Richard Simmons gender-reassignment defamation lawsuit mentions Trump trans military ban
A defamation lawsuit filed by Richard Simmons against the National Enquirer has brought up Trump’s transgender military ban.
The lawsuit was filed in May against the publication by the fitness guru over headlines which suggested he was transgender.
The Enquirer has brought an anti-SLAPP motion to try and have the lawsuit thrown out.
American Media, which owns the publication, argues that it is not possible for defamation to apply to articles about gender transition as there is no shame in being transgender.
On Thursday, Simmons’ lawyers filed his response to the claim from the Enquirerm saying that Trump’s military ban shows that trans people are not accepted in society.
“It is unclear why — if society (and AMI purportedly with it) so embraces the transgender community — that AMI would characterize its Articles as ‘exposing’ Mr. Simmons or use the word ‘bizarre’ to characterize his alleged new life as a trans woman,” states Simmons’ response.
“Surely, if AMI’s readers rejected prejudice against trans people, such phrasing would not help sell magazines or promote internet clicks. AMI cannot at once cynically and deliberately publish falsehoods about Simmons that it touted to the world as ‘shocking’ and ‘bizarre,’ intentionally pandering to prejudice, and then righteously pretend that such prejudice does not exist.”
Simmons is suing the National Enquirer over a series of articles which claimed he was transitioning from male to female.
The lawsuit which alleges libel against the Enquirer, calls the articles “cruel and malicious”.
They were published between June 2016 and March 2017, and played on the fact that the fitness guru had withdrawn from public life.
Headlines included “shocking sex surgery”, and suggesting that he was undergoing hormone replacement therapy and that he had gotten breast implants.
Monday’s lawsuit describes the actions by the Enquirer as “particularly egregious”, that it had suggested Simmons would not sue in case he appeared to be in opposition to those who transition.
“National Enquirer and Radar Online have miscalculated,” reads the complaint, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
“The National Enquirer and Radar Online have cheaply and crassly commercialised and sensationalised an issue that ought to be treated with respect and sensitivity. Principles of freedom of speech and press may protect their prerogative to mock and degrade the LGBTQ community. But freedom to speak is not freedom to defame. Mr Simmons, like every person in this nation, has a legal right to insist that he not be portrayed as someone he is not. Even the most ardent supporter of sexual autonomy and LGBTQ rights is entitled to be portrayed in a manner that is truthful.”
Simmons’ attorney Neville Johnson, continues: “The law of defamation and false light invasion of privacy exist to vindicate this elemental right. The law protects the right of every person to be treated with decency and dignity, free from the deliberate propagation of falsehoods that have no motivation other than exploitation. It is to vindicate that right, and the rights of all persons to be portrayed with dignity and honesty with regard to their sexual identity, that Mr. Simmons files this lawsuit.”
The renowned fitness instructor, says he had withdrawn from public life in early 2014.
He says that his absence from being on television had drawn attention to himself
This included a podcast being launched named ‘Missing Richard Simmons’.
Despite offers from Simmons for the paper to retract the headlines, the National Enquirer published a new article on 15 June repeating the claims.
It stated that he was “the latest Hollywood star to secretly undergo a sex change”, adding that he has “opted for a breast implant surgery, hormone therapy, and a host of other invasive changes to create the transformation the Enquirer reported.”
The case continues.
