They didn't come after me. They came after my child.

I woke up this morning to find out that last night, my 17yo non-binary kid was attacked by a bunch of TERFs, who tagged her into their thread where they mocked and belittled her and said awful things about her mom (me).

Yesterday I wrote a tweet about my kid coming out to us as non-binary. Instead of coming after me directly, they screenshot my post (of course) and then TAGGED A TEENAGER IN to make fun of them. How cowardly.

I'm livid and yet not surprised at all.

This is "gender critical" behaviour in a nutshell. Attack children you claim to be 'protecting' and 'defending.' Mock young people who you believe to be mentally ill and who you know statistically have a high rate of self-harm.

It's never been about protecting. It's about hate.

Rather than go after me, a parent with a large following and a history of standing up to hate online, they stayed far away from that and went for my kid. Only my kid.

Because they are cowardly in their hate. Because they are bullies. Because they wanted power.

The good news is my kid is resilient and hit back hard. She pointed out how wrong it was to attack a teenager. She pulled apart their assumptions about her and her family. And then she blocked the cowards and went on about her life. I applaud her courage. She's incredible.

I don't worry about my kid. I worry about those who are more vulnerable. That's why what happened last night has invigorated me.

TERFs, you've just made me even more determined to be a strong cis ally to trans people. Enjoy the repercussions of that. And don't mess with my kid.

My not-so-fave people in this thread are the ones who are:
1. weighing in on whether or not I should use the term TERF (yes I should. No it's not a slur.)
2. saying what my kid was subjected to wasn't "so bad"
3. accusing me of lying about her getting pulled into the TERF thread

Technically, my teen was quote-tweeted into the thread. She got a notification just as she would if they had tagged her. They then went on to misgender her, call her delusional, mock her music career and more. If you don't think that's bullying, shame on you.

I'm blocked by some in that thread, but I can assure you I was shown/read the tweets by my kid. If some have been removed or protected since, I wouldn't be surprised. But they were there, and the only person whose opinion of how awful they were that matters here is my child's.