February 25, 2021 11:32 AM UTC

The Vile Inanity Of Lauren Boebert

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE #2: And after all that hullabaloo, Rep. Lauren Boebert is the only member of Colorado’s congressional delegation to not vote on the Equality Act:

The House is voting on the Equality Act (the bill bans discrimination based in sexual orientation & gender ID). CO delegation vote breakdown:
Boebert – Did Not Vote
Buck – No
Crow – Yes
DeGette – Yes
Lamborn – No
Neguse – Yes
Perlmutter – Yes#copolitics

— Caitlyn Kim (@caitlynkim) February 25, 2021

No matter what side of this issue you’re on, your time has just been wasted.

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UPDATE: Colorado Democrats led by Rep. Brianna Titone of Arvada volley back hard:

Statement from Colorado Legislative LGBTQ Caucus: “We, the Colorado Democrats LGBTQ Caucus, strongly condemn the hateful and dangerous words of Congresswoman Boebert. Her words hurt people, propagate dangerous tropes, and cause mental distress to those she berates. When leaders like Congresswoman Boebert use their position of power to fuel tropes about trans people, a group facing discrimination, violence, and poverty all over the globe, they exemplify why we need The Equality Act now.

“In her speech, Congresswoman Boebert incorrectly stated that this bill is willing to lay down the rights of millions of Americans, especially women. The truth is that the Equality Act protects and restores the rights of millions of Americans, especially womxn and children. We, the Colorado Democrats LGBTQ Caucus, stand with the Equality Act, because Trans Lives Matter, BIPOC Trans Lives Matter, and trans children deserve to live safe, healthy lives free of fear and hatred.”

Statement from Representative Brianna Titone, D-Avada, the Chair of the LGBTQ Caucus and the Second Transgender Woman Ever Elected to a Statehouse: “Colorado has come such a long way from when we were deemed the ‘Hate State’ in 1992. Congresswoman Boebert’s words seek to bring us back. Coloradans deserve to be shown respect and dignity from Congressional leaders, but she has instead attacked children and endangered the lives of trans kids in Colorado and in every community in our country. Congress must pass the Equality Act, and everyone who claims to stand with the LGBTQ community should condemn the congresswoman’s dangerous remarks.”

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AP reports via the U.K. Daily Mail on debate in the U.S. House over the Equality Act, legislation that would establish discrimination protections for all Americans regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identification–a bill that would update federal law to be consistent with Colorado’s own robust anti-LGBTQ discrimination laws on the books for years:

The Democratic-led House is poised to pass a bill that would enshrine LGBTQ protections in the nation’s labor and civil rights laws, a top priority of President Joe Biden, though the legislation faces an uphill battle in the Senate.

The Equality Act amends existing civil rights law to explicitly include sexual orientation and gender identification as protected characteristics.

While this legislation is expected to clear the narrowly Democratic House, the “Q-some Twosome” freshmen Republicans in Congress, Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Lauren Boebert of Colorado, are doing everything they can to fill the debate over protections that are settled law in Colorado with wildly inflammatory misinformation about transgender people in particular:

Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Colorado Republican who’s in the past peddled the QAnon conspiracy theory, said at the morning press conference that allowing trans women to play sports with cisgender women would lead to lost opportunities and even injuries for the latter.

‘Is Kamala Harris going to apologize to the girl who would lose her athletic scholarship to the boy who outplays her? Will Joe Biden tell the parents who gets her skull crushed, how fair that is? Will Nancy Pelosi please explain to our daughters why boys pretending to be girls are leering at them in the girls’ locker room?’ Boebert said.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who also appeared at the press conference, has spent the past day in a symbolic fight with her Congressional neighbor, Rep. Marie Newman, who has a trans daughter.

In a floor speech yesterday, Rep. Boebert warned ominously of girls in locker rooms being accosted by “confused men trying to catch a peek.”

More madness from the left. Because of legislation like the “Inequality” Act we will see more skulls of women broken by confused men who claim to be women. Here’s what I had to say about that. pic.twitter.com/CJpavAp4qE

— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) February 24, 2021

First of all, the reference in this speech to an incident of domestic violence, the details of which we do not know, is hypocritical in the extreme after both Boebert and her husband faced mutual domestic violence charges as documented by the New York Post back in January. It would take more audacity than we possess to go there with that kind of hypocrisy on our own conscience (assuming, of course, the existence of one).

The more important point here, though we’re not specifically aware of Lauren Boebert having run for office on a platform of gutterball transphobia, is that this kind of over-the-top bombast appears to characterize Boebert’s approach to every single issue. There’s no having a civil dialogue about LGBTQ discrimination with Boebert, it’s always going to devolve into a contrarian shouting match defined by the most lurid terms Boebert can reach for. Just like there’s no rational discussion possible from Boebert about climate change. Or tax policy. Or health care. Or guns. Or…well, you know, anything.

If you’ve ever known someone like this, you know how exhausting it can be to deal with.

Now imagine serving in Congress with that person.