Recently, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) encouraged violence against trans people. During an interview with right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, Greene compared trans people to abusers, speaking approvingly of “beat[ing them] … into the ground … This is exactly how we need to stand up against this stuff.” [1]

We called out her vile and bigoted remarks in a tweet thread, only for one of the tweets to be hidden from the public. In the thread, we outlined how her remarks encouraged violence against trans people and came in the wake of other disturbing anti-trans attacks from public officials.

The tweet in our thread that was suppressed did not come with any notification to our account. The suppressed post asked the House Republicans and Democrats if Greene’s encouragement of violence was in line with the United States House of Representatives code of official conduct. The suppressed tweet, listed as “unavailable,” read as follows:

“We ask @HouseGOP and @HouseDemocrats to consider if @RepMTG’s talk of violence against trans people ‘reflect[s] creditably on the House,’ as is required by your own code of conduct. 4/6 https://ethics.house.gov/publications/code-official-conduct”.

With no alert of wrongdoing from Twitter, we assumed the flag was an automatic bot operating in response to the term “violence against trans people.” So we tweeted again using that phrase. This post was a call-out of Press Secretary Jen Psaki, who was responding to Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s order classifying gender-affirming care for trans children as “child abuse.” [2] The press secretary’s statement was weak and did not acknowledge the reality of trans children being harmed by that order, and deserved a call-out in its own right.

We also tried to remedy the situation by reaching out to Twitter directly and received the response that, “Sometimes, we will take action on an account based on behaviors that create a negative impact on Twitter.” To which we ask Twitter: What possible negative impact is raising the House of Representatives’ ethical code in response to a member encouraging gender-based violence?

In order to end violence against trans people, we must name it to change it. Elected officials, representatives of government, and tech platforms should all be held accountable for failing to act against harm or actively causing it. Reproaction stands firmly and proudly against anti-trans bigotry, hatred, and violence, and in support of the rights and dignity of trans people, especially youth and trans people of color. Trans rights are human rights, and the repeated calls for violence against trans people must end now.

Source:

1. https://www.mediamatters.org/alex-jones/conspiracy-theorist-alex-jones-show-rep-marjorie-taylor-greene-calls-violent-physical
2. https://www.npr.org/2022/03/01/1083775568/the-battle-around-medical-treatment-for-transgender-kids-in-texas-continues