March 31 was International Transgender Day of Visibility, an annual event dedicated to celebrating transgender people far and wide, celebrating the influential contributions made by transgender people, and raising awareness about the discrimination transgender people suffer daily.
Many people used social media to celebrate the day, sharing art and using the timely opportunity to educate people about the beauty and struggles of transgender life.
Except disgraced former NBC News host Megyn Kelly. She opted to be transphobic instead.
Kelly, who was ousted from her post at NBC News after she embraced the practice of blackface, drew all sorts of outrage with a tweet that did the exact opposite of celebrate trans lives.
The tweet came in response to a supportive tweet posted by Top Chef host and author Padma Lakshmi.
In her four-part tweet, Lakshmi promoted acceptance and offered a run down of some commonly misunderstood terms regarding gender and sexuality.
📢 PSA: Gender: used to describe characteristics that are socially constructed, encompasses a range of identities… https://t.co/S5AcsC2qdD— Padma Lakshmi (@Padma Lakshmi) 1617216730.0
Lakshmi's tweet garnered a wide variety of responses.
Some emphasized her points and echoed how important it was for people to educate themselves about key terms and concepts so they can feel more capacity to be inclusive. Others, though, spewed total intolerance for anything not defined by a simplified man-woman binary.
Then, in a tweet of her own, Kelly, never one to shy away from an opportunity to espouse bigotry in any form, chose to either congratulate all those dismissive replies or mock all the genuine ones, it's unclear exactly which.
Kelly quote tweeted Lakshmi's post.
The responses to this idiotic tweet are spectacular. https://t.co/mZrA6yJg7p— Megyn Kelly (@Megyn Kelly) 1617241757.0
To which many people offered their own "spectacular" responses.
@megynkelly Here’s the thing Megyn. I admittedly don’t understand all the ins and outs of what it means to be trans… https://t.co/HPt5lWAwan— DF (@DF) 1617242480.0
@megynkelly No, Megyn there is nothing wrong with allowing a child to express themselves in a healthy manner.— nonexistent (@nonexistent) 1617271145.0
@megynkelly It’s kind of hard to take advice for someone who worked for Fox and voted for Trump— John Bryant (@John Bryant) 1617241854.0
@megynkelly There’s a reason you work out of your basement now.— donna januario (@donna januario) 1617244186.0
@megynkelly What a shame Megyn didn’t feel loved and accepted. https://t.co/erB9788GxI— PandemicParalegal (@PandemicParalegal) 1617242509.0
@megynkelly Megyn Kelly disappoints me more and more— Thabo Ntsako Baloyi (@Thabo Ntsako Baloyi) 1617258315.0
Kelly's tweet served as merely the most recent example of her willingness to share transphobic rhetoric on Twitter.
As Queerty reported, in December 2020 she attacked trans activist Zinnia Jones, calling her "insane," "abusive," "awful," and "unwell" all in a single tweet.
Here's hoping you came across some far better, more inclusive content on International Trans Day of Visibility.