Home » Twit Awards for the Week 12/11/23

Twit Awards for the Week 12/11/23

ceciliab | Dec 11, 2023

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Transgender issues came up at the fourth debate among the Republican presidential candidates. While Chris Christie considers gender-affirming care to be a matter for parental rights, the others seemed to think that the government has a compelling interest in the matter. For creating a more intrusive government, Vivek Ramaswamy, Nikki Hailey, and Ron DeSantis get a Twit Award. This story comes from Them.

The National Review says that Chris Christie’s argument about parental rights “is a serious and thoughtful one, at least if it is applied consistently–which it is not, not by Christie and certainly not by liberals or progressives.” The article then goes on to talk of bans on minors smoking, drinking, having sex, etc. (Some, such as tattoos and body piercings, are not as grave.) None of the things on this list are recommended by medical research as the best way to treat any condition. For expecting to treat medicine as we treat drinking and smoking, the National Review gets a Twit Award.

Republicans in the House of Representatives held a hearing on a national ban on transgender athletes in women’s sports. Riley Gaines was a leading witness. She is not some sort of expert on the difference between male and female athletes, nor has she done any research into the effect of puberty blockers or HRT on the performance of transgender athletes. Yet, she is invited to testify. For inviting someone with so few qualifications, the House Republicans get a Twit Award. C-SPAN has a video of the testimony.

The British House of Commons saw a debate about the attempt to ban the use of conversion therapy on LGBTQ+ minors. This debate suddenly became about “the medical and surgical conversion of young lesbians and gay males by affirming and transing away the gay.” So, to be clear, by forbidding conversion therapy on trans people, we are allowing doctors to turn gay and lesbian individuals into trans people. It might shock people to know that Dr. John Money once thought that gay men were the best candidates for gender transition, and rejected patients who were not gay enough. His views are no longer popular among doctors. For arguments which do not conform with medical practices, those who claim that gender-affirming care is “transing away the gay” get a Twit Award. This story comes from PinkNews.

An editorial in Deseret News predicts a “reckoning is coming for California” over its support of transgender rights. It is true that polls keep showing little support for transgender rights in general. However, polling also shows that transgender rights is not considered to be an important issue to people, and even fewer people will switch their votes to the other party because of transgender issues. For failing to put the issue in perspective the author gets a Twit Award.

Newsweek notes that some right-wing types have gone to sites such as Rotten Tomatoes to give LadyBallers a positive rating. The audience rating for the film is at 95% favourable, despite professional critics generally feeling that it is very obvious and tiring. For bringing your politics to entertainment, the people dropping favorable ratings get a Twit Award.

Michael Knowles of the Daily Wire is promoting the notion that “hypnosis porn” is turning cisgender men into trans women. Hypnosis porn does exist, but it is not actually hypnotizing its readers. It is indeed a fantasy about finding someone who will encourage, or even force, the reader to transition genders. It is aimed at those who wish to transition, but for one reason or another, just don’t. In other words, the target audience is people who already want to transition, but just don’t do it. Again, it is all about fantasy–there is no one actually forcing males into living as females. For totally misunderstanding the audience, and for leading others into this misunderstanding, Michael Knowles gets a Twit Award. LGBTQ Nation has this story.

Republican U.S. Representative Glenn Grothman spoke on the proposed ban on transgender athletes. He actually expressed the opinion that such a ban would cause some people to “switch back” to their cisgender identification. The implication is that these athletes are only switching genders to win at competitions. It is an argument that Martina Navratilova used to make, but she never had even one concrete example to show it in action. He also claimed that “80% to 90%. . .snap back,” a misstatement of the finding that most children “make peace” with their assigned gender. However, the actual statistic was lower than 80% to 90%, and it included many children who never actually declared themselves to be transgender. For misusing statistics, and for expecting a result which has never been shown to happen even once, Representative Glenn Grothman gets a Twit Award. This story comes from PinkNews>

Ron DeSantis still feels that there is more room for his anti-transgender views. As LGBTQ Nation points out, during the fourth Republican presidential debate, he described traditional Islamic male clothing as “man dresses”. For cultural ignorance, and for over-the-top behavior, Ron DeSantis gets a Twit Award.