That Viral Essay Scandal is (SURPRISE!) Actually About Trans People

A shoddy Oklahoma University essay went viral. Cis people think this is about conservatives whining for better grades. Trans people see a planned attack on a trans academic.

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It was the essay that was all over social media. A conservative student at the University of Oklahoma wrote, submitted, and then posted online a rambling, incoherent piece of written work about gender. She received a failing grade for it and then launched a formal campaign against the professor, accusing them of violating the student's religious freedom. She contacted the governor, several lawmakers, and used the school's Turning Point USA chapter to release it online.

Instantly the internet erupted in discourse. Cis liberals and academics immediately latched onto and mocked the essay's poor argumentation and composition, saying it obviously deserved its failing grade. They saw it as a general attack on academia. A lone conservative student trying to game the system for a better grade.

But trans people saw what's actually happening.

The TA who gave the assignment and graded it is trans. This whole thing is just another attack on trans people in positions of authority in academia.

The paper itself attacked trans people, the paper was submitted to a trans teacher, the trans teacher failed it, and now the trans teacher is the only one getting punished in this whole sad affair.

While everyone else has been dunking on the essay's obviously poor quality, I see a conservative student angling to be the next Riley Gaines, the infamous 5th place (tied) swimmer who used a race against a trans woman to launch a million dollar career as a professional anti-trans activist. I think this student, who I will not name here, intentionally wrote this essay this way in the hopes of escalating it for attention.

I mean, the student's mom is over on Twitter right now retweeting prominent conservatives calling for trans people to be banned from teaching.

The student's mom, Kristi Fulnecky, is an interesting figure herself. She's a former Springfield, MO city councilmember who faced a recall campaign in 2017 before resigning in late 2018. She's a conservative attorney who sued several cities in 2020 seeking to overturn local mask mandates and went on to defend several J6ers.

It appears the Fulneckys finally found their path to conservative stardom with the OU essay "scandal." After all, this is the age of Libs of Tik Tok and the aforementioned Gaines, stoking hatred towards trans people on social media is by far the easiest way to get famous these days.

But perhaps even more worrying than one family's grasp at transphobic grift is how conservatives are using trans people to attack the university system nationwide.

In neighboring Texas, two major universities have been caught up in "scandals" over professors teaching about trans people in class, with Texas A&M now requiring professors to get approval from the university's head before teaching anything related to trans people after a student video of professor doing so went viral on conservative Twitter..

Just this week, the Trump administration settled with yet another university, this time Northwestern in Chicago. Trump demanded the school implement multiple anti-trans policies as part of the multimillion dollar settlement. It's the latest in a long string of such settlements against such places as Brown University and the University of Virginia.

Each one has demanded draconian restrictions on trans life on campus. This is no coincidence.

Conservatives see themselves losing voters with college degrees, they see trans people as an outgrowth of a too liberal society, they have a longstanding grudge with universities existing in the first place, and they see Democrats with a squishy spine when it comes to standing up for trans people in public.

Roll all of these factors together and you have the perfect conditions for gutting the higher education system, using conservative students and organizations like TPUSA as narcs.

Democrats can't and haven't push back en masse against these attacks because all of them are deathly afraid of getting hit with another Trump style "Kamala is for they/them" ad.

We all need to take a step back and see the larger picture here. Continuing to be squeamish about trans people is what is letting Trump and the other Republicans get away with all of this. They are trying to drive trans people out of society using roving hordes of online abusers, and destroying every institution standing in their way.

Stand up for us now, or watch everything you love get torched one by one until you live in the ashes.

Thank you so much for reading! Apologies for no work last week, I had a nasty cold or flu that knocked me on my ass.

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-Katelyn