Rep. Marie Newman (D-IL) responded on Thursday to a move by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) to paste an anti-trans poster outside of her office door by suggesting the congresswoman responsible for posting the “goofy” and hateful sign was out of touch with reality.
“If she’s going to spend time running to FedEx and creating goofy signs, have at it,” Newman said after Greene, stationed across the hall from her, posted an anti-trans sign outside of her door that reads, “There are TWO genders: Male & Female. Trust The Science!”
GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene put up an anti-transgender sign after Democratic @RepMarieNewman displayed a transgender flag in front of Greene’s office.
“I feel good that she is seeing the flag every day and seeing LGBTQ folks,” says Newman, who has a transgender daughter. pic.twitter.com/LMcQrFrqEj
— New Day (@NewDay) February 25, 2021
The sign went up after Newman had planted a trans pride flag outside of her own office door in response to an effort by the GOP freshman to challenge the Equality Act — an LGBT rights bill intended to extend civil rights protections to the LGBT community, which included Newman’s daughter, who is transgender.
“Several Republican colleagues have reached out to me to express their concern over her hateful comments, and so this was a bipartisan reaction to her nastiness, her disrespect and her, quite frankly, loose touch with reality,” Newman said during a CNN interview on Thursday morning in light of Greene’s antagonism.
“I feel good that she is seeing the flag every day and seeing LGBTQ folks,” Newman added. “It was never meant to be a tit-for-tat or a game or anything. I just needed to make that statement to her.”
Newman said that she was pleased some of her GOP colleagues had taken a stand against Greene’s discriminatory remarks.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), who has suggested he is on a mission to save the Republican Party from the fear tactics and conspiracy-mongering that have plagued it in the wake of Trump’s presidency, called Greene’s anti-trans flex on Twitter an example of “the hate and fame driven politics of self-promotion at all evil costs.”
“This garbage must end,” he added.
This is sad and I’m sorry this happened. 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 https://t.co/gcPZ5Cu7Vr
— Adam Kinzinger (@RepKinzinger) February 25, 2021
“I know he is working hard to restore faith in his party and that’s really important,” Newman said of her Illinois colleague, adding that she believed Greene’s “divisiveness” would not win out in the end.
“I don’t think it’s going to be successful,” Newman said. “I might be eternally the optimist but we are working together.”
“Democrats are going to deliver and we’re going to deliver strongly and we’re going to keep going, so if she wants to spend time on signs and running around being nasty, rock on,” she added.
