Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) drew bipartisan condemnation for putting up a poster stating “There are TWO genders” in response to a trans pride flag installed outside the neighboring office of Rep. Marie Newman (D-Ill.).
Newman, who has a transgender daughter, posted a video on Twitter Wednesday afternoon of her placing the flag outside her office after Greene called the Equality Act, which seeks to protect LGBTQ individuals from discrimination, “an attack on God’s creation” and “disgusting, immoral, and evil.”
In response, Newman tweeted the video and thought: “Thought we’d put up our Transgender flag so she can look at it every time she opens her door.”
Shortly after Newman posted the video online, Greene tweeted a video of Newman on the House floor promoting the Equality Act on the House floor, with Greene calling Newman’s daughter “your biological son.”
Greene, who lost her committee memberships after promoting messages of violence against Democratic leaders and various conspiracy theories, later Wednesday posted a video of her putting up a new sign outside her own office that said, “There are TWO genders: MALE & FEMALE. ‘Trust The Science!’ ”
“Thought we’d put up ours so she can look at it every time she opens her door,” Greene tweeted.
Fellow lawmakers were quick to criticize Greene for her response, with Newman’s fellow Illinois Democratic Rep. Sean Casten calling the sign “sickening, pathetic, unimaginably cruel.”
“This hate is exactly why the #EqualityAct is necessary and what we must protect @RepMarieNewman’s daughter and all our LGBTQ+ loved ones against,” Casten tweeted.
Fellow Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R), who has been a vocal critic of former President Trump and the GOP’s far-right wing, tweeted a message of support to Newman and her daughter Wednesday.
“This is sad and I’m sorry this happened,” Kinzinger said of Greene’s sign. “Rep. Newmans daughter is transgender, and this video and tweet represents the hate and fame driven politics of self-promotion at all evil costs. This garbage must end, in order to #RestoreOurGOP.”
Newman, however, says she never wanted the trans pride flag to erupt into a “tit-for-tat,” with Greene, telling CNN’s Alisyn Camerota Thursday morning that she simply intended to “make a statement so that she [Greene] sees LGBTQ+ people.”
“I’m immensely proud of my daughter and that’s all anyone is asking for, is to be treated as anyone else, and that’s what I want Representative Greene to see,” Newman said.
“I was not concerned with her reaction,” she added of Greene’s sign. “What I wanted her to do was see the LGBTQ community and understand that equality is way overdue, so it is immaterial to me.”
“She can keep going with this, whatever she’s doing, and I have no interest in it,” Newman continued. “What I have interest in now is turning the corner and getting back to the work.”