Twitter Suspends GOP Rep for ‘Misgendering’ Trans Health Official

Twitter has now suspended GOP Rep Jim Banks from its platform for allegedly ‘misgendering’ a trans person.

As The Hill reports:

Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) said Saturday that his official Twitter account had been suspended over a post he made about Department of Health and Human Services assistant secretary for health Rachel Levine, who is transgender.

According to a screenshot posted of the tweet, Banks said “the title of first female four-star officer gets taken by a man,” a reference to Levine, who became the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps’ first openly transgender four-star officer.

“The account referenced has been temporarily locked for violating our Hateful Conduct Policy. The account owner is required to delete the violative Tweet before regaining access to their account,” a Twitter spokesperson told The Hill in a statement.

…

Banks stood by his decision to issue the tweet. In a statement issued through Twitter on Saturday from his personal account, he said, “My tweet was a statement of fact. Big Tech doesn’t have to agree with me, but they shouldn’t be able to cancel me. If they silence me, they will silence you.”

Conservatives have long alleged that they are targeted on social media for transgressing from left-wing dogma.

Matthew Williams