Here’s Why Hate Crimes Against Transgender People Spiked 81%
Between aggressive Anti-Trans campaigners on social media and conservative publications such as The Times, the circulation of propaganda targeting transgender people reaches millions of readers every day, in one medium or another.
It would be impossible to scrape the entirety of twitter for all of the accounts dedicated to espousing bigotry toward and misinformation about the transgender community, but there are a few very high profile influencers who make it their mission to shape public opinion on transgender people.
Graham Linehan, one of the most notorious anti-trans lobbyists has over half a million followers on Twitter. The content of his account primarily targets transgender woman. He refers to trans people as self-mutilating for having gender confirmation surgery. He has used his platform to tell his audience that we’re dangerous to children, misogynistic and uses extremist language to convince them that transgender women are erasing women and lesbians, threatening their rights and even making them vulnerable to rape.
Linehan has postured himself as a savior to the same women he has deliberately panicked with his rhetoric. He uses a string of lies, malformed opinions based on his own prejudices to manipulate and control his followers into sharing his skewed perspectives. Linehan has no limit to his relentless attacks on transgender women he targets and dog whistles his audience to virtually harass. Last year he was given a formal police warning after engaging in a debate with transgender woman, Stephanie Hayden, on gender identification. Linehan even posted a picture of her revealing her pre-transition name, urging his followers to join him in a vicious take-down. Hayden was dead named, misgendered, and overwhelmed with transphobic abuse as a direct result of Linehan’s provocation.
Hayden isn’t the only one who has found themselves in Linehan’s crosshairs. Linda Riley, who serves as Director on the bard of GLAAD, has been called names, mocked and attacked by Linehan for simply…
