On Thursday, the House of Representatives passed something they call the "Equality Act," which would, in their lingo, "amend existing federal civil rights laws to extend protections for LGBTQ Americans." But some other Americans would have their "protections" removed.
On Thursday morning's New Day, co-host Alisyn Camerota interviewed one of the bill's chief sponsors, freshman Rep. Marie Newman (D-Illinois). When Camerota broached the issue of the Act forcing women to compete in sports against biological "trans" men, she couched it in terms of conservative Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and her allies being "very concerned" about that possibility. In fact, it's far from just Greene who is concerned. Among many others, it's people who have actually been harmed by such policies, such as the high school girls in Connecticut who have brought a lawsuit.
Newman attempted to laugh off the concern [view video at 0:22]:
"That's called a gigantic red herring. That is introducing something that has nothing to do with anything."
A red herring? Nothing to do with anything? Really? Don't take our word for it. Here's what the Washington Blade, which describes itself as "America's LGBT News Source," had to say on the matter [emphasis added]:
"The Equality Act doesn’t explicitly address sports, but would prohibit anti-LGBTQ discrimination in education and federal programs and suggest schools would have to allow transgender girls to compete in events consistent with their gender identity."
Some red herring!
So... did Camerota confront Newman over her obvious misrepresentation? Of course not! To the contrary, Camerota lavishly thanked Newman for her appearance without breathing a word about her deception.
Note: most of the interview was devoted to what has been described as a feud between Newman and Greene. Newman, who has a transgender child, put a transgender flag in the hallway outside her House office, which happens to be located directly across from Greene's office. Greene responded by putting up a sign saying “There are TWO genders MALE & FEMALE. ‘Trust the science!’” Greene also made a tweet referring to Newman's "son," Quinn, who now identifies as a female named Evie.
Newman, who's also touted as an "abortion rights champion," defeated the last pro-life Democrat in the House, Rep. Dan Lipinski in a primary last year.
CNN letting a Democrat congresswoman falsely claim that the Equality Act has "nothing to do" with forcing women to compete against biological males in sports was sponsored in part by Coventry Direct.
Here's the transcript.
CNN
New Day
2/25/21
7:32 am ETALISYN CAMEROTA: About the Equality Act, can you tell our viewers exactly what it is? And Congresswoman Greene and her allies and supporters seem very concerned about the idea of transgender women competing in women's sports. So can you address that concern of hers?
MARIE NEWMAN: Certainly. That's called a gigantic red herring [laughs]. That is introducing something that has nothing to do with anything. The Equality Act is meant to prevent discrimination in housing, employment, in public spaces, private spaces, and across the map, right? So this is just meant to prevent discrimination. This is not meant to do anything else. So these red herrings about religious liberties: by the way, we all know that's already written into our Constitution, that's why we revere our Constitution. And red herrings about, she said something vile about bathrooms to my daughter and misnamed her, so she can keep being vile and she can keep coming up with red herrings. The Equality Act is simply about creating an equal world for everybody.
CAMEROTA: Congresswoman Marie Newman, we really appreciate you coming on New Day, first to talk about all of this. Thank you! Great to talk to you.
