Wednesday, March 17, 2021

Transgender teen becomes star at Equality Act hearing while Republicans want to talk about penises

Stella Keating, a 16-year-old trans high school student, rocked during the Equality Act hearing on Wed and proved that the future of LGBTQ people are in good hands.


Wednesday was an interesting day in Congress as members of the Senate held a hearing on the Equality Act.  The conversation between members of the Senate and witnesses speaking for and against the Equality Act took many directions and embraced several different nuances. However, a few highlights stood out in terms of what this bill on comprehensive LGBTQ rights would actually do compared to how opponents are fear mongering about it.

Without question, the star of the hearing was Stella Keating, a 16-year-old transgender high school student from Washington State. While there were other witnesses for the Equality Act, Keating was easily the most memorable and compelling. She reminded the committee just what the Equality Act was about - fairness.

 


From The Advocate:

(Keating) is a founder of the GenderCool Project, aimed at advancing understanding of trans and nonbinary people, and wants to be a civil rights attorney and eventually run for public office. “What happens if I want to attend college in a state that doesn’t protect me?” she said. “Right now, I could be denied medical care or be evicted for simply being transgender in many states. How is that even right? How is that even American? “What if I’m offered a dream job in a state where I can be discriminated against? Even if my employer is supportive, I still have to live somewhere. Eat in restaurants. Have a doctor.” 
When the hearing ended after more than three hours, with a variety of witnesses having testified both for and against the bill, Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, pronounced Keating the star of the proceedings, “certainly the 16-year-old star.” He pledged to her and the other witnesses that he would work to make equality a reality.

And in opposition to this, the Republicans on the committee offered up basic fear mongering about a false destruction of women's rights, safety and "religious liberty.  One of their chief witnesses was Abigail Shirer, a conservative journalist who has become known on the right for her opposition to the transgender community. Her book, Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters is as hysterical as the title makes it sound. 

Her testimony pretty much followed the same pattern of nonsense as her book. That got her justifiably condemned for repeating the refuted transphobic narratives folks have been hearing for the longest time.


But even more nauseating than Shrier's testimony was the back and forth she went with Sen. John Kennedy from Louisiana. Kennedy went straight for the jugular with his question involving lewd exhibitions of penises in girls locker rooms. But apparently the only jugular he hit was his own. His vile question not only made Shrier refute a bad argument about the Equality Act, but it also grossed out many who were watching the hearing.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) pulled no punches during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing — the first-ever hearing for the Equality Act in the U.S. Senate — in heightening fears about threats to women in sex-segregated spaces. 

 When Abigail Shrier, a journalist who has built a career campaigning against gender transitioning for youth, was presenting testimony as an expert witness, Kennedy went straight to the locker rooms.

 “Would this bill prohibit the boy with gender dysphoria from exposing his penis to the girls?” Kennedy asked. The questioning put Shrier, who was testifying against the Equality Act, in a bind. The Equality Act does prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity in locker rooms, but says nothing about that particular issue and laws against lewd conduct are in place.

Apparently it was a bit too much for people watching the hearing


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