Conservative Christian radio host Erick Erickson said Saturday his Twitter account was suspended over a tweet in which he described New Zealand transgender weightlifter Laurel Hubbard as a man.
The Georgia-based Erickson, formerly the editor-in-chief of RedState, posted on Instagram a screenshot from his Twitter account that said it had been suspended for violating “our rules against hateful conduct,” and linked to the Hubbard tweet.
His Thursday tweet said, “This is absurd. Laurel Hubbard is a man even if Twitter doesn’t like it.”
“Well, it seems post-modernity has caught up to me. Twitter has suspended me for a statement of fact that Twitter’s woke employees do not like,” said Mr. Erickson in a mass email. “In defending Allie Beth Stuckey, who was previously suspended from Twitter for a statement of truth, I reiterated that, in fact, the New Zealand transgender weight lifter is a man.”
He added that “Twitter has suspended me for stating the truth.”
Hubbard, 43, who transitioned from male to female in 2012, failed to complete any of her three lifts Monday in the women’s super-heavyweight division, but made history as the first openly transgender Olympian to compete based on gender identity and not sex.
Ms. Stuckey, a conservative commentator, landed in “Twitter jail” Thursday for her tweet saying “Laurel Hubbard failing at the event doesn’t make his inclusion fair. He’s still a man, and men shouldn’t compete with women in weightlifting.”
She said on Instagram that the suspension was lifted 12 hours later, as reported by the [U.K.] Daily Mail.
“Good morning. I’m out of Twitter jail. Men are still men. Thank you,” she tweeted Friday.
Remember, you can threaten, dox, harass, post porn, spread Chinese propaganda and tweet as a member of a terrorist regime here on Twitter, but you cannot call a man, “he,” because that is “promoting violence.”
— Allie Beth Stuckey (@conservmillen) August 6, 2021
Twitter’s hateful-conduct policy prohibits tweets that “promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease.”
The Washington Times has reached out to Twitter for comment.
Mr. Erickson took issue with his suspension, saying it was “worth noting that I did not promote violence, threaten, or harass anyone.
“I didn’t even tag Laurel Hubbard in my tweet,” he said. “I just stated the simple fact that Laurel Hubbard is a man. It is a statement of basic biological fact that Twitter and the Wokes oppose.”
He also said he would probably wind up deleting the tweet to have the suspension lifted.
“To get back into Twitter, they’ll require me to delete that tweet. Career wise, it is probably necessary,” Mr. Erickson said. “But I’m not sure I want to.”
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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