As Daily Kos continues to highlight, we know that attacking Roe v. Wade is nowhere near the end of what Republicans are hoping to accomplish. Conservatives across the nation have been targeting LGBTQ folks—and specifically trans folks—with an extra vigor over the past couple of years. We’ve covered examples of discriminatory legislation aiming to keep trans girls from participating in sports teams, accessing the bathroom, and even accessing safe, age-appropriate, gender-affirming health care. These attacks are still underway—and we’re ringing alarm bells that conservatives might try to topple marriage equality after watching Roe fall.

For context, in his opinion supporting dismantling Roe, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas suggested that the court should reconsider protections for marriage equality. So this isn’t just hysteria or panic talking. With this in mind, in an effort to protect marriage equality, House Democrats recently introduced the Respect for Marriage Act, which aims to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and codify national recognition for same-sex and interracial marriages.

So, Republicans are now tripping over themselves to figure out how to vote away human rights without losing constituents or making their queerphobia even more obvious than it already is. Unless, of course, you’re Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, in which case you use your speaking time to rant about Donald Trump, “smear” campaigns against Brett Kavanaugh, and … crime rates in cities. Okay.

“We thought the Democrats were obsessed with President Trump,” Jordan begins. “But Justice Thomas is a close second. This bill is simply the latest installment of the Democrats’ campaign to delegitimize and attempt to intimidate the United States Supreme Court. It started when President Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh; that was just too much for the left to bear, and they launched a smear campaign in an attempt to derail his nomination. ”

Here is the clip currently going viral.

He goes on to say Democrats are introducing this bill to distract from inflation, immigration, and violent crime in urban areas, and are trying to “manufacture” a crisis to help them get votes in November.

“We are here for a charade,” he insists. “We are here for political messaging.”

And here is a longer clip of Jordan’s rambling insistence that this bill is “unnecessary.”

“We think this legislation is unnecessary,” Jordan says in part. “Justice Alito was very clear—again, it’s been read several times—the Dobbs decision should not be misunderstood or mischaracterized to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion. The Court couldn’t have been clearer. The Obergerfell decision undid what 35 states have on their law in their respective state. 30 of those states, it was the vote of the people, as I said before. But this legislation, I guess, is going to just go after that decision of those respective states and, as I said, the voters in those states.”

Okay.

You can watch his full address below.

https://youtu.be/WZDV7HlDCxY