Speaking at former President Donald Trump's rally in Commerce, Georgia on Saturday, Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene launched into an attack against Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and his husband Chasten demanding they “stay out of our girls' bathrooms.”
Also bogging down Greene's message was her call for Buttigieg to "take his electric vehicles and his bicycle," in what appeared to be a swipe at Buttigieg's recent remarks encouraging Americans upset by sky-high gas prices to consider purchasing an electric vehicle.
You can hear Greene's remarks in the video below
It is unclear what conspiracy theory Greene was referring to but her attack bears similarities to ones conservatives have directed toward the LGBTQ+ community in what has become one of the more defining elements of the culture wars.
Concerns about "bathroom predators" have long galvanized the right, perhaps most prominently during early 2016, when the North Carolina legislature passed a bill overturning local gay and transgender protections. The bill was a direct response to a prior nondiscrimination ordinance in the city of Charlotte, which had offered a wide range of protections.
Most notably, the Charlotte ordinance allowed citizens to use the restroom that best matches their gender identity. State lawmakers acted ostensibly out of concern that women and children could be victimized by sexual predators posing as transgender to enter women’s restrooms, a claim that was immediately contested by civil rights groups.
Gendered pejoratives have also historically been directed at gay men and their use is often linked to sexism and bias against a sexual orientation and practices that have long challenged established cisgender heterosexual norms.
Many have criticized Greene following her remarks, correcting her and accusing her of exhibiting further bigotry toward the LGBTQ+ community.
Although Buttigieg identifies as a gay man, Greene has a history of dehumanizing transgender people.
She made headlines last year after she raised the anti-trans flag outside her office, which happens to sit directly across from the office of Representative Marie Newman, an Illinois Democrat. Earlier, Newman had raised a trans flag to support her transgender daughter following a contentious debate about the Equality Act, which Greene opposed.
Greene's behavior drew bipartisan criticism, including from Republicans who'd earlier voted to strip her of her committee assignments after she made anti-Semitic remarks and promoted violence against Democrats.
She recently garnered significant criticism after she melted down after someone vandalized an anti-transgender sign she displays outside her office, referring to the culprits as "crazy and deranged."
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