Steve Stockman (R-Texas Happy Meal lacking french fries) is struggling to stay relevant. That's not always so easy when your elevator rarely reaches the
penthouse.
Stockman first won election to the House of Representatives in 1994 and was re-elected in 1996 before the Supreme Court invalidated the Texas redistricting process and the rebalancing made his district more Democratic.
We were free of his shenanigans for the next 16 years until the most recent redistricting crated him a district so red that it would be impossible for him not to be elected if he could get out of the republican primary.
But he's a wise old hand, right…so he has had the wherewithal to invite Ted Nugent to the State of the Union and to threaten to impeach President Obama over his possible actions on gun control.
Less than two weeks after being sworn into his second freshman term, he issued a statement threatening to file articles of impeachment if the president used executive orders to restrict gun rights.
The National Review's Betsy Woodruff followed Stockman around recently because she apparently couldn't find anything useful to do.
We learn such vital tidbits as the fact that his office's waiting room has chairs with cowhide seats (keeps the animal lovers away, right?), a bust of Ronald Reagan, and free literature from the Gun Owners of America (a group that considers the NRA to be leftists), and a booklet entitled Mixing Church and State God's Way. Something to offend everyone, apparently.
And we learn that Stockman really hates the Violence Against Women Act.
Want to guess why?
If you said LGBT women, you earn a gold star. And should prepare yourself to be offended.
Speaking of the Senate version of the bill, Stockman blurted out this:
This is a truly bad bill. This is helping the liberals, this is horrible. Unbelievable. What really bothers — it’s called a women’s act, but then they have men dressed up as women, they count that. Change-gender, or whatever. How is that — how is that a woman?
--Stockman
Okay, then. His knowledge of transgender people does not extend as far as knowing the word "transgender". Just call us "change-gender". He also apparently only thinks transgender women change from men to women. And of course, transwomen will never, in his eyes, be women.
Of course the fact that VAWA is "helping liberals" is reason enough to eject it in Stockman's eyes.
The section of the bill Stockman most objects to is the following:
(39) UNDERSERVED POPULATIONS- The term ‘underserved populations’ means populations who face barriers in accessing and using victim services, and includes populations underserved because of geographic location, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, underserved racial and ethnic populations, populations underserved because of special needs (such as language barriers, disabilities, alienage status, or age), and any other population determined to be underserved by the Attorney General or by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, as appropriate.
Additionally "gender identity" and "sexual orientation" are added to the civil rights/non-discrimination statement. [The US Code defines "gender identity" to be "actual or perceived gender-related characteristics". Republicans would prefer to continue discrimination based on that, thank you very much.]
Unfortunately the refusal to recognize transwomen as women is also a characteristic of many police and prosecutors, which is precisely why our inclusion in the bill is needed. Violence against transwomen is undeniably a national problem of significant magnitude and needs to be addressed somewhere…and it's not likely to be addressed anywhere else in the law.
What the bill actually mostly does for lesbians and transwomen is prevent victims' aid agencies from excluding us. But even that would be too much for someone like Stockman.
Stockman described the bill as "wrapped in good intentions and a feel-good name" but…
Good intentions do not always lead to well-written, effective law.
--Stockman
The bill also amends Title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 by inserting the following"
(19) developing, enlarging, or strengthening programs and projects to provide services and responses targeting male and female victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking, whose ability to access traditional services and responses is affected by their sexual orientation or gender identity,
His preferred solution to violence against women?
Tougher prison sentences on abusers and allowing women to carry guns.
I can’t imagine how someone would ever get to the right of [Stockman].
--David Guenthner, Texas Public Policy Foundation
Besides being backed by Citizens United and Gun Owners of America, Stockman is closely aligned with Evangelical leaders.
Once upon a time, before becoming a public figure, he was homeless. He also has a record, having been arrested and found to have Valium wrapped in cellophane in his tighty whities.
But all is forgiven because he "converted to clean living and Christianity." He's a Southern Baptist, as you might have guessed.
A thought occurs to me.
If ever there was a Republican congressman in need of being caught with a transgender hooker…
I didn't say it was a good thought.
Barring that, Think Progress's Zack Ford has some thoughts:
If Stockman is interested in learning about people whose gender was incorrectly assigned at birth, he could start by learning that the proper word for this community is "transgender," not "change-gender." Perhaps then he could meet some trans people, listen to their stories, and learn how transwomen experience every moment of their lives as women — not "men dressed up as women" — regardless of what conclusions he might draw if he invaded their privacy to inspect their anatomy. Then, he could study the extreme rates of discrimination that transgender people experience, including extreme poverty and rejection from domestic violence shelters. Maybe then he would not be so bothered by the language in the bill.
All people deserve to be protected from violence, particularly the communities that are particularly vulnerable to unfair treatment. Rather than mock people whose identities he doesn’t understand, Stockman might consider actually taking the time to investigate why his fellow lawmakers thought the protections important enough to include.
--Zack Ford
Need a good place to meet some transpeople? Why not try
I AM: Trans People Speak.
Need information about discrimination directed at transpeople? There's no source better than Injustice at Every Turn.