Outrage as QAnon Republican says Equality Act is about ‘supremacy’ of LGBTQ community

A Republican lawmaker caused outrage on Wednesday after she said an LGBTQ rights bill called the ‘Equality Act’ is actually about the "supremacy of gays and lesbians and transvestites".

QAnon-supporting Republican Representative Lauren Boebert referred to the bill as the "the so-called Equality Act” in an interview with Real America's Voice, a right-wing media network.

"We all know that that's just the Democrats using a play on words. There's nothing about equality in that act,” Boebert said, adding she thought the bill was only about the “supremacy” of LGBTQ people.

The Equality Act, which passed the House last week would ban anti-LGBTQ discrimination in employment, education, housing, and other programmes.

The term ‘transvestite'' refers to people who wear clothes typically associated with a different gender. Members of the transgender community do not consider themselves to be “transvestite'' and find the word is both erroneous and offensive when applied to them.

Clearly, Boebert has no regard for this, and added that the bill was unnecessary because the 14th Amendment of the Constitution already ensures "that all men are equal under the law."

Boebert’s hateful rhetoric was met with immediate backlash online, with people calling the statements “bigoted” and “ignorant”.

“Dumb, grifting, and dangerous...Willfully ignorant,” one person wrote about the interview.

“The Constitution didn’t allow women to vote. Guess what else Lauren ‘identifies as female’? The ERA was never passed and women still do not have equal rights,” another person added, referencing Boebert’s claim that all people have always been “equal” in the US.

This comes just after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia displayed a highly transphobic sign outside her office during debates about the bill. These politicians seem to be willfully ignorant and cruel – hoping to make headway with their ultra -conservative base.

Trying to score political points off the back of one of the most marginalized groups in the US, is, as one person wrote, “painful, embarrassing and just plain wrong.”

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