MTG attacks lesbian teachers’ union president

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) told National Federation of Teachers President Randy Weingarten she is “not a mother” during Wednesday’s hearing by the U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.

The congresswoman also repeated unsubstantiated claims that she made during a previous committee hearing with Weingarten on March 28, asserting that virtual learning had caused an increase in the number of youth in the U.S. who identify as transgender.

Greene had sought to blame Weingarten for advising the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on school closures. “While kids were forced to stay home, and you approved of this, the number of youths with gender dysphoria surged.”

The firebrand congresswoman’s questioning of the teachers’ union president swerved into personal territory Wednes- day when she asked, “are you a mother?”

“I am a mother by marriage,” Weingarten answered. “And my wife is here with me, so I’m really glad that she’s here.”

Later, Greene said to Weingarten, “The problem is, people like you need to admit that you’re just a political activist. Not a teacher, not a doctor and not a mother.”

Two California Democrats on the committee, U.S. Reps. Robert Garcia and Raul Ruiz, spoke up in defense of Weingarten.

“The decorum of the attacks on the witness were unacceptable, that the gentlelady from Georgia just did, and so it would be nice if we didn’t attack the witnesses, particularly making a decision about whether or not she’s a mother,” Garcia said.

Addressing Weingarten, he added, “you are a mother. Thank you for being a great parent.”

“That was not just cruel personal attacks to Ms. Weingarten who loves her children, it is reflective of the cruel personal attacks any adoptive mother or father who love their children,” Ruiz said. “So I would kindly ask that those remarks be taken out of the record.”

During the March 28 hearing, Greene said, “Since this time, these school closures, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in trans-identifying children, which is not something that was normal nor common many years before this, and I think that’s completely devastating.”

The data suggesting an increase in the number of trans-identifying youth in the U.S. from 2017 to 2022 might instead show the new methods used to analyze the results of last year’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey, multilevel regression and poststratification, collected more accurate information.

CHRISTOPHER KANE