IL Rep. Marie Newman plants transgender flag outside office, across hall from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's

BySarah Schulte and ABC7 Chicago Digital Team WLS logo
Thursday, February 25, 2021
Rep. Marie Newman plants transgender flag outside office, across hall from Marjorie Taylor Greene
A dispute over transgender rights has gotten personal between Congresswoman Marie Newman of Illinois and Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.

WASHINGTON (WLS) -- Democratic Congresswoman Marie Newman of Illinois has gotten into a dispute with Republican colleague Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene ahead of a vote on the Equality Act.

Congresswoman Newman, whose daughter is transgender, spoke in favor of the bill banning discrimination against LGBTQ Americans.

Congresswoman Greene tried to block the bill, so Newman responded by raising a transgender pride flag outside her Capitol Hill office, which happens to be right across the hall from Greene's.

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"The symbolism was simply to put the flag out there so she has to see our community every day," Newman said. "I'm immensely proud of my daughter, and that's all anyone is asking for, is to be treated as anyone else."

Greene, who was stripped of her committee assignments for promoting conspiracy theories, responded by putting a sign up outside Newman's office, which says "There are only two genders."

"The Equality Act is a completely evil, disgusting, immoral bill," Greene said. "It's not about stopping discrimination, it's about creating discrimination."

"It was never meant to be a fight," Newman said. "It was a statement I felt very necessary. This woman has supported insurrection, she voted against the election, she believes in a wide variety of conspiracy theories, she called out any number of times but on this issue yesterday, she tried to block the Equality Act and I felt as though she needed to hear from us."

Among her concerns with the bill, Congresswoman Greene is against the idea of transgender women competing in women's sports, which many of her allies agree with, to which Congresswoman Newman said is a minute part of the bill at best.

"That is introducing something that has nothing to do with anything," Newman said. "The Equality Act is meant to prevent discrimination in housing, employment, in public spaces, private spaces and across the map. This is just meant to prevent discrimination. This is not meant to do anything else."

Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger asked his fellow Republican to stop her attacks. In a tweet he said "This garbage must end."

While the Equality Act has the support of the Democratic controlled House, the bill faces trouble in the Senate, where some Republicans won't support because of religious liberties.