Non-binary person trolled for appearing in lesbian magazine

A non-binary activist has been viciously trolled for appearing in the lesbian and bisexual women’s magazine DIVA.

Owl (aka Ugla Stefanía Kristjönudóttir Jónsdóttir) is a filmmaker and non-binary trans campaigner and their work was being celebrated by the magazine in a section named ‘Diva of the week’. The section is a weekly social media feature, where the editorial team choose a hero from the LBQT community to promote.

This week Owl was featured in the section, but instead of praise, one DIVA reader highlighted all of the abuse they are receiving.

 

Owl (aka Ugla Stefanía Kristjönudóttir Jónsdóttir) is a filmmaker and non-binary trans campaigner (Credit: Owl)

Helen (handle @mimmymum) wrote: “Fabulous seeing @UglaStefania in Diva Magazine as #DIVAOfTheWeek. Not so fabulous seeing the amount of trolling they’ve received as a result!” and shared images of the transphobia on Twitter.

Below are some screenshots of the comments:

Transphobic comments left on a tweet by DIVA magazine.

 

The comments ranged from misgendering Owl to hurling transphobic abuse at them.

 


Transphobic comments left on a tweet by DIVA magazine.

Publisher of DIVA Linda Riley responded to the abuse and told PinkNews: “DIVA Magazine is explicitly trans inclusive. We stand with our trans and non-binary siblings and condemn in the strongest terms transphobic abuse received by @UglaStefania and others. This kind of hate has no place in our community.”

One Twitter user claimed DIVA was “anti-lesbian” and said all LGBT media is “homophobic and anti-homosexual.”

 

Transphobic comments left on a tweet by DIVA magazine.

Riley told PinkNews: “If we lose readers because they do not agree with our inclusivity then I do not care – these are not the readers I want to be associated with, but calling us anti-lesbian when we are simply being inclusive is ludicrous.”

A few hours after publishing, Owl spoke to PinkNews and said: “This just goes to show how trans feminine people are constantly targeted, harassed and abused on social media. The sad part is that it comes from people who claim they want to protect women or feminine people, when in fact they often target the most vulnerable within that group,”

“The arguments are always the same, and they lack nuance, depth and understanding of the complexity of gender and expression. The ironic thing is that they call themselves ‘gender critical’ while simultaneously upholding oppressive discourse that continues to oppress femininity and feminine people. It’s frankly disgusting how these people treat others, and it goes to show the level of malice and damage they are willing to inflict upon others just to justify their bigotry,” they added.