Twitter this week suspended the personal account of a U.S. legislator after she made a comment about transgender athletes and linked to a political advertisement on the subject.
The tweet from Rep. Vicky Hartzler, a Missouri Republican who is running for U.S. Senate, referenced Penn's Lia Thomas, who swam on the men's team for three years before swimming on the women's team this season.
Thomas' success led USA Swimming to significantly tighten its rules on transgender athletes.
"Women's sports are for women, not men pretending to be women," Hartzler wrote in her tweet that linked to a political ad.
Twitter suspended her account, saying she violated Twitter's rules against hateful conduct. Her campaign manager, Michael Hafner, posted a screenshot, calling it the "height of stupidity."
Hartzler, though, says she will not delete the tweet.
"Twitter says I can't speak the truth on their platform – well, they can just have their account back! I won't delete my tweet, and I will keep speaking the truth!" she wrote on Facebook. "Women's sports are for women, not men pretending to be women."
Hartzler is running to replace U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, who is retiring.
She has made the controversy over transgender athletes a major part of her campaign. Her campaign advertisement shows pictures of Thomas as a man and then as a woman.
"Meet William Thomas, ranked number 462 in men's swimming. Meet Leah Thomas, ranked number one in women's swimming. Only one problem – it's the same person," she says in the ad. "Some people are afraid to talk about it. Not me. I'm Vicky Hartzler. I ran and coached girls' track, and I won't look away while woke liberals destroy women's sports. Women's sports are for women, not men pretending to be women."
Under the new rules by USA Swimming, a transgender woman must have a testosterone level of "less than 5 nmol/L" continuously for at least three years. Additionally, a three-person panel comprised of independent medical experts will determine if the transgender athlete has a "competitive advantage" over biological women based on "prior physical development of the athlete as a male."
Related:
Olympic Medalist Confronts Transgender Issue: 'It's Time' to Stand up 'for Women's Sports'
Parents Speak Out: NCAA Rules Let Trans Swimmers Trample 'all over Biological Women'
Photo courtesy: ©GettyImages/taa22
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
