In this time of Trump: NatGeo cover girl and family cybermolested
It didn’t take long for two public reactions to erupt on the announcement this month that Avery Jackson, a 9-year-old girl from Kansas City, would be the first known transgender individual to be pictured on the cover of National Geographic.
There were, of course, overwhelming expressions of support from the transgender community and our allies.
The second: hate — scorching and violent messages. One suggested that the only way Avery would be safe is if her mother were “exterminated.”
It’s a bunch of internet trolls. And what they do for fun is find people to make fun of and start threads. This one particular group likes to target the trans community — a lot of them try to target people and harass them so much so that they’ll commit suicide.
They’ve started a thread about me, (describing me) as a horrible and abusive parent who is using my child for fame and fortune, and obviously I have a twisted sexual deviancy issues to make my boy act like a girl…
They found information (about our family) and put it out there. People later commented, ‘Yeah, she’s definitely one who needs to be cyberbullied until she commits suicide.’
--Debi Jackson, 42, Avery’s mother
That would probably be 4chan.
Avery has been out since she headlines in the Kansas City Star in February of 2014 in a story entitled "I am a girl." But her name and that of her parents were withheld at that time. Then a speech made by her mother went viral on Youtube.
625K views on that.
She got some threats from that. But they have now increased.
It’s the amount of threats. It’s gone from, ‘You’re an abusive mom and people should call child protective services,’ to ‘You should be killed immediately — the only way your kids will be safe is if you are exterminated.’
--Debi Jackson
BE WARNED PARENTS AND GRANDPARENTS!!! National Geographic shakes a fist at God and biblical authority on their radical mission to advocate gender confusion in upcoming issues.
--American Family Association (formerly the National Federation of Decency
What would I say to people who would say I’m a boy and not a girl? I don’t care. It’s your opinion. I’m actually a girl.”
--Avery in her room, dominated by a pink canopy bed but also decorated with scary posters, a nod to her love of the Goosebumps series
She knows that some people are critical. She, too, has been trolled on Facebook, but she does not at all regret making her name and face public.
That’s helping other people. And it’s showing we exist. Transgender people do exist. And they’re there, and you can’t ignore them, because they’re there. It also shows that I’m proud to be transgender. I don’t care if I’m transgender. I’m just out there, a normal human being changing the world.
--Avery
Comments
National Geographic, I am confused.
These haters have never before known of The National Geographic Society and its mission?
I suppose saying, "These protestations concerning the demise of our civilization, nay, our very souls, is so very out of touch with reality!", might read as an understatement here at c99p. The American Family Association (formerly the National Federation of Decency) quote in your article set my head to spinning, figuratively, well maybe a bit literally as well, whiplash is a real thing. The call for us to "kill these obvious deviants" is not a surprise, at least, sadly, not to me. I expect such stupidity, but pretending National Geographic shouldn't cover (please excuse the dismissive language) this topic is like thinking National Geographic shouldn't cover (oh I don't know) any scientific subject · · · oh! I get it.
Editorial note: Cultural, sociological, psychological, physical, and all other scientific disciplines have been integral to National Geographic content from the very first article I read many years ago.
The magazine, as opposed to the foundation, is now owned by
Fox, so perhaps typical Fox aficianodos have picked it up for the first time recently and are expecting it to be more Fox.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
/sigh/
I keep thinking it's going to get better. I keep thinking people will begin to see the humanity of those who are different from themselves. How can they not?
But haters just continue to show that they lack all human decency and compassion, whether the difference is gender, race, ethnicity, religion, (dis)ability, sexual orientation, or anything else.
Avery and her family are heroes.
There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you.
--Amiri Baraka
I don't get it. There's all the outrage and arm-twisting of
Facebook, Google and Twitter to crack down on ""fake"" news, but where's the outrage and demand that these companies track down and turn over the IP addresses of people who ARE MAKING DEATH THREATS? They threaten LGBT, Black people, women, and even dox and stalk some of these people.
Fake news isn't illegal; threatening, doxing and stalking people is.
Illegal acts
Missouri has laws against this type of thing. Harassment and bullying are illegal in Missouri and it does not matter whether the act occurs online. The state also has anti-stalking laws in effect. If a victim is under age 17, the crime become the more serious aggravated stalking (Mo. Rev. Stat. § 565.225). Aggravated stalking is a felony in Missouri.
Where are the cops? The criminals harassing this family need to be put behind bars ... like yesterday.
It wouldn't surprise me if 4chan were indeed involved somehow.
This kind of shit is the only thing they know. After all, they were part of the reason folks like Zoe Quinn and Anita Sarkeesian were at the UN not so long ago. And for the record, even though I'm not fans of theirs, they and many others at the time didn't deserve the shit they had to put up with. Many people have had their lives ruined by online trolling and the like.
As for the people doing things like this to this young girl, they can all go fuck themselves with sharp sticks right along with the entirety of 4chan.
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
Thanks, Robyn.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --