On Thursday, on the eve of Trans Visibility Day, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene posted a lengthy tweet disparaging the trans rights struggle.
“Trans don’t need trans rights,” she began she screeded“because they are equal and have the same rights as others.”
The formerly ostracized Georgia Republican, now welcomed into the House GOP by Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), then suggested that the true rights of American Christians are under threat, concluding that “Trans people have nothing to fight for. .”
He couldn’t be further from the truth.
More than 650 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced in 46 states in just the first three months of 2023, the Movement Progress Project, or MAP, told HuffPost on Friday.
Legislation is currently pending across the country to stop transgender people from receiving gender-affirming health care, to block official recognition of transgender or nonbinary identities and to stop LGBTQ+ people from being admitted to schools, among other tactics.
And the bills keep coming. When MAP published its report on attacks on LGBTQ+ rights just last week, the number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills was around 580 in 45 countries. There have been more anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced this year than in all of 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 combined, the group said.
MAP has added a series of “Under Fire” reports to paint a comprehensive picture of how conservatives are trying to “eradicate” the LGBTQ+ community.
“When you look at everything they do, it becomes clear that their goal is to force LGBTQ people out of public life,” MAP deputy director Naomi Goldberg said in a statement.
“If LGBTQ youth can’t be mentioned in school, if the government can’t collect survey information about the lives of LGBTQ people, and if transgender youth have to be referred to by their old names and pronouns, it’s like LGBTQ people don’t exist anymore,” Goldberg said.
Greene claims that transgender people can participate in society “just like everyone else.” Some legislative examples, however, are clearly flawed. To receive a driver’s license with their correct gender identity, for example, transgender people in some countries must jump through administrative hoops that do not apply to others. Transgender people can “go to school and receive an education like everyone else,” as they claim — unless Republicans in some states try to make it difficult or impossible for them to express their core identity.
More than half of transgender youth between the ages of 13 and 17 have lost access to gender-affirming treatment or are at risk of losing it, despite recommendations from major medical organizations, according to the Human Rights Campaign. Lawmakers in Florida became the first in the nation to target the health care of transgender adults earlier this month, passing a bill that would prohibit private health insurance from covering gender-affirming treatment.
And the attack is beyond the law. Some legacy media outlets contribute to the problem by raising claims from organizations and individuals who oppose transgender rights, hiding from the public how the medical community supports transitions for people of various ages.
After the horrific school shooting at a private school in Nashville, right-wing outlets and pundits seized on the trans identity of the dead shooter, going as far as to suggest that transgender predisposes people to acts of violence.
In recent years, conservatives have also revived decades-old smears against LGBTQ+ people, portraying them as pedophiles who want to “exorcise” children because they are abused.
Greene is perhaps best known for making dubious, false and outrageous claims wherever he goes. But her claim that trans rights are the same as everyone else’s is one of the easiest to dismiss.