shooting survivor who has gone on to advocate for gun control. Those actions led to her being stripped of her committee assignments.

The Equality Act proposes an amendment to the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 that would extend federal nondiscrimination protections on the basis of "sexual orientation" and "gender identity," protecting LGBTQ Americans from discrimination with regard to housing, credit, education, and similar areas of daily life.

Greene, however, decried the legislation as "attacking God & believers" and falsely claimed that the bill includes language that "treats any refusal to offer abortion as 'pregnancy' discrimination."

The Equality Act does not address reproductive freedoms.


by Kilian Melloy , EDGE Staff Reporter

Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.

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