{"id":48082,"date":"2021-03-07T19:21:34","date_gmt":"2021-03-08T02:21:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/boeberts-stance-on-equality-act-raises-concern-among-lgbtq-in-her-district\/"},"modified":"2021-03-08T02:21:34","modified_gmt":"2021-03-08T02:21:34","slug":"boeberts-stance-on-equality-act-raises-concern-among-lgbtq-in-her-district","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/boeberts-stance-on-equality-act-raises-concern-among-lgbtq-in-her-district\/","title":{"rendered":"Boebert\u2019s stance on Equality Act raises concern among LGBTQ in her district"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Some
Some members of the LGBTQ community have expressed concern around U.S. House Rep. Lauren Boebert\u2019s stance on the Equality Act, which she opposes.<\/span>Eric Gay\/Associated Press file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Since its passage in the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., has been outspoken about her disdain for the Equality Act. Her statements about the act have worried some in her district, particularly those in the LGBTQ community.<\/p>\n

The Equality Act was reintroduced by U.S. Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., at the beginning of the congressional term. It passed in the House on Feb. 25 with 224 representatives voting for it, including three Republicans, and 206 voting against it.<\/p>\n

When the representatives were discussing the bill on the House floor, Boebert made it clear she was staunchly opposed to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Equality Act. Equality for who, Madam Speaker?\u201d Boebert said in her speech. \u201cWhere is the equality in this legislation for the young girls across America who have to look behind their backs as they change in their school locker rooms just to make sure there isn\u2019t a confused man trying to catch a peek?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Equality Act would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation and gender identity in areas such as public facilities, and places of education and employment. It would make several amendments to civil rights legislation, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, that protect people on the basis of race, religion, color and national identity to also provide protections for people on the basis of sex, sexual orientation and gender identity.<\/p>\n

It would also guarantee an individual access to a shared facility, such as a bathroom or a locker room, that is in accordance with the person\u2019s gender identity, which is one of the many reasons why Boebert opposes it.<\/p>\n

In her speech on the House floor, and in subsequent tweets and public appearances, Boebert has called the Equality Act the \u201cInequality Act.\u201d She has said it is government overreach and it presents significant disadvantages to young women.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs Kamala Harris going to apologize to the girl who will lose her athletic scholarship to the boy who outplays her? \u2026 Will Nancy Pelosi please explain to our daughters why boys pretending to be girls are leering at them in the girls\u2019 locker room?\u201d Boebert said in a House Freedom Caucus news conference. \u201cWhen we say the left is unhinged, this is exactly what we are talking about. This is a sad day for women\u2019s rights here in the United States of America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boebert\u2019s opposition to the act has caused concern among some of her constituents.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe larger question here is about homophobia and hate and transphobia,\u201d said Sandra Haley, a resident of Colorado\u2019s 3rd Congressional District. \u201cIf people have problems with particular tenets of this act, it\u2019s most likely an outgrowth of ignorant transphobia. That\u2019s my personal opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haley is a temporary part-time teacher in Montezuma County who identifies as nonbinary and queer. As one of Boebert\u2019s constituents, Haley is concerned Boebert\u2019s rhetoric will encourage hateful actions toward young people in their community.<\/p>\n

\u201cStatistically and factually, the students most endangered and most marginalized and most bullied and most likely to have violence committed against them in the schools are trans students,\u201d Haley said. \u201cSo while we\u2019re talking about student safety, I think we definitely need to better support and protect students who are typically marginalized.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heidi Hess, a community organizer for the LGBTQ advocacy organization One Colorado and a resident of Mesa County, said she supports the Equality Act \u201c100%.\u201d She also said Boebert\u2019s comments in reference to the Equality Act, such as when she said the act will put young women in jeopardy by allowing \u201cboys pretending to be girls\u201d to use the same locker rooms, show that Boebert is \u201cwildly uninformed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are talking points of issues that don\u2019t happen,\u201d Hess said. \u201cThey just don\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in Colorado. However, at the federal level, \u201cthe LGBTQ community has been at the mercy of executive orders for protections,\u201d Hess said.<\/p>\n

Haley said some of Boebert\u2019s comments have raised personal safety concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn a personal level, I worry about my safety,\u201d Haley said. \u201cBut I also don\u2019t give into terrorism, and that\u2019s what that kind of stuff is is terrorism. It\u2019s meant to make us afraid. It\u2019s meant to make us silent. It\u2019s meant to make us conform.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frustration and fear are common feelings among the LGBTQ community when it comes to what Boebert has said about LGBTQ rights in general and the Equality Act specifically, Hess said. Some of the young students who she works with are afraid to go to school, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cRep. Boebert making inflammatory, uneducated comments like that inflame a situation and cause harm, particularly to LGBTQ youth \u2013 specifically to LGBTQ youth,\u201d Hess said. \u201cThey hear her \u2026 and when our representative is making inflammatory remarks like that, that are uneducated and have no substantial basis in fact, it puts a target on LGBTQ youth.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Joe Biden has previously stated his intent to pass the Equality Act during his first 100 days in office, but it is unclear when the act will make it to the Senate floor. In 2015, when the act was first introduced, it went nowhere. In 2019, it was passed in the House but did not make it to the Senate floor.<\/p>\n

If the act does pass this year, it will reap greater benefits for the LGBTQ community than only granting them protections from discrimination, Hess said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLGBTQ youth have a higher rate of suicide, and a higher rate of drug and substance abuse and a much higher rate of homelessness,\u201d Hess said. \u201cAnd what we also know is that, statistically, protections and acceptance and support, particularly for youth in the school system, decreases those statistics around suicide and homelessness and substance abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grace George is an intern for The Durango Herald and The Journal in Cortez and a student at American University in Washington, D.C.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some fear implications of House representative\u2019s rhetoric<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-48082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48082"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=48082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}