AOC had the perfect response to Marjorie Taylor Greene’s attack on trans rights

Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez brilliantly shut down Marjorie Taylor Greene after the conspiracy-spouting Republican attempted to delay the Equality Act.

The bill looks to ban discrimination on based on sexual orientation or gender identity – bringing such protections for LGBT+ people in line with those already enshrined in current civil rights laws on the grounds of race, colour, religion and national origin – and is expected to pass the House in a vote on Thursday.

David Cicilline, the Democrat who has brought various versions of the bill in each Congressional session since 2015, said that while the legislation is “long overdue”, the expected victory is a sign that Congress is “catching up to the rest of the country”.

But despite this talk of progress, Taylor Greene managed to show the extent of the transphobia on display in today’s Republican Party.

The Georgia congresswoman branded the bill “disgusting, immoral, and evil”, as she shared a speech from the House floor in which she conjured images of “boys” in her daughter’s changing rooms and pushed heavily flawed and disputed narratives about transgender participation in sports – which women’s sports groups have argued are based on “a flawed understanding of what it means to be transgender and a misrepresentation of nondiscrimination laws”.

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Taylor Greene – a former QAnon adherent and staunch Donald Trump defender – then succeeded in uniting her House Republican colleagues in voting for an adjournment on the Equality Act vote – but the motion was rejected by Democrats in a 202-214 party line vote.

While looking for support, Taylor Greene tweeted: “I just made a motion to adjourn in order to give every Member of Congress time to rethink destroying #WomensRights and #WomensSports and #ReligiousFreedom before voting for the #EqualityAct!”.

But she was swiftly countered by AOC.

“You could just vote ‘no’ instead of trying to get out of work early,” the New York Democrat wrote. “And you should probably stop using those hashtags because women’s rights include trans women.

“We’re gonna pass the #EqualityAct today, protect our LGBTQ+ family and make the world a little bit better. Nothing is going to stop that.”

Representative Marie Newman went one step further in placing a transgender flag outside Taylor Greene’s office, in what one Twitter user dubbed: “My kind of petty.”

Taylor Greene, who had earlier referred to Newman’s daughter –who is transgender – as her son, responded by putting up a sign of her own.

Taylor Green claims the law will infringe upon people’s religious freedoms, by superseding the Religious Freedom Restoration Act – which means that, if it passes, people will not be able to use their religion as an excuse to discriminate against transgender people.

Joe Biden has pledged to sign the bill into law within his first 100 days in office.

But while it is expected to pass the House on Thursday, it faces a more troubled route in the Senate, where it will need to receive at least 10 Republican votes to avoid being mired in legislative filibuster.

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