A routine House Judiciary Committee hearing on regulatory overreach turned into an exciting game of name-calling this past Wednesday. Russian princesses? Ignorant bigots? And you thought CSPAN was boring.
The exchange happened between Representative Zoe Lofgren of California and Gail Heriot, who had submitted an argument on why trans people shouldn’t be accepted as the gender they identify with.
“We are teaching young people a terrible lesson. If I believe that I am a Russian princess, that doesn’t make me a Russian princess, even if my friends and acquaintances are willing to indulge my fantasy,” Lofgren said, reading from Heriot’s testimony. “Nor am I a great-horned owl, just because, as I’ve been told, I happen to share some personality traits with those feathered creatures.”
It was a such a weak argument that the congresswoman couldn’t help but call Heriot out for it. “I’ve got to say,” Lofgren said, “I found this rather offensive, and it says to me that the witness really doesn’t know anything and probably has never met a transgender child who is going through, in almost every case, a very difficult experience finding themselves … I think it’s very regrettable that comment was put into the record, and I think it’s highly offensive.”
“Well, could I comment on that, please?” Heriot asked before Lofgren could go any further.
And that’s when things dissolved into momentary chaos.
“I think you’re a bigot, lady, I think you are an ignorant bigot,” Lofgren said, talking over Heriot’s attempts to argue for her point on the matter. It was enough to get her silenced by Representative Steve King of Iowa, who called the congresswoman “out of order.”
Lofgren backed down fairly quickly but closed with her rationale for calling out Heriot’s offensive testimony. “We allow witnesses to say offensive things, but I cannot allow that kind of bigotry to go into the record unchallenged.”
“Does that mean you think I am a Russian princess?” Heriot asks at the end of the clip.
“I have no idea,” Lofgren responds. But really, it’s the man behind her who shows how we’re all feeling at the end of all this.
Check out the full video of the incident, which was uploaded onto Lofgren’s own YouTube channel, above. One thing’s for certain: she’s definitely not ashamed of her fiery interaction with Heriot.