Twit Awards for the Week 5/1/23

Zooey Zephyr

In Trans News Now we mentioned in the news that Montana state legislators have censured Zooey Zephyr, the only transgender member of the state legislature, and have forbidden her from being on the floor of the state House of Representatives. While she did engage in loaded rhetoric when she talked of members having “blood on your hands,’ such politically-charged rhetoric is common in politics. For excluding the one person who has personal experience with the topic from talking about it, and for not caring about the optics of an obvious political move, Republicans in the Montana House of Representatives get a Twit Award. The Advocate has this story.

We also mentioned in the news that Nebraska state Senator Megan Hunt is under investigation for a conflict of interest, for voting on a bill regarding gender-affirming care for transgender minors. She has a transgender child, so the bill does directly affect her family. However, no one thinks that a legislator whose spouse has a child in a public school should refrain from voting on school funding bills. For selective accusation, David Begley, the lawyer who filed the complaint, gets a Twit Award. LGBTQ Nation has this story.

A brawl broke out at a high school in Riverside, California. Fox 11 Los Angeles reports that the transgender student involved in the brawl had access to restrooms and locker room that correspond to her gender identity, but do not say that the brawl broke out as a result of that student’s access to restrooms or locker rooms. For raising the issue but not showing a direct connection to the incident, Fox 11 Los Angeles gets a Twit Award.

Pastor Tommy McMurtry, a preacher who uploads videos of his sermons to Instagram, talked in his most recent sermon about Dylan Mulvaney’s deal with Bud Light–a really Biblical topic. With a laser-like focus, he then branched off to say that he would stop drinking Dr. Pepper if he found out that the doctor is a woman. Mind you, the brand has not had a commercial spokesperson playing the part of Dr. Pepper. If they did hire a woman to play the part, it would not be a change of gender for the character, since the character never existed as a male. For changing the topic with no intent in mind other than to show off his prejudice, and for getting his topic from politics rather than from the Bible, Pastor Tommy McMurtry gets a Twit Award. This story comes from LGBTQ Nation.

The NELK Boys, a group of right-wing influencers on Instagram and TikTok, released a video in which they tried to get a veterinarian to perform gender confirmation surgery on a dog. In the video, both refer to the dog with male pronouns, while they keep asking for male-to-female surgery for the dog. When the veterinarians refuse, they draw the conclusion that they have shown the absurdity of gender confirmation surgery. In fact, they were asked to leave because they were recording the interaction without permission, but they pretended they had been asked to leave because their request was being forcefully denied. For using bad logic to “prove” a point, and for twisting the request to leave into something that it was not, the NELK Boys get a Twit Award. LGBTQ Nation has this story.

Have you heard of “hypnosis porn”? Probably not, because Michael Knowles, a commentator for the Daily Wire, is giving it a platform it did not have before. He claims that some porn is sneaking in subliminal messages to “make you gay.” Well, actually, it makes you transgender. The porn in question is sissy hypnosis porn, in which one fantasizes being kidnapped, physically transformed into a female, and shown hypnosis videos to convince one to be a bimbo. Now, this sort of porn is all fantasy, but then, porn generally is largely fantasy. The idea of hypnosis causing someone to do something that the person does not wish to do is fiction. For presuming that porn has a power it cannot possibly have, and for not noticing that hypnosis porn is aimed at people who feel unable to change genders (indicating a larger number of transgender people than are found in studies), Michael Knowles gets a Twit Award. This story comes from LGBTQ Nation.

Marjorie Taylor Greene spoke about Dylan Mulvaney on her podcast. She introduced the topic by saying, “I’d like to bring up one of the biggest pedophiles in America today. His name is Dylan Mulvaney, and I won’t be referring. . .to him as a she or her.” She went on to tell her listeners the various reasons why she dislikes Dylan Mulvaney. At no point, though, did Marjorie Taylor Greene give any proof of Ms. Mulvaney’s involvement in any incident involving pedophilia, nor did she tell her listeners where to find such evidence. Mind you, this is a woman who wants to be on the presidential ticket with a friend of Jeffrey Epstein, and who very willingly shares a stage with Matt Gaetz. For slander, for projection, and for throwing around the accusation so casually that people start to assume that any accusation is just another example of hyperbole, Marjorie Taylor Greene gets another Twit Award. LGBTQ Nation has this story. The podcast episode has since been deleted.

The Florida House of Representatives has issued subpoenas to the state chapters of various medical organizations, including the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics. It would be one thing if the legislators were actually going to listen to medical professionals tell of the studies which show that gender-affirming medical care produces good results, but in a letter demanding the subpoenas, Florida’s Speaker of the House Paul Renner questioned whether the positions of these organizations reflect the views of a majority of their members. For bringing in experts and not listening to them but to lecture them, and for thinking they know medicine better than doctors, the Florida House of Representatives gets a Twit Award. This story comes from The Advocate has this story.

The Texas Department of Agriculture has issued a new dress code for its employees. The dress code states requires employees to dress “in a manner consistent with their biological gender.” Oddly, no biologists were consulted to give guidelines to determine “biological gender.” For a deliberate and unnecessary attack on transgender people, the Texas Department of Agriculture gets a Twit Award. This story comes from The Advocate.

Glenique Frank recently ran the London Marathon in the “woman” category. A controversy arose when it turned out that she is a transgender woman. The headline at Fox News reports that she “beat 14,000 women,” and that she offered “to give medal back.” The story does quote her as saying, “There’s a lot of women that beat me.” The story does not mention how many there were. She was the 6,159th woman to cross the finish line. Her “medal” was more like a participation trophy to any woman who finished the race. For omitting information which would allow the reader to see the full picture, and for leaving the impression that this is evidence for banning transgender athletes when in fact it shows that transgender athletes don’t have such a big automatic advantage, Fox News in particular and others who picked up a similar slant to the story get a Twit Award.

Tags: featured, opinion, Transgender, TWIT

Category: Transgender Community News, Transgender Opinion