Warning: This article contains graphic content.
A UC Santa Barbara feminist studies graduate student — who previously served as a teaching assistant for an introductory LGBTQ+ studies course — has come under fire in recent weeks after students discovered dozens of transphobic statements posted on her public Twitter account.
The Ph.D. student, Laura Tanner, has faced severe backlash both on Twitter and in letters from the general student body and from 20 feminist studies graduate students. The account @saltyfemst, which features her name and image, has posted dozens of tweets espousing transphobic views, including: “It’s not possible to be born in the wrong body,” and “so called trans women will never be anything but men.”
After students publicized Tanner’s tweets within the UCSB Twitter community, Tanner was harassed on the social media platform, with several accounts labeling her a trans-exclusionary radical feminist (TERF) and calling for her to be removed from the university.
The widely known definition of a TERF is an individual who believes that transgender people do not exist and, specifically, that transgender women are not women.
Nearly 400 UCSB alumni and 20 feminist studies graduate students also released two separate letters following the publicization of Tanner’s account, the first demanding that the university protect its students and the second emphasizing the department’s committment to transgender and genderqueer students.
Two UCSB students also organized a demonstration against Tanner on June 13, demanding that Tanner be removed from the university.
But Tanner, in a statement to the Nexus, defended her right to share her views on social media and took offense to the descriptor of TERF, stating that her postings are an “expression of my political beliefs” and the word TERF is a “slur used to denigrate and silence women.”
“The student campaign asking the university to retaliate against my exercise of free speech by “firing” me has included incitement to violence, defamatory lies about my teaching, and harassment in regard to my race and sexuality,” Tanner said in a statement.
“The silencing, no platforming, and retaliation against academics who question or critique trans ideology is a problem throughout the world. This is especially concerning in the university environment, which is supposed to be a place of open, unimpeded exchange of ideas.”
Tanner has been with the university since Fall Quarter 2013, according to student verification records. She earned a masters in feminist studies at UCSB in 2015 and has since served as a teaching assistant for several courses within the department.
According to Tanner’s website, her doctoral research is focused around “the mistaken idea that biological sex is socially constructed or possible to change” and “the abusive and dangerously experimental practices of medically “transing” children and young adults.”
University spokesperson Andrea Estrada said that the university could not discuss specific incidents because of confidentiality requirements but said that UCSB will review any reports of campus policy violations.
Estrada declined to comment on any potential complaints against Tanner.
Below is a list of some tweets visible on Tanner’s account, posted between January and June:
- June 20: “People who think they are transgender exist. No debate. There is no such thing as actually being transgender (a male woman or a female man). Believing so is a delusion. I will not validate such a decision by validating terms like ‘trans people’ Interpret that as you will.”
- May 5: “Yea, like ‘woman’ ‘female,’ ‘man’ & ‘male?’ These words all have original definitions based on reality. Transsexualism started this mess by trying to change ‘man/woman’ to include people of the opposite sex & fantaszing that drugs & cutting change one’s sex in the first place.”
- March 29: “Rather than resolving dysphoria or dysmorphia, ‘transition’ maintains & reinforces a state of opposition to one’s own body and forces one to live in a constant state of cognitive dissonance. This is not mental health care. #StopTransingKids #TruthisNotAHateCrime”
- March 28: “Calling males women, or females men is the very definition of misgendering I feel deeply disrespected by the notion that any male can call themselves a woman and be considered the same gender as me. #MalePrivilge #TransWomenAreMen #TruthIsNotAHateCrime”
- March 28: “If you ever had a dick you aren’t a lesbian, not now, not ever.”
- March 26: “Genital cutting of any kind does not change one’s sex and can never make a man into a woman.”
- March 14: “Trans ‘women’ are men, ffs”;
- March 2: “Stand up for your son because he is perfect the way he was born – a boy. No child is trans. It’s not possible to be born in the wrong body.”
- Feb. 4: “People who believe themselves to be trans exist. Transgenderism itself is a delusion. A man cannot become a woman anymore than a male can become female. This is NOT a denial of the humanity of people who believe the delusion, it IS reality”
In response to her tweets, students have called Tanner “absolute trash,” a “dumb bitch” and “a gatekeeper of womanhood.” One student tweeted “that bitch needs to die.”
