Newt Gingrich Goes on Anti-Trans Tirade

Newt Gingrich just had to weigh in on the recent voter repeal of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance.

The Republican former House Speaker and unsuccessful 2012 presidential candidate called into The Sam Malone Show, a right-leaning radio program that airs in Houston. Speaking of the proposed antidiscrimination ordinance which would have protected 15 classes of minorities -- including LGBT people -- in issues of housing, employment, and public accommodation, Gingrich said he was "delighted that the people of Houston voted for common sense."

But what Gingrich calls "common sense," many LGBT people and allies have called transphobic scare-tactics. From the outset, anti-HERO activists anchored their campaign around the provably false claim that allowing trans folks to use the restroom that corresponds with their gender identity would lead to "men in women's bathrooms." This debunked myth -- in more than 200 cities with trans-inclusive nondiscrimination policies, there has never been a single verified report of someone "pretending" to be trans to harass women and children -- nonetheless proved a silver bullet for the well-funded pro-HERO campaign led by national LGBT groups.

Gingrich then turned his vitriol toward a recent ruling from the Department of Education on a trans student's Title IX complaint out of Illinois, affirming that this portion of 1972's Education Amendments prohibits discrimination in education based sex and gender, which includes barring discrimination based on gender identity.

Gingrich laid out his hopes for future conservative legislators in Washington:

"I hope the Congress is going to pick up on Houston and do the same thing to a new Department of Education regulation that says that boys who want to can declare themselves transgender and use girls' bathrooms in high school, which I think is just one of those things where you shake your head and you wonder how really lacking in understanding of human nature the bureaucrats are who write this stuff."

Listen to the full interview below, via Right Wing Watch.