Fight for Transgender Rights Gets a Boost from the Newman-Greene Feud in Congress

Maybe Rep. Marie Newman, an Illinois Democrat, should send flowers or a fruit basket to her controversial fellow freshman, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

After all, Washington is a town in which publicity often translates into power and political donations, no matter which political side you’re on — and Greene, a Georgia Republican whose paranoid style of politics has earned such nicknames as “QAnon Marge,” brought a ton of attention to the liberal Newman.

A feud between the two newcomers broke out after a passionate speech by Newman on the House floor in support of the Equality Act, which would ban discrimination against people based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

“I’m voting yes on the Equality Act for Evie Newman,” she said in her speech, referring to her transgender daughter, “the strongest, bravest person I know.”

When Greene tried without success to block the bill’s movement through the House, Newman responded by erecting a transgender-support flag outside her office door and tweeted that it was so Greene “can look at it every time she opens her door.”

To which Greene responded with a sign. “There are TWO genders: MALE & FEMALE,” it said. “Trust the Science.”

Oh, I thought, now she wants to “trust the science”?

That sounds more than a little snide coming from Greene, whose belief in science appears to rise and fall depending on whether she wants to believe it or not.

Her notorious spreading of false and bigoted conspiracy theories — including ugly notions that school shootings were staged and that a California wildfire was ignited by a space laser controlled by Jewish financiers — and suggestions of political violence against Democrats brought condemnation from both parties.

It also brought the loss of her committee assignments by a vote of 230-199 in early February with 11 Republican members voting with Democrats against her, which also brought censure and hate mail from some of their voters back home.

But, as with former President Donald Trump, Greene has a lot of fans too, even if they like her opinions more than they like her.

Such is the case with hot buttons such as the rights of transgender students. Few culture war issues are easier to demagogue, especially among voters who already are unsettled by the feeling that America as we know and love it is falling apart — socially, economically, politically and morally.

“As mothers, we all love and support our children,” Greene tweeted over a video of Newman’s floor speech. “But your biological son does NOT belong in my daughters’ bathrooms, locker rooms and sports teams.”

I appreciate her candor, but fears of cross-dressing muggers and other mythical stereotypes of transgender folks are beginning to fade as accommodations improve and experience crowds out ignorance.

In the push for “transgender” rights, a term that reportedly dates only to the mid-1960s, progress seems to occur through trial and error.

We have seen similar pushback from Americans who were nervous about other big social changes such as civil rights, women’s rights and same-sex marriage. Yet, just as an Ernest Hemingway character described his path to bankruptcy, I have seen public attitudes change in two ways: “Gradually, then suddenly.”

The biggest recent legal breakthrough came last June when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects gay, lesbian and transgender employees from discrimination based on sex. Significantly, the 6-3 ruling was written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, Trump’s first appointee to the high court, and joined by fellow conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, along with the court’s four liberal justices.

More cases are expected to follow, as the high court tests out the arguments and impact that led to last year’s decision. That’s the way sensible change has come about in this country, as we try to balance the demands of majority rule against protection of minority rights.

One important question, also raised by Greene and others, is the protection of women’s sports and the safety of female athletes, if they are forced to integrate with male or transgender athletes. Many of these concerns have been overblown, but we need to take such concerns seriously.

That means paying attention to real science, not internet rumors.

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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)