No, I Don’t Have to Accept It When A Friend Spreads Transphobic Misinformation

So yes, this is about The Great Always Controversy of 2019, a “friend” spreading the misinformation a right-wing site posted, and my reaction to that post.

What actually happened: After Proctor and Gamble added a Venus symbol to the packaging for Always pads, a few trans men and non-binary people who menstruate pointed out to them that not everyone who uses their products identifies with it. Proctor and Gamble, a company that positions itself as an LGBTQ ally, understood their point of view and agreed to remove the symbol to better reflect their customers, the company’s values, and their marketing strategy.

It was a simple marketing suggestion, voiced firmly but politely, that the marketing division of the company found to be reasonable.

How it was portrayed in The Daily Caller: After P&G announced the change, The Daily Caller, a far-right website known for making up lies about the transgender community, started a misinformation campaign. Gone was the reasonable exchange between people in the trans community and an allied corporation. Instead, the Daily Caller published stories about angry tweets from unreasonable trans activists that the weak corporation caved in to. A suggestion about marketing their products from users of the products turned into threats of a boycott from insane people intent on destroying Western culture and the natural order.

To be clear, there were no angry tweets. The trans people didn’t force P&G into anything, and P&G certainly didn’t “cave” to their non-existent demands. There was a proposed boycott of Always, and #BoycottAlways did start to trend on Twitter. However, it wasn’t the trans activists who threatened this. It was transphobes who started the boycott campaign after P&G announced that they would remove the symbol. For people who read The Daily Caller, seeing trans people treated with dignity and respect is the worst possible outcome.

The Daily Caller’s readers don’t want to read about a civil exchange involving queer people. They want to have their prejudices about trans people confirmed, and the publishers are more than happy to provide that to them.

Honestly, I hadn’t heard anything about this until a “friend” of mine shared the…