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WEEKLY DEBRIEF
Earlier this week, Donald Trump Jr tweeted a story from The Daily Caller, a conservative American website, about Cece Telfer, a top-ranked NCAA trans athlete. The headline reads, “Biological Male Is Top-Ranked NCAA Women’s Track Star.”
Here’s what happened In his tweet, Trump Jr responded to the article and said, “Yet another grave injustice to so many young women who trained their entire lives to achieve excellence. Identify however you want, to each his own, but this is too far and unfair to so many.”
Meanwhile in Canada, people voted for Christian talk show host Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson of the People’s Party of Canada. The conservative candidate captured more than 10 percent of the vote in a Burnaby South byelection.
Why is the result surprising? Thompson has previously spoken out against SOGI and what she calls the “trans agenda” on her YouTube channel and at rallies.
In an interview with Burnaby Now, Thompson said, “I think the most important issue facing schools is that parents are highly alarmed and very upset that children are being taught gender-fluid ideology. It has no place in school.”
Trump Jr and Thompson are part of a surge of public figures who use transphobic attack to vilify trans people. As Alex Verman writes, as it becomes less acceptable for conservative politicians to express anti-woman and anti-gay hatred, trans people have become their new targets. Here’s Verman’s piece on why conservatives love to pick on trans people.
WORLD AT A GLANCE
Athlete Caster Semenya is challenging a new-set of rules that the International Association of Athletics Federations would impose on athletes with differences on sex development.
Conservative members of the United Methodist Church voted to reaffirm the church’s stance against homosexuality, prohibitions on same-sex marriage and LGBTQ2 clergy. #shook
In a hearing on US President Donald Trump’s ban on transgender people in the military, two administrative representatives defended the ban by comparing being trans to having a disease.
QUEER CONTENT ROUNDUP
- It’s a no from me. A man licked gay reporter’s ear on live TV. [Queerty]
- Hate crimes are real. Jussie Smollett’s story doesn’t mean we should ignore Black queer survivors. [Xtra]
- Celebrity says no to hate! Ellen Page wrote a column on Jussie Smollett’s fallout. She says hate crime is not a hoax. [THR]
- How queer were this year’s Oscars? Here’s your answer. [Xtra]
- Our favourite Barbra Streisand stan, Richard E Grant said his role in Can You Ever Forgive Me? is an homage to the men we lost to AIDS. An actual winner! [Out]
- Conservatives are shaking because of a new gay-themed Walmart ad. Ah, love is truly in the aisle. [Queerty]
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