Other responses on Twitter called for Tanner to lose her job, arguing that Tanner’s beliefs interfered with her ability to teach.
The open letter from the nearly 400 UCSB alumni echoed some of the rhetoric seen on Twitter, demanding that the university take steps to protect transgender and genderqueer students.
“Instructors should not promote material in the classroom and department that denies the reality of trans people’s experiences or reifies gendered and sexed binaries as essential or real,” the authors emphasized.
“These issues are not merely an academic debate; when the academy legitimates transphobia, it lends credence to an ideological position that systematically disenfranchises and kills trans people.”
The open letter from the graduate students also spoke out in support of “trans, non-binary and sex working students at UC Santa Barbara,” stating that “in our classrooms, curricula, and professional interactions, we are committed to supporting trans and sex working students.”
“As part of Feminist Studies, we are committed to cultivating intersectional, student-centered learning and community environments. To the students who have been harmed by transphobia and anti-sex worker rhetoric in our department, we are so sorry.”
While neither letter mentions Tanner directly, both letters were released shortly after Tanner faced backlash on social media.
Two second-year UCSB students, Kyremina Youssef and Ari Moini, saw Tanner’s posts on Twitter and decided to organize the June 13 demonstration to make the greater student body aware of Tanner’s social media posts. The demonstration echoed the themes of the two open letters: that those who hold transphobic beliefs should not be allowed to teach at UCSB.
Moini said she believes it is “unsafe for the trans community on campus” for Tanner to teach at the school, and Youssef added that the two would hold additional rallies if Tanner continued teaching in the fall.
Youssef said that while she knows Tanner is “protected by her First Amendment on Twitter,” the students are “also showing our First Amendment [rights] on campus by advocating for our community here and spreading awareness.”
Sanya Kamidi and Max Abrams contributed reporting.
Updated [11:34 p.m.]
So a person shares a view out of their own volition & based on their experience & expertise & suddenly the calls to retaliate are rampant. What a bunch of Stalin era useful idiots we have among us. Got a problem w/ Tanner’s views? Then counter them w/ an intelligent argument, granted you’re capable of such. Welcome to 1984, Fahrenheit 451 & a Brave New World. The authors of those published works called it many, many moons ago. Congratulations whacked out left, you’ve proven your worthlessness yet again. Suppression & squelching, your trademark strategy.
The students are clearly exercising their freedom of speech and freedom to demonstrate. It sounds like YOU’RE the one calling for “suppersion & squelching”. .. If students feel that their safety and their education is in question, it is completely in their right to speak out. Throwing out references to novels and historical events without valid context dosn’t help your argument either.
Not who you’re responding to, but it seems like you missed the point entireeeeely
please explain to me what the point is, then.
She’s entitled to her opinion. And to voice it. The transgender activist community is running amuck again.
They’re equally entitled to tell her her opinions are wrong. If you wanna advocate for a bigot’s free speech, you also have to allow their ideas to be critiqued as freely as you want them shared. That’s how Free Speech works.
“They’re equally entitled to tell her her opinions are wrong.”
Stopped reading there.
They can critique them all they want, on the merits. Otherwise they need to shut up. Calling for someone’s firing goes beyond free speech. Lynch mob anyone? As far as I’m concerned the transgender activist community can take a long walk off a very short pier.
what merits? “On the merits” makes no fuckin sense unless you define what you mean by “merits.” The person you’re responding to didn’t even talk about merits, and it makes me think you’re just dragging up buzzwords to make yourself sound smarter than you actually are.
And hey, it wouldn’t be the first time somebody’s research got challenged. That’s called “academia” and “defending your project.” Too bad Tanner’s a transphobe and refuses to engage with the trans community in good faith! She’s out here going into her research with pre-conceived results, which means her research is biased and therefore worthless.
Worthless? Lol. I’m gay and I think most if not all of this transgender stuff is bullshit. Made up. Unfortunately it’s harming people. It’s as bad as the anti-vaxxers.
