On conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ show, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene calls for violent physical assault against trans people
Trans people face violence at a rate four times higher than cisgender women.
Written by Ari Drennen
Published
In an appearance with far-right radio host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, sitting Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) called for vigilante violence against trans people in public, claiming that it is necessary to stop the “grooming” of children and blaming mothers for turning their kids trans.
Greene said that if her daughter had a trans summer camp counselor, her husband would “beat” them “into the ground” and they would “be in jail. … This is exactly how we need to stand up against this stuff.” Trans people for years have faced a high level of violence; according to one recent study, “Transgender people are over four times more likely than cisgender people to experience violent victimization, including rape, sexual assault, and aggravated or simple assault."
Jones followed Greene's comment by raising the dubious specter of a nationwide threat to children, falsely claiming that trans inclusivity means “full-grown men” would be showering with young girls: “Even if you don’t have daughters, can you imagine what it’s like to have full-grown men around the country showering with your daughters because they say they are biologically a woman.” Invoking her previous violent remarks, Greene replied, “We have to draw the line in the sand and say we are not willing to cross it. This is such perversion.”
Greene also accused trans activists of grooming, a behavior where a sexual predator prepares a victim for assault, and accused mothers of turning their children trans “as if they’re some kind of accessory.”
Citation From the Feburary 20, 2022 edition of The Alex Jones Show
REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): I think it’s straight evil. First off, if I was a parent and my fifth-grade daughter had to sleep and shower in some kind of cabin at some summer camp that I paid money to send my child to, and there was a man calling himself a woman sleeping in her cabin, showering with her, that guy would, he’d be in jail. He would be in jail. Well, first off, my husband would’ve beat him into the ground, and then he’d be in jail. But this is exactly how we need to stand up against this stuff.
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ALEX JONES (HOST): I have three daughters, but even if you don’t have daughters, can you imagine what it’s like to have full-grown men around the country showering with your daughters because they say they are biologically a woman. This isn’t just other male students that claim they’re female. This is adults, and this is causing people just to totally freak out. And like you said, they’re stealing women’s spaces, and children are being taught with drag queen story time that a big fat man in a clown outfit is a woman. I'm sorry. That's not a woman. That's a big fat man or a little boy dressed up like a girl. This is all very, very sexualization of children.
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GREENE: Here's what we have to do: We have to draw the line in the sand and say we are not willing to cross it. This is such perversion. But it’s also grooming children. It’s grooming them to believe things that are lies and that are completely wrong. No, children are not born a certain way thinking they’re another gender. It’s their parents that are training them that way. It’s these mothers that think it’s like a handbag. They need to have a boy, a girl, and a trans child like as if they’re some kind of accessory.
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GREENE: I don’t think it’s wrong to stand up and say, “We aren’t going to tolerate this. Men, get out of our bathroom. Get out of our sports. These are our private places.”
Greene, who was stripped of her committee assignments last year for making false and extremist claims, previously made headlines for using her congressional office to lead a public harassment campaign against the trans child of her colleague, Rep. Marie Newman (D-IL).
Greene’s extremism is not out of touch with the Republican Party and its leadership. GOP representatives across the country have introduced and passed harmful legislation targeting trans kids, and Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has defended Greene in the past, accusing Twitter of an “assault” on diversity of opinion for banning her account over dangerous COVID-19 disinformation. McCarthy has pledged to restore Greene’s committee assignments if Republicans retake the House in November.
Jones has a history of violent and dangerous rhetoric that led to Facebook, YouTube, Apple, and Spotify kicking him off their platforms in 2018 (though not always effectively). At the time, Facebook said that Jones was “glorifying violence, which violates our graphic violence policy, and using dehumanizing language to describe people who are transgender, Muslims and immigrants, which violates our hate speech policies.”