Anjali Ajmani | Jan 31, 2024
It’s 2024. People get boob jobs. People get facelifts. People get sex surgery. People spend thousands and thousands on fertility treatments. People get tattoos. People get braces. People get BOTOX. People get septoplasty to fix their deviated septums. People get piercings. People go on hormone therapy (cisgender people and non-binary people) for a myriad of reasons—anything from mitigating their chances of osteoporosis to creating the body that they feel their best selves in.
Americans have been making their own healthcare choices for years—the above represents many examples of people who get healthcare to better or change their appearance.
At what point do far-right bigots acknowledge that what someone else chooses to do with their body is nobody else’s business?
At what point do Republicans acknowledge that simply educating a child on the fact that some people have two dads will not definitively make that child gay?
Bethany Hamilton is coming up on a year of global transphobic rhetoric—her two posts from February 2023 have garnered all sorts of comments. Rip Curl has dropped her. Liberals are pissed. Many sports stars have told Bethany that her comments didn’t stick and were in poor taste.
What a lot of far-right fans of hers haven’t acknowledged is the fact that Bethany took an example that even she, herself, said was extreme to make a point that essentially boils down to the preconceived notion that transgender athletes have ulterior motives.
Bethany did this when she posted the following:
“…you have to think long term and what things could look like in 20-50 years. For example a young male from a poverty stricken country may decide to suppress his hormones in hopes to make money and get out of poverty. When he may not succeed in the mens division but he may thrive with the women. Kinda an extreme example. But I find it strange seeing in other sports men who did not find the success they wanted and switch to the women’s and then did succeed.”
This example of blatant prejudice and classism is common amongst white Christian nationalists, especially white Christian nationalists like Bethany who are affiliated with a MAGA Insurrectionist-enthused publishing company, Brave Books, who highlight how each of their books represents a conservative value that they intend to instill upon their children, including but not limited to rejecting communism, rejecting the notion that there are more than two genders, and adopting the idea that forced-birth is something to celebrate.
Bethany is currently a pro-life baby diaper ambassador for the company, EveryLife—whose motto is to ‘make more babies.’
EveryLife shared a post that was shared by another account that told the pro-life community not to shop The Honest Company because The Honest Company sells woke diapers. The politicization of diapers is not going to protect children in the United States. Universal background checks are what will protect children in the United States.
Bethany is a keynote speaker for the Power of the Purse event this spring, for Oshkosh, despite the blowback from the LGBTQIA community and the ignorance of Karlene Grabner, the Director of Donor Services, who apparently, claimed that she did not know of Bethany’s anti-trans rhetoric.
If you visit the Women’s Fund website and read what they say about the issue of isolated women, you will come across a quote that says:
“Walk a mile in someone else’s shoes before you try to judge their journey.”
Bethany has refused to walk a mile in a transgender athlete’s shoes. When questioned about her beliefs regarding her anti-trans stance, she responded to someone’s IG comment and said that she had spoken to some of her friends who are in the LGBTQIA community, which is synonymous with a white woman who says, “I have black friends.”
Rip Curl dropped Bethany and they promoted Sasha Jane Lowerson, the only out transgender intersex professional surfer, only to cave to the far-right and their 5th-grade biology mantra that claims that girls have vaginas and boys have penises and that boys are stronger than girls. Sasha’s reels and photos have disappeared from Rip Curl’s socials, something that the bigots say is the product of #boycottripcurl.
It is easy to adopt that 5th-grade biology mantra (something touted by swimmer, Riley Gaines) when that is the only biology you are willing to study.
It will be interesting to see if Rip Curl re-posts Sasha’s content. If a company wants to showcase inclusion, it shouldn’t cower at what a dispassionate base calls out.
Let’s not forget what the bigots tried to do to Target for selling gender-neutral toys and for adopting an inclusive bathroom policy or what bigots did to their Nike products after Colin Kaepernick took a knee.
America has a problem with white male and white female anger. Misogyny reeks throughout the GOP and if Democrats want to win in November, they better get more unapologetic about LGBTQIA rights and abortion rights. Millennials and GEN Z will hold the nation accountable.
