Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Miss.) has been temporarily suspended from Twitter over a post targeting transgender athletes.
In her post, Hartzler claimed that “women’s sports are for women, not men pretending to be women.” She included a link to an ad targeting Lia Thomas, a transgender swimmer.
Hartzler was suspended for violating the platform’s policy against hateful conduct. A spokesperson for Twitter told The Hill, “This includes targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals.”
They added, “The account owner will need to delete the violative Tweet and spend 12 hours in read-only mode before regaining full access to their account.”
According to The Associated Press, a statement issued by Hartzler’s campaign called the suspension “shameful, utterly ridiculous, and a horrible abuse of censorship by big tech giants to stifle free speech.”
The campaign also said she would not be deleting the tweet.
In her ad, Hartzler targeted the swimmer, saying, “Meet William Thomas, ranked No. 462 in men’s swimming. Meet Lia Thomas, ranked No. 1 in women’s swimming. Only one problem — it’s the same person.”
She added, “Some people are afraid to talk about it. Not me.”
Hartzler stressed she is not going to “look away while woke liberals destroy women’s sports.”
She later concluded the ad, saying, “Women’s sports are for women, not men pretending to be women.”
Earlier this month, South Dakota became the 10th state nationwide to sign a bill banning transgender girls and women from competing on female sports teams.
“This bill has been an important priority for a lot of the people behind me,” South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) said at a news conference.
She continued, “And I appreciate all of their hard work in making sure that girls will always have the opportunity to play in girls sports in South Dakota and have an opportunity for a level playing field, for fairness, that gives them the chance to experience success.”
