Republicans try to shut down Congress to block landmark equal rights bill

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) on Thursday, for the second time in as many days, tried to send the House home for the day in order to avoid a vote on the Equality Act — a landmark bill that bans discrimination based on gender identity or expression.

“The Equality Act is not about stopping discrimination. It’s about causing discrimination against women and religious freedoms,” Greene said — continuing to push her bigoted beliefs that she should be able to discriminate against transgender people and ban them from sports.

Greene’s attempt to shut down the House’s business failed by a vote of 219 to 199, with two Republicans joining every House Democrat in blocking her motion.

An identical attempt to adjourn the House on Wednesday also failed, even though every single House Republican — save for nine who did not vote at all — voted in favor of Greene’s stunt.

The move to adjourn the House was always going to fail, as the Equality Act is expected to pass. The same bill passed the House in 2019 with every Democratic member and eight Republicans voting in favor. It never became law, however, as Mitch McConnell blocked it from ever receiving a vote in the Senate.

Yet the doomed effort to try to block the Equality Act was part of the GOP’s attempt to gin up opposition to the legislation by spewing bigoted anti-transgender rhetoric.

A number of Republican members of Congress have voiced opposition to the landmark civil rights legislation because they believe people should be able to discriminate based on their religion.

“The Equality Act is a deliberate attempt to force people of faith to embrace behaviors that conflict with their sincerely held religious beliefs,” Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) tweeted. Good was elected to Congress after he defeated a fellow Republican House member in a primary, because that member had officiated a same-sex wedding. 

Greene herself has been a major voice in spreading those bigoted lies, going as far as to bully a Democratic lawmaker’s transgender daughter on Wednesday.

Democrats are slamming Greene’s effort to thwart passage of the bill.

“I was chairing a classified briefing. Members had to leave to vote and missed information that can only be shared at that briefing. These tantrums have consequences,” Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) tweeted on Thursday.

Meanwhile, other Democratic lawmakers are mocking Greene’s effort.

“Yesterday Rep @mtgreenee showed awesome power by making a random motion to adjourn Congress that required all Members to show up on the Floor. She did it again today. So mighty!” Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) sarcastically tweeted. “But it is a waste of time and taxpayer funds.”

Despite Greene and her GOP colleagues’ efforts, the Equality Act is set to pass on Thursday.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.