When Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL) asked President Joe Biden’s Department of Education Deputy Secretary, Cindy Marten, on Wednesday if there are two genders, Marten refused to answer.
The incident happened during an Education and Labor Committee hearing in which Miller questioned if teachers and school employees could lose their jobs for stating the “biological and genetic fact that there are two genders.” Marten repeatedly attempted to redirect Miller’s question before finally brushing the congresswoman off by saying, ” Thank you for your questions.”
Here is the dialogue:
Miller: Deputy Secretary Marten, when Secretary Cardona testified before this committee, I asked him about the department’s guidance to school teachers that they could be charged with harassment if they say that there are only two genders, male and female. I asked the secretary how many genders there are, and he couldn’t answer. Could you please tell me, “How many genders are there?”
Marten: Well, I’d rather talk about the bigger value around our students being able to learn in —
Miller: But under your guidance, under your guidance, you are saying that teachers could be investigated for harassment if they state the biological fact that there are two genders.
Marten: What’s most important is that all campuses—
Miller: Are you saying that teachers could lose their jobs over this, but you can’t actually say how many genders there are?
Marten: We don’t make decisions at the local level about teachers, but what I can say —
Miller: This came from the Department of Education. This is not local. If it was local, I assure you, regular Americans, including rank and file Democrats, are furious that the Department of Education is promoting the teaching of gender identity in schools. It’s a made-up concept that’s going to have significant implications. Every human is either a male or female. That’s a biological fact.
Marten: Thank you.
Miller: So you still can’t say how many genders there are?
Marten: I can tell you that the Department is committed to student safety and all students’ rights to access education —
Miller: But what about the teachers that teach biology or genetics, and they say that there’s two genders? Male and female. Your Department’s guidance is saying that they could be subject to investigation for harassment. What do you say about that?
Marten: And the end of the day I know that —
Miller: I know that you know its’s hard to come up with an answer that could satisfy parents in our country.
Marten: Thank you for your questions.
Miller: Yeah, did you have an answer for that? Because teachers could be losing their jobs over this, over stating the biological and genetic fact that there are two genders. It’s your Department that put this guidance out. You’re making teachers vulnerable, and even students perhaps, that don’t feel safe in locker rooms or bathrooms, and they go in and communicate that to perhaps a principal or a teacher; perhaps then they’re accused of harassment. This has really got significant implications, so I hope next time you could tell us how many genders there are. Thank you, and I yield back.
