He huffed about how the question wasn’t “appropriate” even though his bill would result in kids being asked that same question.

A Republican state rep from Michigan testifying about his anti-trans sports bill on Monday was left speechless after an out Democratic colleague began his questioning by asking, “Representative, can you tell me: are you trans?”

A long beat staring down out gay Democratic state Rep. Mike McFall followed, before state Rep. Jason Woolford ® managed to reply, “Are you?”

“I’m actually going somewhere with this,” he said to lawmakers in the small chamber.

“Because I want to know, how does a 14-year-old girl prove whether or not she’s trans to a 50-year-old coach?”

  • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    97
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    28 days ago

    The GOP is just a bad debater.

    My immediate thought was to say something like “That question proves my point! We have no way of knowing who is or isn’t trans without careful testing!”

      • flandish@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        30
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        28 days ago

        problem is: these bigots would LOVE to show off the little junk they have in exchange for seeing others.

        • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          25
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          28 days ago

          They’d probably have a sickly grin on too, because it brings back fond memories of Uncle Touchy’s Naked Puzzle Basement.

          Spoiler: the rep is uncle touchy

      • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        19
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        28 days ago

        “That’s why we’ll have to fire a dozen teachers; so we can have trained inspectors on hand.”

        You have to put yourself in their mindset…

        • Kühlschrank@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          28 days ago

          I’d like to think that line wouldn’t play too well with the general public but I’m actually not so sure anymore

      • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        17
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        28 days ago

        Do we have a right to ask you to prove it?”

        As a GOP master [de]bater I’d jump on that last one. “Certainly you have a right. I’ll bring in a note from my doctor tomorrow,”

        The great thing about this is that we have now stepped past the “why” part of the argument and gotten to the “how.”

          • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            10
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            28 days ago

            I take the long view. In the 1950s Conservatives would tell you that Rock and Roll was a danger.

            Whatever nonsense they come up with today will pass on and they will find some other nonsense to scare their voters.

              • thanks AV@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                4
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                27 days ago

                Just wanted to let you know I saved a copy of this text to share with my friend group. This encapsulates so much of the conservative logos in a way that makes it transparent what’s going on today.

                Plenty of people have pointed out that trans panic is just gay panic rebranded for the modern day but this was the most eloquent and concise way of putting it I’ve ever seen in text format. Thanks for taking the time.

              • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                3
                arrow-down
                2
                ·
                28 days ago

                Well, you certainly can’t expect the Right to start dealing with facts, can you?