Trans Headline Speaker at ‘Women for Harris’ Event Previously Accused of Verbally Abusing Women
One of the speakers who took part in a “Women for Harris” video call is a former male feminist who has been accused of verbally abusing women.
Charles Clymer, who now goes by, Charlotte Clymer, was one of the people who spoke during the virtual call on Monday evening.
During the call, Clymer spoke about how he was a “proud American, a proud Texan, a proud military veteran, a proud trans woman, and a proud Democrat” who supports Vice President Kamala Harris for president.
“I have found that there a lot of folks, including Donald Trump and JD Vance, who want to place me in a specific box,” Clymer said. “They say I’m too queer to be a proud military veteran. They say a trans woman like me can’t be a Christian and a strong person of faith as I am. They say women like me don’t belong in America.”
The Harris campaign held a Zoom “Women for Kamala” fundraiser event featuring Charlotte Clymer, who appeared in a heavily filtered image.
Clymer was previously known as Charles Clymer, a male feminist activist who was kicked out of the movement after being accused of being… pic.twitter.com/l4S7FWtuJi
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) July 30, 2024
Clymer continued to praise Harris for having “common sense” and believing that “no American, no human being, belongs in a box.”
“A little over four years ago, a number of rightwing extremists took a picture of me from a public event and attempted to harass me online,” Clymer added. “They wanted me to be ashamed of how I look as a trans woman.”
The transgender activist continued to explain that he had written “a thread” and “one of the first public figures to respond to that threat was then-Senator Kamala Harris.”
“She gave me support,” Clymer explained. “She gave me encouragement. She made me feel seen. And in that moment, she sent a clear message that supporting her means supporting the basic concept that all of us are worthy to be who we are authentically.”
Clymer, who has previously worked as the press secretary for rapid response with the Human Rights Campaign, has garnered criticism over the past years.
In December 2014, Fast Company, a business magazine geared towards technology and business, hosted a live chat with Clymer, which received “loud boos,” according to Salon.
The outlet noted that Clymer had previously run the Facebook page, Women for Equality, where he would “verbally attack women.” Clymer was also “accused of deleting” comments from women who disagreed with him:
So who is Charles Clymer? Clymer, who self-identifies as a Feminist Leader, has a Women for Equality Facebook page (which now seems mostly defunct) where he’s been alleged to verbally attack women as well as accused of deleting women’s comments who disagree with him. In an article for the Huffington Post last year, Darlena Cunha reported that a former moderator of his page, Zoe Katherine, disagreed with him and then was threatened with being kicked out of the group. “If we did it privately we were guilt-tripped, or simply ignored,” Katherine explained.
The Huffington Post reported that many of the comments that had been deleted by Clymer on Equality for Women were comments “by women” and that “many of the people who have been banned” were women.
Katherine added that she had “disagreed” with Clymer “preaching feminism to women.”
“He’s completely unaware of his privilege,” Katherine stated. “You can’t tell us not to reclaim words, and you can’t tell us to be thankful for our periods.”
Another person, Stephanie Kay explained to the outlet that she had “posted a request that any male moderators on the page, ‘remain aware of the fact that authority over women is a male privilege, and that male allies should be very careful about not turning themselves into the ‘voice of feminism.’”
In a response to Kay, Clymer issued a response:
“Stephanie, I’m going to let you in on a little secret that, apparently, no one has had the guts to tell you up to this point in your life: having a vagina does not grant you magical powers of perception and nuance anymore than my penis magically blinds me from the horrors of the world.
You have to earn respect for your opinion. I’m not going to hand it to you because you’re a woman talking women’s rights.
A petition was also started in 2014, to have Clymer removed as a blogger with the Huffington Post.
In 2015, Clymer received attention after being kicked out of a restaurant in Washington, DC, while celebrating a friend’s birthday, after refusing to show the manager identification that said he was a female, according to Business Insider.
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