Not everyone is going to accept you, trans or cis. That’s a fact of life. Tanner may be vile but she’s not out here murdering trans folk. The rhetoric she’s using isn’t inciting violence against trans folk either, she’s making arguments against the logic of being trans instead of suggesting anyone be violent towards a trans person. Not everyone on this planet is going to like who you are and you can’t bully people into liking who you are either. Meanwhile, there are known women abusers like Kevin Falvey (Philosophy department), which the Nexus even reported on years ago, and… Read more »
TRANS PEOPLE WILL NOT BE ERASED. STARTING WITH EDUCATION. We pay thousands of dollars for top notch education and we EXPECT the most marginalized groups (black trans ppl) to be included in our curriculum and not some “european requirement” type thing.
It’s not incumbent upon the university to do anything like you’re suggesting. University is not social consciousness.
Damn, UCSB is one massive joke huh, lol.
Her rhetoric is widely used for violence against trans people. Her arguments can be used to justify said violence. It’s hurtful to the trans community.
Maybe. Maybe not. I do have serious questions about the science justifying transgender as a gender identity. Right now in some circumstances it’s classified as a mental disorder. As for violence against the community, perhaps not engaging in street sex work might help lower the number of people hurt and killed.
Findings from the UCLA studies that invented “gender dysphoria,” now in the DSM V, are completely unreliable. Their study design and methods wouldn’t pass today’s federal ethical standards for working with human participants, and therefore they cannot be replicated. This student is basing much of her argument on those findings, illustrating the weakness of her position.
What about the rhetoric saying “that bitch needs to die?”
I’ve found the trans community and some of its supporters the most intolerant people around.
sounds like you’ve not spent a lot of time around TERFs. Or you’re one yourself, and you’re justifying your own bigotry.
Maybe if you just let people be who they are, they wouldn’t kick you out of places?
So questioning the validity of the ‘science’ behind this craze is being ‘transphobic?’ Fine. I know transgender people. The vast majority have serious underlying mental disorders. More than a few are registered sex offenders. Are we simply humoring mentally ill people by buying into this argument that gender can be anything? There are valid questions about all this that deserve investigation before society goes too far down the rabbit hole.
•
At that rate, any rhetoric could be used for violence.
Love how the article preemptively assumes her guilt by calling her “transphobic” in the very title. Stay strong Laura!
We support our trans community. not transphobic professors
how else would you describe her words other than “transphobic?”
I’d describe them as questioning the whole premise of gender fluidity. Something that needs to be questioned in my opinion.
Doesn’t seem to be much of a question when all I see in her tweet are statements.
Nothing wrong with being “transphobic” anyway.
All that is meant by that word is that one understands the biological distinction between men and women, and refuses to be bullied into playing along with what any sane person can clearly see to be an insane lie.
Also, the making up of imaginary mental disorders with which to stigmatize your opponents is ridiculous. Imagine if I called people who disagreed with me “conservaphobes.” And if transphobia is a legitimate mental disorder, and UCSB’s goal (as it was when I was there) is to “end the stigma” around mental health issues, then shouldn’t so-called transphobes be treated with compassion for their unfortunate condition rather than having their lives threatened?
who said transphobia is a mental disorder?
Isn’t that heavily implied by the term “phobia”?
Jason Garfield, a prick as always
Is fear of heights or spiders a mental disorder? lol
It is usually irrational, thus can be treated
You are pathetic grow up move on from college
Sorry, I’m on the TA’s side on this one.
Me too.
why?
Why? Because she has the right to believe whatever she wants, and to voice them. We might not agree with her views but that’s what the First Amendment is all about. People need to stop getting butthurt when someone says something they don’t like.
so who is her advisor that approved her thesis proposal
Regardless of who it is, obviously he/she or they (there’s probably a committee overseeing her thesis) feel there’s at least some merit in her research questions. Political correctness doesn’t necessarily apply to scholarly inquiry.
I’m a history graduate student elsewhere in California. Some departments and/or professors don’t necessarily agree with the current fashion called political correctness. For example, my department essentially mobilized the local Jewish community to scuttle a Middle East professorship because, frankly, they saw no scholarly value in it. The funding eventually went away and so did any interest in having the position filled.
This is just sad. You people need to do something more useful with your lives.
Sex is binary.
