Columnist compares transgender candidate Christine Hallquist’s win to the rise of the Nazis
Christine Hallquist and Mona Charen (Hillary Swift/Getty and the aspen institute/youtube)
A columnist has been slammed after comparing transgender politician Christine Hallquist’s nomination for Vermont Governor to the rise of the Nazis in Germany.
Mona Charen, who works for anti-LGBT+ think-tank the Ethics and Public Policy Centre, also wrote that “Hallquist was born male but now prefers to dress as a woman” in the opinion piece.
The column, which was printed in Wyoming’s largest print newspaper, the Casper Star-Tribune, and the conservative National Review, dismisses the idea that Hallquist winning the Democratic nomination was historic.
Mona Charen tweeted in the past week about “the mania for transsexualism” (The Aspen Institute/youtube)
This is despite the 62-year-old – who has been the CEO of Vermont Electric Cooperative for more than a decade – becoming the first openly trans person to ever be chosen as a major party’s gubernatorial candidate.
Charen says: “The words ‘history’ or ‘historic’ in the mouths of progressives are always laudatory. They are honorifics, not descriptors.
After all, lots of things are firsts — a Holocaust-denying, Nazi sympathizer made it onto the ballot on the Republican ticket in Illinois’s 3rd congressional district.
Hallquist’s win was part of a huge year so far for LGBT+ candidates (Christine for Vermont)
“That doesn’t get described as historic.”
That candidate, former American Nazi Party leader Arthur Jones, was elected unopposed after saying that the LGBT+ movement “MUST BE STOPPED” and being denounced by the Illinois Republican Party.
She then seems to rail against history, again comparing Hallquist’s win to Nazis in an attempt to show that historical events can sometimes be bad.
Hallquist won in a landslide (Hillary Swift/Getty)
“Progressives have a proprietary feeling about history,” Charen writes. “They are convinced that it ‘bends toward justice,’ as Barack Obama was fond of quoting, and that it will inevitably trend their way.
“I’ve always found this an inexplicable fantasy, since among other things, the world witnessed within living memory one of the most progressive nations on the planet (Germany) descend into barbarism within the space of a few short years.
“Where was history’s benevolent guiding hand then?” she asks.
Last week, conservative journalist Chadwick Moore said Hallquist had “transgender privilege,” adding that “she can get away with many, many things simply by being transgender.
Moore said that Hallquist had “transgender privilege” (chadwick moore/fox news)
“Who knows if that’s even how she won this primary,” added Moore, a gay journalist who last month alerted the FBI on Twitter after his Grindr profile was shut down.
In her article, Charen – who has tweeted in the past week about “the mania for transsexualism” – also frames Hallquist’s win as a victory for discrimination in favour of trans people.
She writes: “Hallquist’s chief claim to office appears to be her sexuality,” before claiming that “transgender people are the flavour of the month.”
This is contradicted by the fact that a total of 16 trans people having been killed in the US so far this year, after 28 were killed in 2017 – the highest number on record.
Hallquist will face incumbent Republican Governor Phil Scott in November (christine hallquist/facebook)
Hallquist herself has received about a dozen death threats during her campaign, according to the Associated Press.
The columnist adds that liberals “insist upon lionising people who choose to behave and dress like the other sex as if they’re all Rosa Parks.”
Zeke Stokes, vice president of programmes for LGBT+ media monitoring group GLAAD, has condemned Charen’s article.
“This column is an irresponsible and dangerous disservice to readers that disguises Mona Charen’s discredited anti-transgender rhetoric as political commentary,” he said.
“Instead of providing a platform for medically and scientifically debunked lies, media should use this moment to elevate voices who can properly share stories and insights with their readers about who transgender people really are.”
