Republican congressman Jim Banks has been suspended from Twitter after he misgendered Dr Rachel Levine, the US assistant secretary of health and the nation’s highest-ranking trans official. Levine was sworn in last weekas a four-star admiral of the US Public Health and Service Commissioned Corps, making her the first openly trans four-star officer across any of the US uniformed services. She is also the organisation’s first-ever female four-star admiral. But Banks, a representative for Indiana, mocked Levine’s historic appointment on Twitter, intentionally misgendering her. “The title of first female four-star officer gets taken by a man,” Banks wrote in a tweet, which Twitter removed for violating its rules. Twitter’s hateful conduct policy prohibits “targeting others with repeated slurs, tropes or other content that intends to dehumanise, degrade or reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes about a protected category”. This includes “targeting misgendering or deadnames” of trans people. On his personal account, Banks was defiant about his statements on Twitter and demanded that “Big Tech” be held accountable for suspending his official account. “Twitter has suspended my official account for posting a statement of FACT,” he said. “I won’t back down.”
via pinknews: Republican congressman suspended from Twitter for misgendering trans health official Rachel Levine