No, I Don’t Have to Accept It When A Friend Spreads Transphobic Misinformation

Addison's Agenda
4 min readDec 21, 2019

So yes, this is about The Great Always Controversy of 2019, a “friend” spreading the misinformation a right-wing site posted, and my reaction to that post.

What actually happened: After Proctor and Gamble added a Venus symbol to the packaging for Always pads, a few trans men and non-binary people who menstruate pointed out to them that not everyone who uses their products identifies with it. Proctor and Gamble, a company that positions itself as an LGBTQ ally, understood their point of view and agreed to remove the symbol to better reflect their customers, the company’s values, and their marketing strategy.

It was a simple marketing suggestion, voiced firmly but politely, that the marketing division of the company found to be reasonable.

How it was portrayed in The Daily Caller: After P&G announced the change, The Daily Caller, a far-right website known for making up lies about the transgender community, started a misinformation campaign. Gone was the reasonable exchange between people in the trans community and an allied corporation. Instead, the Daily Caller published stories about angry tweets from unreasonable trans activists that the weak corporation caved in to. A suggestion about marketing their products from users of the products turned into threats of a…

--

--

Addison's Agenda

Addison Smith is an LGBTQ+ and disability educator and activist living in the Midwest with their cat. They/She. More info at https://addisonsagenda.com