Earlier this week, U.S. Senate candidate Vick Hartzler’s personal account on Twitter was suspended due to her remarks about University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas.
In February, Hartzler tweeted: “Women’s sports are for women, not men pretending to be women.” Her message included her TV ad that targets transgender people in sports.
Twitter suspended Hartzler for 12 hours because her comments violated the company’s rules against hateful conduct.
Hartzler’s campaign wasted no time firing back at Twitter.
“It’s shameful, utterly ridiculous, and a horrible abuse of censorship by big tech giants to stifle free speech,” Hartzler’s campaign said in a statement, via The Kansas City Star.
“We’re not backing down and we’re going to fight it,” said Vicky Hartzler’s campaign manager. https://t.co/bkQ4EksVLK
— The Kansas City Star (@KCStar) February 28, 2022
Thomas, meanwhile, hasn’t allowed this type of criticism to affect her mindset. She told Sports Illustrated that she’s “here to swim.”
“The very simple answer is that I’m not a man,” Thomas said. “I’m a woman, so I belong on the women’s team. Trans people deserve that same respect every other athlete gets.”
Despite all the controversy surrounding this season, Thomas will compete for Penn at the NCAA Championships this month.
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