A coordinated campaign to drive trans people out of public life
Parker Molloy on the latest Oklahoma anti-trans work
We've got a really good one by Parker Molloy today. I usually could not give a single shit about what is happening on college campuses but this latest thing is awful and emblematic of the constant efforts from the right – and plenty of centrist liberals for that matter – toward preventing trans people from existing in public.
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Parker previously wrote for Hell World about her favorite Weezer songs.
It's About Making Trans People Unemployable
by Parker Molloy
By now you may have seen the story making the rounds. It’s about a University of Oklahoma student named Samantha Fulnecky who received a zero on a psychology essay, filed a discrimination complaint, and got her trans graduate instructor placed on administrative leave. Conservative media has framed this as religious persecution: a brave Christian student punished for citing the Bible. The governor of Oklahoma has weighed in. Libs of TikTok has amplified it to hundreds of thousands of people. Turning Point USA is demanding the instructor be fired.
But if you actually read the essay — which TPUSA helpfully published — you’ll find something different than what’s being advertised.
The assignment asked students to write a 650-word reaction paper responding to an article about “Gender Typicality, Peer Relations, and Mental Health.” The rubric was straightforward: 10 points for showing a clear tie to the assigned article, 10 points for providing a thoughtful reaction rather than a summary, and 5 points for clarity of writing. Students were given suggested approaches like discussing whether the topic was worthy of study, applying the findings to their own experiences, or offering alternate interpretations of the researchers’ conclusions.