Home » Twit Awards for the Week 10/17/22

Twit Awards for the Week 10/17/22

ceciliab | Oct 17, 2022

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A report by Fox News makes much of the fact that Mermaids, the charity for transgender children, has been taken off the U.K. Department of Education’s guidelines. While this move is not entirely a nothing burger, it is not as significant as Fox News would have you believe. For hyperbole, and for spreading misinformation, Fox News gets another Twit Award.

An “investigative reporter” for The Christian Post has a new podcast entitled “Generation Indoctrination: Inside the Transgender Battle.” It’s not even trying for “fair” or “balanced.” They also have a former appointee of the Trump administration writing an article entitled, “How the Transgender Movement Hurts Everyone.” For starting with the conclusion and cherry-picking its reporting to fit the predetermined facts, and for projection in complaining about indoctrination when in fact they themselves read their prejudices into the Bible, the Christian Post gets a Twit Award.

J.D. Vance, who is running for the U.S. Senate in Ohio, insists that schools should notify parents if their children “identify as chipmunks.” (See the story in LGBTQ Nation.) It is part of a larger argument that schools are accommodating students who identify as furries. This idiocy, which seems like it could have been started as a satire of the conservative position on transgender children, has become such a talking point that even MSNBC recently noticed it (although they relegated it to a weekend news show, so as to avoid being ridiculed for making too much of this silly point.) Exactly zero school teachers or administrators report that their school accommodates furries, either with litter boxes or otherwise. For not bothering to check out this story, and for continuing to promote this lie, J.D. Vance gets a Twit Award, which he shares with all other political candidates and reporters who continue to spread this story.

A pediatrician who supports gender-affirming care for transgender adolescents is running for Congress. Her opponent accuses her of child abuse, and makes up stories about her supporting gender confirmation surgery for children in grade school. For hyperbole that robs the accusations of their meaning, and for so twisting the truth as to commit fraud, Representative Nancy Mace gets a Twit Award.

Caroline Farrow, an anti-transgender activist, published detailed personal information about a transgender attorney, including her home address. She was then arrested for harassment. In return, she has now announced that she is suing the person whose personal information she released. For incredible chutzpah, Caroline Farrow gets a Twit Award. This story comes from PinkNews.

State Representative Ryan Berman, a legislator in Michigan, just introduced a bill to outlaw gender-affirming care for minors in the state. However, unlike such efforts in other states, which threaten the doctors with fines and loss of license, this bill also threatens the parents who support their child getting gender-affirming care. For overreaction, for rejecting good scientific studies in favor of junk science, and for threatening parents who support their transgender children as parents should support children, Representative Ryan Berman gets a Twit Award, which he shares with co-sponsors of this legislation. The Advocate has this story.

We told you last week of Jon Stewart’s segment on anti-transgender legislation. In that piece, he talked to Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge about her willingness to defend this obviously unjust law. She said that she stands with the medical experts whom she cited in court filings, though she would not name them. Alejandra Crarballo found the names of the four doctors who were mentioned as experts in the court filings. Three of the four did not treat any transgender patients, and did not want to. The fourth apparently tried a version of conversion therapy on transgender patients, with the bad results that you might expect. For relying on doctors who do not and most of whom would not treat transgender patients as experts on transgender medical care, Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge gets a Twit Award. The Los Angeles Blade has this story.