The transgender lobby’s outrage machine is out in full force after Twitter removed its policy against so-called “targeted misgendering” and “deadnaming” people.
These include referring to a person identifying as transgender by pronouns that align with their biological gender and referring to them by their birth name. The policy, which was in place since 2018 on the social media platform, is no more.
What some describe as “Freedom of Speech, Not Reach” continues at Twitter with this latest policy update. Needless to say, some shrill activists did not take kindly to this change.
Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD, told the Associated Press that “Twitter’s decision to covertly roll back its longtime policy is the latest example of just how unsafe the company is for users and advertisers alike.”
Twitter Removes Policy Forbidding ‘Misgendering’ or ‘Deadnaming’ Transgender Individuals https://t.co/0i8d3C1oeX
— 🇺🇸🇺🇸Josh Dunlap🇺🇲🇺🇲 ULTRA-MAGA (@JDunlap1974) April 19, 2023
She further claimed that the shift in “safety” put the company “even more out of step” with social media rivals TikTok, Pinterest, and Meta. Ellis asserted that online rhetoric is transforming into “real-world discrimination and violence.”
On Monday, Twitter announced it would only put warning labels on some postings that are “potentially” violating its policies against hateful conduct. In the past, those tweets were deleted.
Activist Alejandra Caraballo took the platform to task for the new move. She said the policy change meant “the freaks are out gleefully misgendering and deadnaming every prominent trans person as an achievement.”
She said the issue is not the First Amendment and free speech. Rather, it is about “bullies wanting to harass people because of who they are.”
Another poster tweeted that trans advocates should use imaginary “deadnames” and misgender “cis transphobes.”
Obviously there were many who expressed their happiness with the policy change. One noted that it’s frightening that “Bruce Jenner” may now be mentioned without being banned. Still another piped up, “Ok groomers.”
Billionaire Twitter owner Elon Musk posted a pair of responses Sunday to the backlash. He noted that “pronouns are virtue-signaling, so inevitably, as with all virtue-signaling, they will be used as a shield by bad humans.”
The entrepreneur added later that it is good manners to use an individual’s name, not their pronoun, when referring to them.
