Right wing media is defending a ‘hero’ General who ‘joked’ he would kill trans women
Right-wing news sites are defending a retired general who made a “joke” about using violence to put off trans women who use women’s bathrooms.
General Lieutenant William “Jerry” Boykin was sacked from a teaching post at Hampden-Sydney College after the comments he posted online.
The former Delta Force soldier and vice president of the vehemently anti-LGBT Family Research Council, said earlier this year that “the first man who goes in the restroom with my daughter will not have to worry about surgery.”
Jerry Boykin meeting with fellow homophobe Rick Santorum in 2012
He was responding to a number of bills proposed and passed in US states which ban transgender people from using gender-appropriate bathrooms, and it seemed apparent when he referred to “men” that he was misgendering trans women.
But despite appearing to call for violence against trans people, the former soldier has been defended as an “American hero” by sites like World Net Daily (WND) and Fox News.
The latter referred to the leadership at the school as “cowardly”, and said he was “was ousted because of political correctness.”
WND claimed that he “was targeted by radical LGBT activists”, and that they demanded that he be sacked from the college.
The school’s administrators responded to say that they had simply chosen not to renew the former General’s contract.
“His contract was simply not renewed,” said Thomas Shomo, the college’s director of communications.
“We felt it was time academically for a change.”
Boykin, who previously taught at the all-male school in Virginia, has since claimed he was “joking”, and that the “bottom line is that I oppose these so called ‘#Bathroom’ bills that let men go into women’s locker rooms, showers, and toilets and I have been very public about it.”
“When I said in Orlando that ‘… the first man who goes in the restroom with my daughter will not have to worry about surgery,’ the LGBT community once again came after me, claiming that I was calling for violence against #transgender people.”
But he claimed that “that is simply not the case and I have never called for violence against anyone.”
He claimed that he was “referring to perverts who will use these policies to get into locker rooms with girls and women, and I object to that.”
There have been no recorded cases of a person using a pro-trans bathroom policy to sexually harass a minor in a bathroom.
“My statement was meant to be humour and not a call for violence, which everyone in my audience understood as humour,” he added.
“Nonetheless, I gave the LGBT community just what they needed to pressure the college leadership to terminate me and they did.”
In a statement posted on Facebook, the “hero” said: “Let me make it official and let you all know that I have been terminated from teaching at Hampden-Sydney College after nine years there. Hampden Sydney is the 10th oldest college in America and is one of the two men’s colleges left in #America.
“Let me begin by saying that it is a fine school with some very good young men who give me hope for the future. There are also a few very good faculty members who I consider to be good friends and true patriots. They stood with me through this whole situation as the school made the decision to terminate me and I appreciate everything that these friends at the school did to try and help.”
The former General last year claimed that allowing trans people in the US military will impact on “readiness” and undermine morale.
In 2014 Boykin said that the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in 2011 had caused the ‘absolute destruction’ of the US military.
In 2010, the FRC claimed that repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, which prohibited gay troops from serving openly, would lead to the spread of HIV among troops.
A study conducted by researchers at the University of California found that allowing gay troops had caused no negative impact, and had “enhanced the military’s ability to pursue its mission”.
