Anti-LGBTQ journalist Elizabeth Harrington has been hired by the Republican National Committee (RNC) to serve as the party’s national spokesperson.
Harrington has an extensive record of writing far-right, anti-LGBTQ articles in her previous capacity as senior writer at The Washington Free Beacon. Just last month, she ridiculed Democrats who sought to raise the legal age of smoking to 21 and tied the issue to transgender children.
“According to liberals, 18-year-olds cannot be trusted to make decisions about what they put into their bodies,” she wrote. “But, of course, nine-year-olds can make decisions about what body they want to have — for the rest of their life.”
Harrington has also repeatedly written articles casting a negative light on the National Institutes of Health for their LGBTQ-related research on lesbians, LGBTQ caregivers, transgender people, and others — as if addressing the needs of those demographics impose particularly burdensome demands on taxpayers.
Harrington has frequently mocked progressive policies and railed against what she derides as political correctness. In one feature article from February of last year entitled “Toxic Liberalism,” Harrington attended and covered a “Drunk Education” event, which entailed writers, comedians, and others gathering to discuss a variety of issues. Harrington said she “braced myself for two hours of Trump-bashing and man-hating from liberal crusaders donned in pink pussy hats,” and went on to say that the night would not have been complete “without the purveyors of sexual identity politics’ favorite obsession: Mike Pence.”
The RNC hired Harrington to replace Kayleigh McEnany, who left the post to serve as the press secretary for President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign. McEnany has echoed common transphobic talking points about men somehow feeling inclined to invade women’s bathrooms and praised former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia for opposing marriage equality in the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges case, which gave same-sex couples the right to marry.
RNC chief of staff Richard Walters said in a written statement that Harrington’s “extensive communications background will be a tremendous asset as she spreads the Republican message to Americans throughout the nation.”
“We are excited for Elizabeth to take on this role and play an integral part of our Party’s ongoing commitment to supporting President Trump’s winning agenda,” Walters said.
