Today in Barrel Scraping

Conservative writers complain about Brailian activists getting English lessons, misrepresent a human rights document seeking to protect minors from being criminally charged for consensual sex, and a 45 year old trans woman who won her age-bracket in a cycling race.

by Evan Urquhart

When it comes to furthering transphobia, there continues to be no story too small for the right wing press. Today we found two gems: The Washington Free Beacon is upset that the State Department is offering English lessons to some trans activists from Brazil (real extremist types who complained that cis people are transphobic online, too!). The New York Post is making hay out of a 45-year-old long-distance gravel cyclist winning first in her age group. And the American Conservative is misrepresented a human rights organization’s statement that adolescents shouldn’t be criminalized for consensual sex to make it sound as if it has something to do with pedophilia… and further pretended that had something to do with trans people as well.

First up, the Free Beacon who describes the Brazilian transgender organization ANTRA, whose primary focus is on reducing violence against trans women, as “a radical advocacy group.” As evidence of the group’s radicalism the Beacon provides… some… old… tweets.

screenshot from the Washington Free Beacon

The link for the partially-quoted tweet seen in the screenshot above goes to the second part of a reply to a question about whether cisgender people who are in loving relationships with trans people can possibly be transphobic. The exchange happened last October. And, again, ANTRA is a group primarily focused on reducing violence against transfemmes, much of which takes place within intimate relationships and/or sex work.

Next up is the New York Post’s coverage of Lesley Mumford, a 46-year-old long distance gravel riding. What the heck is gravel riding? We had to look it up, and it turns out that it describes cycling over unpaved roads and trails, and falls between the two cycling sports you have heard of, road cycling and mountain biking. The Post explains that Mumford placed 6th overall in the women’s division, and first in her age group of 40-49, in the 100 mile category of the Desert Gravel Co2uT, echoing a triumphant Mumford’s Instagram post.

screenshot from the New York Post

The Post quotes a transphobic social media account suggesting Mumford wasn’t joined on the podium for the event because she was trans. There is nothing backing up this claim. What is interesting, when you look at the race results for the obscure cycling event is that two women in the 40-49 age category, Andrea Dvorak and Aimee Vasse, finished in 2nd and 3rd place overall. Mumford seems to have been the first woman in that age bracket not to place in the top 3 overall. This is typical of the sort of dominance transgender women routinely show in sports, by placing decently in little-known events, and typical of the desperation with which the right wing media scrapes for anything that makes it seem like trans women have an unfair advantage in sports.

Last (and let’s also say least), a far-right website portrayed a human right’s organizations advocacy on behalf of minors as the opposite of that. The International Commission of Jurists is a venerable organization consisting of 60 judges and lawyers which advocates for human rights and the rule of law. In a recent report they laid out some basic principles for criminal law, holding that the law should not be discriminatory against groups of people including members of the LGBTQ+ community, that minors shouldn’t be held criminally responsible for anything that would be legal for an adult, and that age of consent laws should take into account the fact that sex between two adolescents is often consensual in fact, if not in law.

In response, the American Conservative published a piece headlined “The Trans Mind-Virus Is Mutating,” which took as it’s premise that the International Commission of Jurists was advocating for pedophilia, and this was the natural progression after advocacy for trans rights. The American Conservative doesn’t really back this up, they just say it and assume no one will check. The closest thing to evidence is a couple out-of-context quote from the report that strip out the basic premise that the ICJ is advocating against criminalizing minors for consensual sex they have with one another.

screenshot from the American Conservative

This sort of barrel-scraping is so common in the right wing press that Assigned has stopped covering it as closely in recent weeks, to make room for more substantive stories. Nevertheless the drip drip goes on, day after day, with completely absurd and misleading coverage of ordinary things used to fuel hatred and fear of the transgender community, which in turn has fueled a wave of legislation targeting trans people as well as contributing to the likelihood of violent and hate crimes.