On March 27, six people were killed at a Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, by a former student who identified as transgender. Everyone was rightfully horrified — left and right, and whatever side of the sexuality and gender debate you are on.
A few days later, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre decried new bills emerging in state legislatures putting some restrictions on gender transition procedures for youth. Calling these bills “hateful” and threatening to “freedom,” she said, “Our hearts go out to the trans community as they are under attack right now.”
Predictably, that remark provoked outrage from people who found the timing inappropriate. Former White House press secretary and Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany called out the White House for the “audacity” of choosing that moment to speak of attacks on the trans community.
While Jean-Pierre’s comments were certainly misguided, they were not focused on Nashville at all. But their temporal proximity to the school shooting inflicted by a trans-identifying person was all it took. McEnany declared with emotion that it was the Christian community truly under attack, and her co-host Emily Compagno went on to insist that these state bills have “nothing to do with ‘anti’ or ‘hate’” and instead protect Christians from “this overbearing, overreaching government.”
No comments:
Post a Comment