After GLAAD exposes his anti-LGBTQ history, Trump Nominee Mark Green comes out for LGBTQ equality in the U.S. Army
Yesterday Mark Green, Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of the Army, took to Facebook to address the anti-transgender statements he made in a radio interview last year. In fact, Mark Green’s response was an about-face statement as he voiced his support for LGBTQ equality in the U.S. Army.
“4) I believe that every American has a right to defend their country regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and religion. It’s the radical left that won’t allow the latter,” Mark Green said on his Facebook page.
Green’s statement comes a week after GLAAD uncovered an unedited audio interview between the state senator and “The Hotwash with CJ and Alex” on June 3, 2016 and shared it on twitter and with Huffington Post.
“GLAAD unearthed and shared the full, unedited audio interview in which Mark Green called transgender Americans an ‘evil’ that must be ‘crushed,’” said Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD. “While this change of heart is a step in the right direction, Green’s anti-LGBTQ history still makes him unfit to be the next Army Secretary, and he has shown that he often forgets what he says.”
Mark Green’s original comments can be found below.
This audio, in fact, follows what is a long anti-LGBTQ history by the state senator. Mark Green has insisted that being “transgender is a disease,” was the lead sponsor of a Tennessee bill that would give companies license to discrimination against the LGBTQ community, and backed another Tennessee bill that would allow therapists to refuse service to LGBTQ clients.
Green’s new comments voicing support for LGBTQ equality in the army and open transgender military service are welcomed, but in case he forgets this Facebook post (because he seemed to forget this radio interview), GLAAD will be watching what happens next, alongside LGBTQ service members who have and are serving our country honorable and deserve leaders who support them.
BACKGROUND: Full Transcript of Mark Green’s Anti-LGBTQ Comments
HOST: “I usually do not touch on the subject of religion on the radio show very often. I believe that you know–you know how my religious faith is and my background. But I can definitely say that there are a lot of people up in arms, both on the religious side and the– you know, unreligious side about the transgendered bathroom issue. And, a lot of people, you know the die hard Christians want to say ‘oh, you are not being Christ-like if we turn them away.’ And–and I, before I clear you on a run like I know you are getting ready to cut loose on with this issue.”
GREEN: [laughs]
HOST: “I have, I have debated this issue with several people. I have debated it with, you know, strong Christians, people who are somewhat think they are Christian or who, you know have some religion in their life, people who are atheists. I have debated it with homosexuals, you know, from the gay community to the lesbian community. And, my core issue with this is issue is just anybody can go into a bathroom and say associate with being a woman or they felt like they should have been a woman. And any pervert or predator can waltz right into the bathroom and they are in there with my wife, my daughter, my sister, my mother, and this has been forced down our kid’s throats in school. So that’s–that’s why I have a huge problem with it.”
GREEN: “There’s two reasons to have a big problem with it. One is simply the states’ rights issue. There’s no place in the US Constitution that says that the federal government can’t impose on the state of Tennessee and tell us how we are to use our bathrooms. Even in our school systems. The only mention of education in the US Constitution is that it’s a local thing. This notion that the federal government can come in and the state of Tennessee how to do that is just absolutely unconstitutional. It’s a massive overstep of the federal government. Quite frankly, we got to start standing up to this. The states have just been walked all over.
The other side of the issue is that there are 300,000 rapes in the United States every year. 300,000 women who are sexually assaulted by predators. We know this. It’s documented. It’s factual. To think that some young guy isn’t going to take advantage of the system where we’re going to allow guys to go into the bathroom – the women’s bathroom – to think that it’s not going to happen is just ridiculous. Further, if 300,000 women are raped every year, that means in the course of 10 years that there’s 3,000,000 women in America who are struggling with that issue. In 20 years, there’s 6,000,000. So that means there are millions of women who potentially could be suffering the PTSD of having been raped, and they are sitting in a bathroom and they are seeing a guy come walking in, how incredibly insensitive is that of the political left to think that this should just be OK.
The political left often times beats up on the political right and accuses us of having some war on women. Well, I’m going to tell you. This is a war on women as far as I’m concerned, but it’s coming from the left, and it’s ridiculous. And as far as the religious argument goes, and this applies to the issue of Syrian refugees as well. There’s a big fuss about whether or not that we should sue the federal government over having to take refugees from Syria to the State of Tennessee, I believe we should sue the federal government in that case because Romans 13 is pretty darn clear, this is the passage where it tells people to submit to the authorities – meaning, basically if you’re in the government, you should do what the government tells you to do. You know, don’t speed, all that kind of stuff. Obey the laws is basically what the passage says. But what it goes on to say is that because the government exists for two purposes. The government exists to honor those people who live honorable who do good things – to reward people who behave well and to crush evil. So that means as a state senator, my responsibility very clearly in Romans 13 is to create an environment where people who do right are rewards and the people who do wrong are crushed. Evil is crushed. So I’m going to protect women in their bathrooms, and I’m going to protect our state against potential infiltration from the Syrian ISIS people in the refugee program. And whoever wants to stand up and take me on that, I’m ready to fight.”
###
