Military pilot Jo Ellis said she had to hire private armed security for her family because of the false claims, which went viral on social media.
A transgender military pilot filed a defamation lawsuit Wednesday against a conservative influencer who falsely claimed on social media that she was flying the helicopter that collided with a commercial jet near Reagan National Airport in January, killing 67 people.
“I want to hold this person accountable for what they did to me,” Jo Ellis, a pilot who has served more than 15 years in the Virginia Army National Guard, said in a statement to NBC News. “It’s become too common that people can say horrible things about someone, profit at their expense, and get away with it.”
On Jan. 30, less than 24 hours after the crash, conservative influencer Matt Wallace, who has 2.2 million followers on the social media platform X, shared a post from another account he operates stating that the helicopter pilot was transgender, according to the lawsuit. Wallace included a photo of Ellis, and the post went viral, the lawsuit states.
Her, and “was she”… but good on you for not being hateful!
It’s my go-to way of speaking to people now too. I will either use just their name or use non gender pronouns. I figure I will avoid misgendering by not gendering.
Uhm. Hey, I know you are well meaning and I’m only saying this to inform, not to call out, shame or attack.
But most trans people deeply dislike what you’re doing, it’s called degendering and it’s not an appropriate or respectful way to refer to us.
I understand you are worried about saying the wrong thing, but this is a way to deny trans people their identity but talking around it. It’s extremely noticeable and as someone who has attended more than a few trans support groups, it’s dehumanizing and upsetting. Just as non-binary folk use they/them, binary trans folk use she and him. We have one correct way to refer to us, and apart from sentance where you are referring to a group, “they” is not a safe one size fits all.
Again, I say this respectfully in effort to inform. You seem well intending, but I implore you to reconsider.
Like I replied below,
If y’all gonna have a problem with using neutral terms then you will have to live with being offended because it’s not fair if we can’t just use your name.
“It feels like people are purposely making it impossible to be respectful to everyone…” Yeah by ignoring simple social cues (or a written article) that would have allowed them to correctly and respectfully refer to another person, if they would have had the energy to allow a single additional neuron to fire off in there.
“…I will go with offending the gendered people.” You know everyone here can see your previous posts right? Where you correctly gender Trump, Musk, and probably every other cicgendered person without having any trouble. But nice edgy touch…
I’m not talking to them in person, and they are not ambiguous. I was speaking from the point of not knowing the person on a level where it is public knowledge or personal knowledge. Nice try, trying to make this a personal attack.
Misgendering someone is rude and disrespectful, regardless of if you do it to their face or anonymously online. You knew she identified as she, you made a choice to use ‘they’. And your “reason” (excuse) is cowardly.
Who? I never mis gendered anyone in this thread… Who is she?
I have mistaken you for the person you were agreeing with. I apologize.
deleted by creator
Strong disagree. Using ‘they/them’ when you’re generally unsure about a person’s gender isn’t misgendering.
I’m a binary trans woman. If someone is generally unsure about my gender, because it can be ambiguous from time to time, they/them when referring to me is perfectly acceptable. I would suggest most other people are fine with they/them in this instance as well.
Pronouns can be quite a minefield to navigate, especially for those not used to using they/them when all they’ve ever known is binary terms growing up.
Speaking as an ‘elder’ trans person, some pronouns in use, which are just as valid as mine!, are genuinely difficult to remember because there are so many of them. I’m talking about the ones that aren’t part of the English language in common use. I default to ‘they/them’ in those instances because using the person’s assigned gender at birth would be genuinely hurtful; I don’t want to hurt someone.
I feel very much that our own, gender diverse, community is driving those outside of it away by being so strict with/overt policing of pronouns, that those who aren’t gender diverse find the whole ‘pronoun’ thing too complicated, then either refuse to engage with us or deliberately misgender because its easier. This is especially true for older conservative cis people.
deleted by creator
Its true, some people are super sensitive and look for reasons to be offended, its best to just avoid them rather then placate that type of person. Its not really about pronoun usage.
It literally is about prounons. It’s super shitty to dismiss another’s identity because you found it troublesome to respect the correct way to address them.
I find that overly sensitive people are generally not worth my time, If someone cant get over the use of gender neutral pronouns, they are looking for a reason to be offended, the issue isnt the person using gender neutral pronouns. You can’t just change other people’s vocabulary because it might be offensive to someone. Its the same with people who don’t like cussing, that’s their fucking problem not mine.
I don’t disagree with your first statement.
However I do disagree with your second statement, quoted above, because it’s so broad that even people trying to do the right thing, or least harmful thing, can be accused of misgendering or be policed by others for simply trying to be inclusive.
Whilst a technicality, it really rubs non-gender diverse people the wrong way, and makes it harder for gender diverse people, myself included, to drive broader acceptance of us in the community when all we’re known for is telling others they’re ‘wrong’ when they accidentally mess up a pronoun or three.
There’s a very fine balance to be struck between being inclusive, and being correct.
If someone gets a person’s gender wrong accidentally because they were unsure, that shouldn’t, and doesn’t in my view, count as misgendering simply because it was a misunderstanding.
However if someone deliberately, or maliciously refers to someone as their assigned gender at birth, that’s misgendering which should absolutely be called out and derided.
If someone tells me to use a certain pronoun I will, but my default has been “they” for a long time now. Gendered pronouns in general are a terrible idea, linguistically at the very least.
So if I’m not sure don’t use pronouns?
Then we can’t win, it feels like people are purposely making it impossible to be respectful to everyone by always having an issue. So I will go with offending the gendered people.
I don’t believe gendering ever has, or ever will be, required for communicating in the English language. Regardless of my personal beliefs regarding trans people, which are still unknown, I ask you to convince me otherwise.
deleted by creator
I wasn’t trying to start a flame war, honestly. It was just clear from the post that “she” was a “she/her”
They all know. They’re not correcting themselves on purpose. It’s all transphobic rhetoric and always has been.
Yikes