#greg steube

Christopher Wiggins at The Advocate:

Instead of focusing on how to make life more affordable for their constituents, two Florida Republican members of Congress are pressuring Irish dance officials to bar a transgender girl from competing in girls’ categories at one of the sport’s largest North American competitions, carrying the right’s anti-trans sports campaign into the world of competitive dance. U.S. Reps. Randy Fine and Greg Steube sent a June 24 letter to An Coimisiún Le Rincí Gaelacha, the Dublin-based governing body for Irish dance, and the Irish Dance Teachers’ Association of North America ahead of the North American Irish Dance Championships in Orlando, according to a post on Fine’s Facebook page. The competition is scheduled for July 2-7 at the Rosen Centre Hotel, according to the Irish Dance Teachers’ Association of North America and the championship’s official website.

“Biological males do not belong in girls’ dance,” Fine wrote in a post sharing the letter. “Florida law is clear: girls’ categories are for biological females.” In the letter, Fine and Steube demanded that the Irish dance organizations “stop allowing boys to compete in and win girls’ categories in Orlando.” They cited Florida’s 2021 Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, which bars transgender girls and women from participating on girls’ and women’s school athletic teams consistent with their gender identity. The law applies to public secondary schools and public postsecondary institutions.

This is pure anti-trans lunacy.

See Also:

Mark Sumner at Daily Kos:

The race to see who can demonstrate the most cartoonish level of Donald Trump cult worship is unending. It’s only been a few months since House Republicans tried to rename Dulles Airport after Trump, but that seems positively picayune when compared to the bill Rep. Greg Steube of Florida intends to introduce on Friday. Steube wants to rename the ocean after Trump. Not just one ocean, but the entire shoreline wrapping around the U.S. and covering over 4 million square miles. 

His goal is for everyone everywhere—from Maine to Florida, along the Gulf Coast, up the Western Seaboard, all around Alaska, off the islands of Hawaii, and even in Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa—to be surrounded by the Sea of Trump. All to celebrate a guy who is terrified of fish. [...] Even so, Steube is proposing a bill that aims to rename the entire 4,383,000 square miles the "Donald John Trump Exclusive Economic Zone of the United States." The bill insists that this name be used on “any applicable laws, maps, documents, and other records.” It’s not quite stamping every map with Trumplantic, Trumpacific, and Gulf of Trump … but it’s every bit as ridiculous. Like other Republican efforts to show their loyalty to Trump, this proves that there really is no limit. Now that Steube has raised the ante, stand by for the Trumpissippi River, the great state of Trumpessee, in the United States of Trump, on planet Trump, in the Trumpar System, in the outer arm of the Trumpy Way galaxy of the Trumpiverse.

In a textbook example of a Freudian slip, Rep, Greg Steube (R-17-FL) told a far right disinformation channel that he is happy to endorse Donald J. Chump for president in 2024.

A MAGA Lawmaker Had A Pretty Solid Freudian Slip By Saying He’s Proud To Endorse ‘Donald J. Chump’

Let’s hope that Rep. Steube is named chair of the Republican National Convention next year. 🤣

Steube went on to accuse transgender people of rejecting “God’s design”, and warned that the nation would bear the consequences of this “rebellion”.

The congressman’s outdated stance was met with an immediate backlash from Democrats in the House, with the strongest condemnation coming from representative Al Green of Texas.

“You used God to enslave my foreparents. You used God to segregate me in schools. You used God to put me in the back of the bus. Have you no shame?” he asked.

“What any religious tradition describes as God’s will is no concern of this congress,” added New York Democrat Jerry Nadler.

Faefyx Collington (They/Them) at LGBTQ Nation:

A trans teen withdrew from the girls’ division of an Irish Dance contest in Florida after the organizers were pressured by state officials to kick her out. However, it is unclear whether the girl’s participation in the competition would have actually violated any law. “No young person should become the center of a political fight simply because they want to participate in the activities they love,” said Public Policy Manager for Equality Florida Quinn Diaz in a statement. “At a time when Florida is competing to attract visitors, talent, and major events from around the world, the question for our leaders is simple: will we send a message that our doors are closed, that ours is only a state for some? Or will we make it clear that everyone is welcome here?”

The Irish dance contest is governed by the Irish Dance Teachers’ Association of North America (IDTANA). That organization has trans-inclusive policies that allow competitors to decide how they compete. They have previously defended those policies, and the community has supported that move, including by setting  up a petition to the Dublin-based governing body, An Coimisiún le Rincí Gaelacha (CLRG), to voice their unequivocal support for the inclusion of trans dancers. However, a campaign against one trans girl’s inclusion in the competition has been led by Maggie McKneely, the government relations director for the right-wing organization Concerned Women for America, who is also a former competitive Irish dancer. The campaign acknowledges that it is targeting a single trans girl, but refers to her as a “trans-identifying man.”

In response to the campaign, two Republican members of Congress with strong histories of anti-LGBTQ+ actions have pressured IDTANA and CLRG into not allowing the trans girl to participate. Reps. Randy Fine and Greg Steube of Florida sent letters to both organizations in June claiming, “The State of Florida rightfully requires that all athletic competitions held in public accommodations reserve women’s and girls’ categories for biological women on the basis of sex, not gender identity.”

[...] However, it is worth noting that while the trans girl has been successful in the sport, she does not win every competition. It is unclear what “biological advantage” they think a trans girl might have in Irish dance, especially when more recent evidence suggests that trans women do not have any significant advantage in sports. It is not known whether the trans girl was forced by the organizing bodies not to compete, or whether she withdrew from the competition because of the crusade waged against her. McKneely saw it as a victory either way, saying, “It’s a win because the girls didn’t have to compete against a boy in their category, and whether he withdrew because of the threat of legal action against the organizations or because of the media attention, it’s still good he didn’t compete.”

The cost of anti-trans lunacy was on display in Florida at an Irish dance event, as a trans teen was forced to withdraw from the girls’ division of the contest.

See Also:

Amanda Christovich at Front Office Sports:

One of the first acts of the new House of Representatives: fast-tracking a bill to ban transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports.  On Friday, the newly sworn-in 119th Congress agreed to a rules package that included the ban—the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act”—as one of 12 that will be fast-tracked to the House floor for a vote. The package states that almost nothing can get in the way of a vote for these 12 bills, save a couple of provisions including one hour of debate. “The radical left is not in step with the American people on the issue of protecting women’s sports,” Rep. Greg Steube (R., Fla.), who authored the bill, said in a statement Friday.

The bill would amend Title IX, the statute that prohibits educational institutions that receive federal funding from discriminating “on the basis of sex,” and that has been used to require equal opportunities for women’s sports. The bill would add language to Title IX stating it would be a violation for a school to “permit a person whose sex is male to participate in an athletic program or activity that is designated for women,” adding that “sex” can be solely defined as “a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”  It would apply to all educational institutions receiving federal funding, from elementary schools with sports programs to NCAA collegiate institutions. 

The House GOP’s bill that is deceptively named the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act” is part of ongoing anti-trans extremist efforts to ban trans women from women’s sports from all sports competitions, from elementary level to collegiate level, is not about “protecting women’s sports” but pure transphobic rubbish.

See Also: