Barbara Simon

GLAAD and Georgia Equality, the state’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organization, are condemning GOP primary winner Marjorie Taylor Greene for racist and anti-LGBTQ views, as well as her embrace of dangerous conspiracies.

Greene defeated John Cowan in the Republican primary runoff on Tuesday, after moving to the district following a previous failed run for Congress.

Georgia Equality and the Southern Poverty Law Center have been tracking Greene’s anti-LGBTQ and racist history since she launched her political career in 2019.

Here’s some of what they and others found to help inform your coverage of Greene’s general election campaign:

• Posting on Facebook about a Drag Queen Story Time event at an Alpharetta library: “Trans does not mean gender change, it just means a gender refusal and gender pretending. Truth is truth, it is not a choice!!!”
• Recording a 90-minute video at the story time event, where Greene staged a confrontation with library staff and called the event “an attack on our children” while calling the host, who performs as Miss Terra Cotta Sugarbaker, an “abomination”
• Recording and posting multiple Facebook videos about an “Islamic invasion” after two Muslims won office and describing Black Americans as “slaves” to the Democratic party, comparing Black Lives Matter activists to neo-Nazis and denying there are racial disparities in the U.S.: “Guess what? Slavery is over,” Greene says in a video. “Black people have equal rights.”
• Theorizing that the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history in Las Vegas in 2017 was a plot against the Second Amendment and calling a Parkland school shooting survivor “Little Hitler”

Greene has also embraced the far-right beliefs of “QAnon,” the pro-Trump conspiracy theory movement identified by the FBI as a potential domestic terrorism threat. Its followers are tied to two murders, a kidnapping, vandalism of a church and a heavily armed standoff near the Hoover Dam.

Of QAnon and the sprawling, unproven and unbalanced online conspiracies promoted by the anonymous “Q,” Greene said, “Q is a patriot” and that she hoped the chatter was educating Pres. Trump. “There’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take this global cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles out, and I think we have the president to do it,” Greene said in a YouTube video.

While Greene’s views are extreme, divisive and uninformed, party leaders and other candidates for office are lining up to support her:

• Pres. Trump praised Greene as a “future Republican star”
• White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and House Freedom Caucus leader Rep. Jim Jordan have backed Greene and other Freedom Caucus members maintained their endorsement after the racist videos were revealed
• Georgia Republican Senate candidates Kelly Loeffler and Doug Collins both called to congratulate Greene, offering no criticism of her racist language and beliefs

Republican TV analyst Amanda Carpenter suggested party leaders should not seat Greene in Congress if she wins the general election. While that may not be possible, GOP leaders say there’s no plan to limit her visibility or power. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy’soffice says Greene would be welcomed into the GOP conference and given seats on congressional committees.

About Georgia Equality: Celebrating its 25^th year, Georgia Equality is the state’s largest advocacy organization working to advance fairness, safety and opportunity for Georgia’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender communities and our allies. For more information, please visit www.GeorgiaEquality.org or connect with Georgia Equality on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.