Twit Awards for the Week 5/30/22

Rep. Gosar about to say “You punks get off my lawn.”

This week, a baseless accusation spread, saying that the gunman who entered a school in Uvalde, Texas, and shot both students and adults is actually a transgender female. Representative Paul Gosar (R-Arizona) has spread the story, but no amount of evidence seems to be enough to convince Representative Gosar and others on 4chan that the shooter was a cisgender male. In fact, The Hill reports that those spreading this theory used photos of multiple transgender women, all of whom they claimed were the shooter. Representative Gosar and all those who spread this lie get a Twit Award.

A new study says that about 40% of self-identified Republicans feel that a teacher can influence a child’s sexual orientation or gender identity. This is connected with the concept of “grooming,” according to LGBTQ Nation. While teachers might make it safe for students to express their gender identity or sexual orientation, they have no hand in changing it. For inventing a new reality, Republicans who feel teachers can change a child’s gender identity or sexual orientation get a Twit Award.

Fisher-Price released three “Little People” figurines of RuPaul, and right away, One Million Moms are protesting, saying that the dolls “blur the biological distinctions between males and females. Introducing children to this lifestyle choice is contrary to what conservative, Christian parents are teaching their children about God’s design.” When I was young, “conservative, Christian parents” taught their children that segregation and the subjugation of women were a part of God’s design. For protesting the imposition of a “lifestyle choice” upon them while at the same time attempting to impose their religious lifestyle choice on the nation, and for an unChristian attitude of being holier than others, One Million Moms gets a Twit Award. LGBTQ Nation has this story.

The National Review complains about a school district in Ohio which tells teachers to allow students to socially transition without the consent of their parents. Of course, the article glosses over details and leaves out the reasons for this policy, but that is entirely expected. The National Review gets a Twit Award.

Pop looks pretty butch to us.

Several conservatives spread a story around social media saying Kellogg’s had made “Pop,” one of its Rice Krispies mascots, a transgender woman. The story came complete with artwork, in the form of a fake CNN screenshot. Many people spread the story on social media, thinking it was real, without bothering to check sites like Snopes, or noticing that a Google search did not return a link to a story on CNN, or any other news site. For treating a literal joke as if it were real, those who spread this story on social media get a Twit Award.

A debate on offering people the chance to choose a non-binary gender for legal purposes was held in Britain’s parliament. The first speaker was MP Nick Fletcher, a Conservative. He claimed, wildly, that people might one day regret having chosen a non-binary gender. First, this is only a choice between the citizen and the government; no one else needs to know that the citizen identifies as non-binary. Second, if the citizen does regret identifying as non-binary, the citizen has the right to later choose a cisgender binary identity. For attempting to adapt a standard line of argument to a situation for which it is obviously ill-suited, M.P. Nick Fletcher gets a Twit Award. PinkNews has this story.

Judge Daniel Traynor of the federal bench ruled for the Christian Employers Alliance as they attempt to strike against Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act. He made his ruling based on a reductio ad absurdum reading or Section 1557, which says it is illegal to deny health care to an individual based on their sex (including their gender identity), which he interprets to say could lead to performing gender confirmation surgery on babies. For an unbelievable bit of slippery slope logic, Judge Daniel Traynor gets a Twit Award. This story comes from LGBTQ Nation.

Ricky Gervais decided to join Bill Maher and Dave Chappelle on “Team TERF,” although he also attempts to use various gymnastics of logic to say that, although he referred to “old-fashioned women, the ones with wombs. Those f—ing dinosaurs,” he still accepts transgender women as women. It’s painfully obvious that they are only accepted as an inferior class of women, unworthy of the term “woman,” but considered as women-in-name-but-not-really-women. He then goes on to talk of “the new ones. . .the ones with beards and co–s.” From there, he goes on to talk of sharing toilets, as though that is just so oppressive. For thinking that expressing such prejudice is funny when in fact he is prejudiced, and for then denying the prejudice which he just expressed, Ricky Gervais gets a Twit Award. For defending Mr. Gervais despite the backlash that continues over Mr. Chappelle’s special, Netflix shares in this Twit Award. The Advocate has this story.

Tags: featured, Transgender, TWIT

Category: Transgender Opinion