Transgender women were BLOWING UP Monday after Sen. Kamala Harris seemingly confused transgender men with transgender women during CNN’s democratic town hall.
Harris attempted to boast of her record of supporting LGBT rights as California’s top prosecutor while speaking to Don Lemon. She brought up her refusal to defend a state law banning gay marriage.
She went on to say, “As attorney general, [LGBT rights] was one of the pivotal issues. […] Prop 8 went to the United States Supreme Court, we won, and wedding bells rang across the country.”
Harris also claimed that she went above and beyond to educate other prosecutors about LGBT cases. Keep this in mind as this unfolds. She claims she is an educator on LGBT cases.
“Around the Matthew Shepard era, I brought DAs from around the country to San Francisco, where I hosted training for prosecutors around the country on how to defeat the ‘gay panic’ defense.”
However, during the CNN town hall, Harris quickly became confused about the relevant case law when she said: “You’ll remember the tragic cases involving transgender men who were killed.”
Transgender women viewers immediately realized that Harris had mean to refer to the murder of a transgender woman, yet she referred to them as men…
Trans activists took to Twitter claiming she was “straight up pandering” and “can’t even get trans murders right.”
i think kamala harris combined the brandon teena case (or more likely boys don’t cry, which came out the year after matthew shephard’s murder) with gwen araujo’s murder. this feels like straight up pandering, she can’t even get trans murders straight https://t.co/5N4NqWWJeP
— Mey “That Very Witch” Rude (@meyrude) April 23, 2019
Freelance journalist Rachel Vorona Cote chimed in:
If I did not mishear—and I don’t believe I did—Kamala Harris confused transgender men and transgender women when she referred to the violent effects of “gay panic.” This is not difficult terminology to keep straight, and Harris should know better. #CNNTownHall
— Rachel Vorona Cote (@RVoronaCote) April 23, 2019
Yikes!
Now it appears that anything Harris says in order to pander, immediately comes back to this! LOL
I appreciate this, but why did you misgender trans women during tonight's town hall? This is not something a President should be making mistakes on when trans rights are so important and yet so tenuous. I'd expect this of a Republican.
— Erica Windisch (@ewindisch) April 23, 2019
Kat Blaque raised a great point. If Karmala Harris couldn’t even get this right, how can we???
Wow a democrat got something wrong about trans issues? I'm so shocked. Called trans women men? Much surprise. Waves a flag but doesn't understand it? Wouldn't see that coming.
— ⚔️Kat Blaque⚔️ (@kat_blaque) April 23, 2019
This is one slip up that might cost Harris some serious points with the regressive left!