Women are #AdultHumanFemales
Men are #AdultHumanMales
Sex is determined at conception and is immutable
Men cannot become women and women cannot become men
This is biological reality
Staying these facts does not erase trans people, they exist, but they are not the sex they claim to be as this is impossible.
Time for students to grow up and remember that a University is a place where you are supposed to be challenged as part if your education.
“espousing transphobic views, including: “It’s not possible to be born in the wrong body,” and “so called trans women will never be anything but men.” ”
those aren’t transphobic but rather accurate statements. as was said in the movie “you can’t handle the truth”
Everything that Tanner says is true. Some people can’t deal with the truth. There will always be resistance to gender identity politics because it’s fundamentally illogical. Gender identity can’t be scientifically quantified. I don’t doubt that some people are different for whatever reason, but this doesn’t mean that males can magically turn themselves into females. The human species is sexually dimorphic and all mammals and primates reproduce sexually. No primate can change its sex. People are free to believe whatever as long as it doesn’t harm others. Transgender politics has evolved into something that is truly Orwellian. It’s not a… Read more »
Totally agree with everything you said. Gender identity politics are absolutely ridiculous and border on insanity.
This crap needs to be stopped. If this makes me “transphobic” so be it. I don’t wish anyone ill but this…
This is everything. *stands up and claps* Women’s voices are never safe from the attempt to silence and erase them, unfortunately our society is so afraid of offending the trans community that these very logical points are shut down, and we are targeted with threats. I had to change gyms after my old one made the locker rooms “Open to all, use whichever one you feel comfortable in!” Which sounds all fine and dandy, until a man was ogling me while I changed (just a straight up dude, not even one attempting to masquerade as a woman). This puts the… Read more »
Tanner is being punished for recognizing that the extraordinary claims of gender theory aren’t backed up by extraordinary proof. We are lucky that there are still a few reality-based academics like Tanner in the otherwise dying university industry. Young people are staying away from college in droves because of the pressure to conform to non-fact-based academic fads. This will likely destroy higher education as we know it, and I for one won’t mourn.
universities are becoming more and more competitive every year, not sure how questioning transphobia is ‘killing the university industry’ .. god people come on
University of Alaska system is on the verge of financial collapse. The governor basically defunded the system because of stuff like this being taught. If the legislature doesn’t override the governor’s pen, the system may start shutting down in the middle of the month. All faculty and staff were issued lay-off notices last week.
Well talk of tree and forest. But this is the sate that brought national exposure to S. Palin.
How can a man be a woman? In what way is a penis a female organ?
In what way is a penis a female organ?
She’s just stating the obvious!
It is not hate, nor bigotry. It is a hard, immutable, undeniable scientific fact.
A man is not a woman, and cannot become a woman. Neither is a woman a man, nor can a woman become a man.
Sane people need to just stop entertaining these nonsense. “Transgenderism” is a mental illness, nothing more or less. There is something very,very, very wrong with anyone who is confused about the difference between men and women.
What a mess. Trans women are boys in drag; I do not know what to call women who think they are male, except confused. The one thing I do know is, no matter how much female hormones a male takes and how much sex reassignment surgery (most do not have) is performed, the DNA will always tell anyone exactly who and what they are. Take away the hormones and surgery and you have a boy or man in women’s clothes. That is NOT the same as being a natural born female. So the trans community needs to stop demanding that… Read more »
Please their safety is a concern, ridiculous. There is no freedom of speech anymore, if you have an opposing viewpoint to any leftist ideology you’re labeled a hater, and told you should die. Please wake up people, WE ALL HAVE THE RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH!
Someone didn’t do all of her course readings, it seems. If she had, she would better understand why her public comments are problematic. But more importantly, who on Earth decided that she would make a good candidate for a gender studies graduate program? How incredibly odd.
There is nothing transphobic in these tweets. Criticism is not phobia. It’s just disagreement. That’s all. So the title of this article might get clicks. But it’s loaded and unfair. Disagreement, boys and girls, is no cause for bullying, or trying to ruin someone’s life. Many people have criticisms- just like Tanner’s- of the trans claims. They keep them to themselves, though, because they fear the bullies, and persecution.