Lawmakers say exclusionary provisions risk collapsing a once-bipartisan effort to build the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum.
Jacob Ogles at The Advocate:
Advocates are alarmed by attempts to exclude exhibits on transgender women from the planned Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum. Now, the Democratic Women’s Caucus is urging Congress to reverse course, warning that President Donald Trump’s anti-woman policies could jeopardize the entire project. The Democratic Women’s Caucus sent a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson arguing that exclusionary provisions could poison a museum that once enjoyed bipartisan support. “The work to establish the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum has been rooted in the joint conviction that women's history and women’s stories are central to the identity of our nation,” the letter reads. “The eleventh-hour amendment not only wipes out years of hard-fought bipartisan progress but also threatens our support for the bill.” Caucus chair Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández and steering members Judy Chu and Debbie Dingell led the effort. A total of 146 Democratic lawmakers signed the letter.
House Republicans put in partisan anti-trans provisions to derail the progress of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum, and 146 Democratic Congressional members, including Reps. Nikki Budzinski (D-IL), Wesley Bell (D-MO), Sharice Davis (D-KS), Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ), Sara Jacobs (D-CA), and Sarah Elfreth (D-MD), signed on to a letter from the Democratic Women’s Caucus opposing the House GOP’s trans erasure plans.
See Also:
LGBTQ Nation: Smithsonian women’s history museum may be derailed by GOP effort to feature only “biological women”