Getting some blowback for the intentional misgendering of ben shapiro (herein BS), and not only from concern trolls.

I make no excuses and won't hide/delete the tweets; so following is an apology, and some clarifying context.

It's a thread, so TL;DR: I'm sorry and will stop.

BS, among other deplorable things, is a raging transphobe who intentionally misgenders trans women and men for many gross reasons, among those to trigger them into anger responses (for which BS can claim some sort of moral victory).

Because people like BS have no stake in the matter, they attempt to justify this grossness as "free speech" and "biology" and refuse to acknowledge the real harm to trans people everywhere by normalizing that behaviour among their followers and friends.

As a mechanism to combat this, I started intentionally misgendering these people as "it" (not as the wrong gender, because that's exactly transphobic)...for a specific reason: to demonstrate clearly how humiliating their behaviour is.

People who follow BS are not going to understand the humiliation of misgendering unless it's made abundantly clear how dehumanizing this behaviour is when applied to a person they respect (or themselves). It's a classic mirroring technique.

I did consult with several trans and non binary friends about this tactic before employing it publicly, to make sure that it was not causing extra harm to them specifically. From those I consulted, I felt safe that this was net helpful.

However, I don't get to decide that.

All this long explanation for two reasons:
1) My actions were intentional, thought through, even with consultation.

2) None of that matters if it causes harm to the very people I'm advocating for. It's entirely possible that I'm wrong, and I'd rather apologize than equivocate.

Let's be clear: I don't apologize to BS or those who intentionally misgender people.

I apologize specifically to those harmed by transphobia. If there's even a chance that what I was doing to BS perpetuates transphobia, then I'm deeply sorry - it won't happen again.

And in case it wasn't obvious, anyone who posts transphobic content in here is instantly blocked and reported.