Marjorie Taylor Greene attacks trans rights at RNC

In one of the first prime-time speeches at the Republican National Convention, Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene attacked transgender people.

Anti-LGBTQ+ lawmakers celebrated Donald Trump’s re-nomination as the Republican presidential candidate and signaled that they would move away from recognizing transgender identities if Republicans return to power.

“Let me be clear: There are only two genders,” Greene said to applause in Milwaukee, “and we are made in God’s image, amen. And we will never be afraid to speak that simple truth.”

The comments were among the more inflammatory remarks on the same day the party adopted a 2024 platform that toned down some previous anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric but adopted a clear anti-trans rhetoric. Several speakers took swipes at the community on the opening day of the convention.

In his first major speech of the evening, US Senator from the state of Wisconsin, Ron Johnson, pointed out that the Democrats’ “fringe issues include the competition of biological males against girls and the sexualization and indoctrination of our children.”

Later, Michigan State Representative John James claimed, “Our daughters were instilled with hope, and now they are being forced onto the playing fields and into the locker rooms of biological men.”

There is no evidence that transgender youth have an advantage in sports over their cisgender peers. Transgender student-athletes have different body types just like cisgender student-athletes. Genetics and training can affect how transgender students play, as can taking puberty blockers as part of their gender reassignment treatment.

Greene herself began her short speech in an unusually somber tone. She referred to the assassination attempt on Donald Trump over the weekend and paid tribute to the life of Corey Comperatore, a retired firefighter who was shot at the event.

But she soon began a barrage of accusations and bigotry, including accusing President Joe Biden of scheduling the celebration of transgender people on a Christian holiday.

“They promised unity and brought division. They promised peace and brought war,” Greene said of the Democrats. “They promised normalcy and gave us Transgender Visibility Day on Easter Sunday.”

Of course, Transgender Day of Visibility falls on March 31 every year, while Easter is postponed.

Regardless, Greene promised that Trump’s election would bring new greatness to America.

“He will make America successful again. He will make us rich again, and so help me God, he will finally give us the country we deserve, because Donald Trump is the leader America deserves.”